Pre-Exhaustion: Turn Weak Bodyparts Into Strengths

Sign Up Now!

Some muscles just refuse to grow. Maybe it’s an underdeveloped chest, stubborn quads, or lats that are lacking width.

Training those areas harder will only get you so far. At some point, you need to start training smarter. And when it comes to smart training, one of my favorite strategies is pre-exhaust.

What is Pre-Exhaustion?

Pre-exhaustion (pre-exhaust for short) is a training technique where single-joint or isolation exercises are done before multijoint or compound exercises in your workout. For example, to pre-exhaust the chest (pecs) you'd perform a single-joint flye or crossover exercise first and then do a multijoint pressing exercise like incline or flat-bench press. 

The point of pre-exhaust is to fatigue the target muscle group (in this example the chest) so that when you perform the multijoint exercise, which involves other muscle groups as well (delts, triceps), the pecs are exhausted first and receive ample overload before the other muscle groups are fatigued.

Other pre-exhaust examples include doing leg extensions before squats or lunges (target muscle group: quads); straight-arm lat pulldowns before lat pulldowns or pull-ups (lats); and dumbbell lateral raises before shoulder presses (deltoids). 

The Purpose of Pre-Exhaustion

The whole point of using pre-exhaust is to make sure the target muscle group gets worked to its maximum capacity. The technique is most useful when you have a large muscle group that’s “lagging” — aka, a weak bodypart. 

To drive home the purpose of pre-exhaust, let’s again use chest as an example. When the pecs are a weak muscle group for someone, he/she will typically attack the area with compound exercises like bench and incline press (using dumbbells, barbells, and machines) along with maybe some decline presses and dips. 

This is a sensible approach. However, because the pecs are a weak muscle group, assisting muscles like the front delts and triceps tend to overcompensate for the pec weakness by taking over during the exercise. This will help you complete the exercise, but it’s not doing much for your chest development. The front delts and triceps, being smaller muscles,

... Subscribe to read more!

Related Articles

• 
  Pre-Exhaust Primer

  A quick review on a technique I LOVE to use.

• 
  Band Aid: Static Contraction/Pre-Exhaust With Bands

  The final installment of a four-part series on getting bigger, stronger and leaner via elastic band training.

• 
  Video Tip Extra: Pre-Exhaust Back Workout

  Torch every last lat fiber for a wider, thicker back by kicking things off with straight-arm pulldowns.

• 
  Best Chest Pre-Exhaust Workout

  Grab some dumbbells and get ready to build bigger pecs with this routine.