Thread: Pre-exhaust method

really the idea behind pre-exhaustion is this:

When bench pressing, in theory it is the triceps that fail before the pecs, so the pecs don't get trained to failure so by pre-exhausting the pecs they will get properly fatigued when benching afterwards. By knowing this you can then apply that to other body parts.

eg biceps fail before back so you need to pre-exhaust the back. Try bent over shrugs followed by rows.
or Low cable rows followed by Pull Ups (Low cable Rows - I don't know what their called but their for the Lats, where you stand facing the stack bent over and you pull down.
Legs ? mmmm.... I guess the glutes fail before the quads ? I don't know so maybe leg extension before doing squats ?

I agree with Karl, you could also do Deads first for back, I don't see legs as being as big of a problem as back or chest for this.

ok so what are some other pre-exhaust exercise's for chest besides fly's as Josh mentioned? also as KarlW stated tri's fail before pecs..so would hitting a bit heavier in weight on the tri's and bi's help so they wouldnt fail as soon when working chest? (bench) or doing the same weight but maybe an extra set?
ok now if you thought that question was bad...heres the dumb one. I've noticed on here that when some people mention what they can bench, and then state what they curl...its seems to be roughly about half of their bench....bad example I can bench 155 and curl 80 with no prob (and tri is 60 with an overhead tri exercise) so is that about the norm? or am I seeing things and need new glasses when reading the post?

You could also use Cable crossovers, pec dec or dips to help pre exhaust the chest but what you should do is build up your tri's and shoulders so they don't give out first.
More weight is the answer, not extra sets for tri's and shoulders.

There is no relation to what a person can bench compaired to what they can curl, squat etc. Some people are just better at one movement over the other. For me it's deadlifts that are my strong point.

ok thanks STB for clearing that up

Pre-exaust is preforming a single joint/isolation movement followed by a compound movement to further fatugue the muslce worked in the single joint exercise.
You can do it in a super set fashion or as seperate movements. Meaning: Pec deck s/s bench press = 1 set. Or multiple sets of pec dec followed by multiple sets of bench press.

For chest you could do any type of "fly" move ment. Pec dec, flys, cable cross over, ect. The elbow stays in a stationary position and the movement is at the shoulder to bring the upper arm to the center of the body. Then as the pecs are pre-exausted you use a pressing movement while the tris are fresh to hit it even harder.

You can use pre-exaust on most body parts. Except maybe the bis and calfs.