Increase the Intensity of Your Workout – Pre-Exhaustion

Pre-exhaustion of primary muscles is a useful way to intensify the exercise process.


Keywords :
bodybuilding, bodybuilding, pre-operation


You can only build muscle tissue if you can generate stronger and stronger muscle contractions, which means placing emphasis on finding ways to increase exercise intensity. This should not be confused with exercise duration, as maximum training intensity actually shortens the time needed to achieve maximum muscle growth.

In a previous article, I described ways to intensify your training. Here we will focus on the role that pre-exhaustion has to play in intensifying the training effect.

When an exercise uses two or more muscles, it is impossible to reach exhaustion for the main muscle, because the weaker muscle will give out first. The best way to explain it is to give an example. When targeting the chest, most exercises involve the triceps, a relatively small and weak muscle. When performing the incline bench press, for example, the triceps will give way before the pecs have a chance to work to failure, limiting the value of the exercise.

How to get around this problem? By first performing an exercise that isolates and fatigues the pectorals before immediately moving on to the main exercise. For maximum benefits, there should be no rest between the pre-warm-up exercise and the main compound exercise.

Beginners don't need to worry about pre-warm-up exercises, but when they reach the intermediate level, they can introduce them once a week for each body part.

Here are examples of pre-warm-up routines commonly performed by bodybuilders:

Biceps – dumbbell curls and closed-grip pull-ups, palms up.

Triceps - push-ups and dips.

Pectorals - lying spread and bench press.

Lats - dumbbell pull-ups and dumbbell rows.

Deltoids – laterals with dumbbells and behind-the-neck presses.

Trapezoid: shrugs and vertical rows.

Thighs – leg extensions and squats.