Pre-exhaust
Hi Anne,
It’s just another way of cranking up the intensity when training a muscle group. You perform an isolation exercise for a specific muscle group & immediately perform a compound movement for the same muscle group. Example – perform a set of lateral dumbbell raises, immediately followed by military presses. It’s brutal & definitely raises the intensity level. It’s just another way of mixing things up in order to make strength gains, which is the real benefit. Give it a try Anne!
Paul Thomas
www.homeworkoutguy.com
Hi Anne,
I also agree with Paul’s description. Pre-exhausting is an effective superset where you take two exercises and combine them for the same muscle group. The idea is to isolate and then perform a compound movement. This technique and the idea behind it is to take the muscle beyond the normal point of exhaustion. It helps achieve muscle growth and muscle fiber stimulation–beyond that of doing straight up sets and reps.
It is a great technique and one I would consider as an advanced strengthening technique, so use caution if you are using this with a client. I would make sure they are conditioned first with regular sets of strength training. When using the pre-exhaust technique, they should be doing less weight than normal on the compound/second exercise. It also, of course, depends on the goals of your client.
Christine
Hello Anne Hirsch,
Right; I agree with everyone’s responses, Think ahead to decide which muscle you want to target and do that one first, in a single joint move, before moving to the compound exercise. This will help to hypertrophy the targeted muscle. Agreed also, that this is not for beginners; work up to this pre exhaust training method.
The benefits are: push through a plateau, hypertrophy, strength gain, reduce boredom, joint stability gain, and can be used to work through injury with the right professional.
Take care,
Natalie aka NAPS 2 B Fit.