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Patrick Nicholls

 

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Pre Exhaust Training

Pre Exhaust Training

 

Training ‘Anti-Clockwise’.

The Pre-Exhaust method of training is a variant that can be adopted to provide an alternative to the ‘norm’.  What exactly is the ‘norm’?  By this I mean the conventional mindset of most weight trainers, predicated on the assumption that you should hit a big bodypart first with big compound movements then proceed to finish off your workout with a set of rythmic exercises.  Putting this proposition into perspective, and taking a shoulder workout for instance, it would involve starting your shoulder workout with a barbell or dumbell press then doing your raises for the three deltoid heads afterwards.  

Now the pre-exhaust method invisages doing just the opposite, hence the usage of the term ‘anti-clockwise’.  The deltoid heads, front, side and rear get hit first with the various raises before eventually getting blasted by a combination of compound movements.

There are several advantages with adopting pre-exhaust training:

• It provides an alternative form of stimulus to the muscle physically and pschologically as it liberates you from the slavish adherence to just one approach to training a bodypart.  This shock element which the body is not expecting, might actually be condusive to getting a better response from your muscles.  Be advised to actually change your method of training periodically to avoid your body’s adaptive response.

• By hitting and fatiguing the delts first, you spare the tricep muscle from fatiguing since it is a much smaller muscle than the muscles that make up the shoulder complex.  By so doing, it is argued that the shoulders will now get more of a workout from the spared tricep muscle as the delts have now already been fatigued to a point.

I would suggest you adopt both the conventional training method as well as the pre-exhaust style at 4-6 week intervals.  There is nothing wrong with variation and changing the intensity and exercise order of your workouts.  This should be a steep learning curve to some people I know who train the same way, adopt the same reps, use the same poundage as well as exercise order all year round and then complain of a lack of progress.  Add this to the usual lack of inconsistency in going to the gym and our explanation for the lack of progress is complete.

Another point worthy of note when adopting the pre-exhaust method is that it is normal to find that your lifting capacity on the compound movement is somewhat reduced.  Don’t panic if this happens as it is no guage to determining the effectiveness of your workout.  Remember, it is not how much you can lift but how much stress you can bring to bear on the muscle that is paramount.  In reality, if you have fatigued the deltoids properly during the pre-exhaust phase, your loss in strength is the simple explanation as to why your pushing power on the compound movements would have been affected.

A typical high intensity pre-exhaust workout for the shoulders would involve super-setting front, side and rear heads with 3-4 supersets in one giant movement then using a compound pressing movement for 3-4 sets to failure, to get the job done.  You should not be in the gym for more than an hour.  You may choose not to superset the three heads (especially if you are a beginner) but adopt separate sets and train them individually.  It is entirely up to you if you can handle the strain of supersetting.  It hurts!!!

Pre-exhaust methods can also be applied to other bodyparts such as the chest, back and legs.

Pre-Exhaust Chest

Following the logic of the shoulder example, a typical pre-exhaust chest workout would be as follows:

Flyes are the rythmic equivalent of raises and will involve using flat and incline flyes for 3 sets each to failure then hitting them hard with either the flat or incline bench press (or its dumbell equivalent) with another 4-5 sets or so.

I would not waste time on increasing the amount of sets by attempting to do both the flat and incline variants of the compound movement.  You can save yourself a lot of time by emphasising flat compound press one workout then incline compound press for the alternative workout.

Pre-Exhaust Quads

Six hard sets of leg extension. (50/35/30/25/20/15 reps).  Follow this up by 4-6 sets either on the leg press or squat.  Using the static weight technique or progressive loading. If you use the same poundage for the 4 sets then your rest time will need to be reduced. On the other hand, if you opt for increasing the poundage, then increase your rest time and try to get at least 10 reps per set. 

The Pre-Exhaust method is a cost effective way to save your joints from wear and tear, whilst getting the full benefit from direct muscle stimulation. 

 

Dayo Audi, WBBF Mr Universe, IFBB Pro

 

Training ‘Anti-Clockwise’.

The Pre-Exhaust method of training is a variant that can be adopted to provide an alternative to the ‘norm’.  What exactly is the ‘norm’?  By this I mean the conventional mindset of most weight trainers, predicated on the assumption that you should hit a big bodypart first with big compound movements then proceed to finish off your workout with a set of rythmic exercises.  Putting this proposition into perspective, and taking a shoulder workout for instance, it would involve starting your shoulder workout with a barbell or dumbell press then doing your raises for the three deltoid heads afterwards.  
Now the pre-exhaust method invisages doing just the opposite, hence the usage of the term ‘anti-clockwise’.  The deltoid heads, front, side and rear get hit first with the various raises before eventually getting blasted by a combination of compound movements.
There are several advantages with adopting pre-exhaust training:
• It provides an alternative form of stimulus to the muscle physically and pschologically as it liberates you from the slavish adherence to just one approach to training a bodypart.  This shock element which the body is not expecting, might actually be condusive to getting a better response from your muscles.  Be advised to actually change your method of training periodically to avoid your body’s adaptive response.
• By hitting and fatiguing the delts first, you spare the tricep muscle from fatiguing since it is a much smaller muscle than the muscles that make up the shoulder complex.  By so doing, it is argued that the shoulders will now get more of a workout from the spared tricep muscle as the delts have now already been fatigued to a point.
I would suggest you adopt both the conventional training method as well as the pre-exhaust style at 4-6 week intervals.  There is nothing wrong with variation and changing the intensity and exercise order of your workouts.  This should be a steep learning curve to some people I know who train the same way, adopt the same reps, use the same poundage as well as exercise order all year round and then complain of a lack of progress.  Add this to the usual lack of inconsistency in going to the gym and our explanation for the lack of progress is complete.
Another point worthy of note when adopting the pre-exhaust method is that it is normal to find that your lifting capacity on the compound movement is somewhat reduced.  Don’t panic if this happens as it is no guage to determining the effectiveness of your workout.  Remember, it is not how much you can lift but how much stress you can bring to bear on the muscle that is paramount.  In reality, if you have fatigued the deltoids properly during the pre-exhaust phase, your loss in strength is the simple explanation as to why your pushing power on the compound movements would have been affected.
A typical high intensity pre-exhaust workout for the shoulders would involve super-setting front, side and rear heads with 3-4 supersets in one giant movement then using a compound pressing movement for 3-4 sets to failure, to get the job done.  You should not be in the gym for more than an hour.  You may choose not to superset the three heads (especially if you are a beginner) but adopt separate sets and train them individually.  It is entirely up to you if you can handle the strain of supersetting.  It hurts!!!
Pre-exhaust methods can also be applied to other bodyparts such as the chest, back and legs.
Pre-Exhaust Chest
Following the logic of the shoulder example, a typical pre-exhaust chest workout would be as follows:
Flyes are the rythmic equivalent of raises and will involve using flat and incline flyes for 3 sets each to failure then hitting them hard with either the flat or incline bench press (or its dumbell equivalent) with another 4-5 sets or so.
I would not waste time on increasing the amount of sets by attempting to do both the flat and incline variants of the compound movement.  You can save yourself a lot of time by emphasising flat compound press one workout then incline compound press for the alternative workout.
Pre-Exhaust Quads
Six hard sets of leg extension. (50/35/30/25/20/15 reps).  Follow this up by 4-6 sets either on the leg press or squat.  Using the static weight technique or progressive loading.  If you use the same poundage for the 4 sets then your rest time will need to be reduced.  On the other hand, if you opt for increasing the poundage, then increase your rest time and try to get at least 10 reps per set. 
The Pre-Exhaust method is a cost effective way to save your joints from wear and tear, whilst getting the full benefit from direct muscle stimulation. 
Dayo Audi, WBBF Mr Universe, IFBB PrTraining ‘Anti-Clockwise’The Pre-Exhaust method of training is a variant that can be adopted to provide an alternative to the ‘norm’.  What exactly is the ‘norm’?  By this I mean the conventional mindset of most weight trainers, predicated on the assumption that you should hit a big bodypart first with big compound movements then proceed to finish off your workout with a set of rythmic exercises.  Putting this proposition into perspective, and taking a shoulder workout for instance, it would involve starting your shoulder workout with a barbell or dumbell press then doing your raises for the three deltoid heads afterwards.  Now the pre-exhaust method invisages doing just the opposite, hence the usage of the term ‘anti-clockwise’.  The deltoid heads, front, side and rear get hit first with the various raises before eventually getting blasted by a combination of compound movements.