The pre-exhaust technique is something I’ve grown fond of over the last year or so. Yes, yes, I know there has always been a lot of debate around this technique for many decades. Some people swear by it, some people think it’s a useless waste of time with no scientific basis.
As always with any hotly contested topic – the best way to ascertain “truth” is to try it for yourself and see what happens. If it works it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Your own data is always more valuable than other peoples data.
“But that’s just n = 1!!!!” So what. Your results are the only ones that count.
To start with, I advocate this methodology, for the most part, only with Hypertrophy / Physique oriented trainees. If you are a strength athlete looking for a bigger total then this technique will have less utility in your training program.
For power lifting, we generally want to be working with the heaviest loads possible for a given rep range or volume. There is no reason for a power lifter to Squat with pre-exhausted quads or to Bench with pre-exhausted pecs.
For a bodybuilder or physique athlete – progression in load is important, but it’s generally relative, not necessarily absolute. Although I don’t view absolute load as a completely un-important variable either but that’s a different discussion.
The pre-exhaust method involves taking a given muscle group to failure with an isolation movement (i.e. pre-exhausting it) prior to hitting it hard with a compound movement.
This can be done in super set fashion or simply by performing all the sets of the compound movement after all the sets of an isolation movement.
Here’s the comparison:
Super Sets:
Set 1: Pec Deck x 10 – no rest – Bench Press x 10-15
Set 2: Pec Deck x 10 – no rest – Bench Press x 10-15
Set 3: Pec Deck x 10 – no rest – Bench Press x 10-15
Straight sets:
Pec Deck 3 x 10-12
Bench Press 3 x 10-15
So why might one use the pre-exhaust method?
#1: Easier to achieve failure in the target muscle group with the compound lift
In power lifting, we are using the muscles to train a lift. In bodybuilding, we are using the lift to train a muscle. It may seem like those two statements mean exactly the same thing but they don’t. There is a nuanced difference in the mindset of how we approach our sets. On a Squat Day, power lifters need to complete a certain number of repetitions with a given weight, moving the weight from point A to point B adhering to whatever criteria constitutes a legal lift.
On the flip side, bodybuilders need to use the squat to thoroughly fatigue the quads, not necessarily just lift the most weight. This generally means manipulating the mechanics to place the quads under the greatest amount of duress during the lift. So for the bodybuilder this might mean a narrow stance, rock bottom, high bar squat instead of a barely below parallel low bar squat. The latter uses more weight in most cases, but less overall work on the quads.
Furthermore, we want to ensure that our quads are not only positioned in a way to receive the most mechanical stress but also that we can bring them as close to failure as possible – long before they are limited by fatigue in other muscle groups. Enter the pre-exhaust tactic.
By performing several sets of something like Leg Extensions prior to Squatting, we can ensure that when we hit “failure” on the squat (or within a rep or two of failure) that it is in fact our QUADS that are failing. We want the quads to be the absolute limiting factor on this lift. By pre-fatiguing them, we ensure this happens.
The same thing happens when we Pre-Exhaust the Pecs with several sets of the Pec Dec or a Cable Fly prior to Bench Pressing. Or by doing several sets of Side Lateral Raises prior to Overhead Pressing. Or by doing several sets of Pullovers prior to doing Chins or Pulldowns. In doing so, we ensure that the Pecs or Delts are failing in the lift and not the triceps. Or that the lats are failing when we do our Chins and not our biceps or forearms.
For hypertrophy, failure (or very close to it) is not something to be avoided. That’s where the growth happens. But we aren’t just looking for the LIFT to fail. We are looking for the TARGET MUSCLE to fail.
#2: Less Systemic Fatigue by limiting loads across the week
Bodybuilders generally have to train more muscles harder across the week than power lifters. If you want everything to grow, you have to train everything. Big muscles and small muscles. Especially as you become more advanced the amount of stress needed to grow every major and minor muscle group grows and grows. It’s a balancing act to figure out how to fit it all into a week without burning out. This is why almost every advanced bodybuilder in the world (natural and enhanced) almost always gravitates towards a body-part split rather than full body routines or even upper-lower splits. Each muscle group simply requires too much volume and/or effort to practically fit all of that work into long drawn out workouts.
By limiting some of your loading on the major muscle groups across a given week you can continue to train hard for longer periods of time without overtraining or taking breaks.
If everything is maximally heavy all the time (in absolute terms) you will either burn out or require more frequent deloading.
Let’s say you perform Flat and Incline Bench Pressing movements on Monday, Overhead Pressing on Thursdays, and Close Grip Benching for triceps on Fridays. Doing all of that pressing work maximally heavy with sets taken right up to failure is a lot of fatigue on the constituent muscles. So maybe you keep the Bench and Incline work on Monday heavy, but on Thursday you pre-exhaust your delts with lateral raises before you overhead press, and on Friday you pre-exhaust your triceps with cable pressdowns prior to close gripping.
Now you get the benefits of all of those movements BUT you have reduced the absolute load on 2 out of 3 of them, making your training week easier to recover from, systemically, but still maximally stimulative locally.
#3: Avoiding / Preventing Injury
Kinda ties in with number 2. Over time, we all accumulate wear and tear. Certain movements may become problematic over time. For me, it’s shoulders and elbows. I love to Bench Press – but I can’t really go heavy anymore. After a few weeks my shoulder is screaming at me. It starts to affect other lifts as well. So I don’t Bench heavy anymore – but I still sometimes Bench. I just do it pre-exhausted. Almost always after 2-3 very hard sets on the pec deck. By limiting the load via pre-exhausting, I still get the benefit of the movement but my shoulder doesn’t bother me. Same with elbows. I love heavy dips and heavy close grip bench. But either done maximally heavy is a death sentence for my elbows. So 2-3 hard sets of cable pressdowns prior to either and I can still train those movements HARD but the reduced load has less negative effects on my elbow health.
For you, it might be your knees or lower back. I’ve seen fantastic quad growth by performing Squats THIRD in my quad workout. Starting with 2-3 hard sets of leg extensions and then moving to 1-2 hard sets of leg presses has my quads thoroughly exhausted before I finish with 1-2 top sets of Squats. The load is lighter but the effects on my quads has been exponentially more growth producing than all my years of low bar squatting heavy. Yes, I was using more weight, but my quads never grew – I was all adductors and ass.
In summary – don’t write off a methodology just because there isn’t broad consensus over its utility. There is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to muscle growth. Sometimes the best thing to do is tune out all the noise and just try and figure some shit out for yourself and see if it works for you.
