How to Pre-Exhaust for MORE Muscle Growth
In the realm of bodybuilding, pre-exhaust session has been a classic technique that has been around for generations of competitors. The question that should be asked though is “How effective is it?”. With this new preprint paper by Keskin and colleagues, the volume matched groups of pre-exhaust, traditional training, and drop set groups seem to come to the conclusion that regional hypertrophy is matched across all three of them. With this in mind, where does a pre-exhaust session make the most sense?
Addressing Previous Injuries and Niggles
Pre-exhaust training is advantageous for individuals with a history of injuries or persistent niggles. Previous injuries can alter the way you perform certain exercises, potentially making stabilizing high-load compound movements problematic. By pre-exhausting the target muscles, it could open the door to lower loading on the compounds where the client can stabilize the pattern appropriately.
For example, in clients with knee injuries, stability in the bottom of a squat pattern is where a lot of their problems start. By starting with an isolation like quad extensions, the athlete can warm up the knees and fatigue the quads, allowing you to perform a squat pattern that may not be safe when loaded first in the session. This not only makes the exercise safer, but it also opens the doors to reintroducing patterns that were previously off the table without aggravating existing injuries.
Sustained Progress Without Bracing Limitations
Another critical aspect of pre-exhaust training is its ability to keep a vector of progress moving forward over a longer period. Traditional compound exercises like squatting and hinging often require substantial bracing, which can become limiting factors as you progress in your training.
For example, in exercises like the RDL or Safety Bar Squat, your progress might be capped not by the strength of the target muscle but by your ability to brace against the load of the pattern. This becomes especially true in advanced athletes that have developed high levels of strength over their bodybuilding career. By pre-fatiguing the muscles with isolation exercises beforehand, you ensure that the primary muscle groups are taken to a close proximity to failure without the brace being the portion of the pattern that breaks down before the target tissues.
Targeting Stubborn Muscle Groups with Pre-Exhaust
Pre-exhaust training is particularly effective for stimulating muscle growth in body parts that are notoriously difficult to develop for the athlete. These muscles often lag behind due to poor execution or other body parts preventing that muscle group from being able to reach a close proximity to failure during compound patterns. By using isolation exercises to pre-fatigue the target muscle, you ensure that the primary muscle is pre-activated and remains the focal point throughout the compound patterns that other body parts tend to take over. This allows for the target tissues to reach a closer proximity to failure, and ultimately, receive a higher quality stimulus from the compound pattern.
Integrating Pre-Exhaust into Your Routine
Pre-exhausting a body part should not take up the entirety of your program design, however, it is certainly a viable tool that can be used in a variety of different situations. If you want to learn more about all the tools available in your Hypertrophy Tool Belt, make sure you check out the brand new Hypertrophy Module in J3U Level 1 that comes out August 6th!
P.S. In case you are wanting to test this out for yourself, a complimentary pre-exhaust leg day is below for you to take to the gym this week!
Pre-exhaust Quad Session
- Lying Leg Curl: 3 sets of 8-12 reps
- Quad Extensions: 2 sets of 12-15 reps
- 45 degree leg press: 2 sets of 12-20 reps
- Pendulum Squat or Hack Squat: 2 sets of 8-10 reps.
- Adductor: 2 sets of 12-20 reps.
Stay jacked and injury-free,
Luke Miller, M.S.
J3 University Educator
J3U Coaching Head Coach
Citation
Keski̇n, Kadir & Gogus, Feride & Gunay, Mehmet & Fujita, Rafael. (2024). Equated volume load: similar improvements in muscle strength, endurance, and hypertrophy for traditional, pre-exhaustion and drop sets in resistance training. 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4564565/v1.
