First some info on true pre-exhausting a muscle and a bit of history.
The pre-exhaust principle was popularized by Bob Kennedy (the magazine publisher) in the early 70’s and then popularized by Arthur Jones who then included it in many of the machines he designed. BTW, he gave full credit to Bob Kennedy.
Two of the most important ‘principles’ is 1) start with a isolation movement and then immediately do a compound movement and 2) the time between exercises should occur as fast as possible, like 3 seconds or less.
An example is flys then dips, curls then chins, pullovers then pull down, leg extensions, leg curls then deadlifts, etc., you get the idea.
The least understood is the time factor between exercises and should be 3 seconds or less. (A muscle regains approximately 50% of its strength in about 3 seconds.) The rush factor is key to getting the most out this factor, the difference between success and failure.
What will be most difficult is the close proximity of the isolation exercise and the compound exercise. Easily accomplished in a home gym, difficult in a commercial gym where you can’t move machines around to suit your needs which ultimately allows this routine to very effective. I was lucky in two ways. Having a home gym to start and me being a close friend, the owner in a small gym who allowed me reorganize his gym for me to take advantage of this routine.
If you are able to position the equipment next to each other you will get the most out of it. Running fast, again 3 seconds or less between exercises could be problematic and not safe.
For example, I positioned curls directly under the chin-up bar so I could drop the bar and then jump up and do chins. Or triceps ext. directly in front of the dipping bars. Chest is easy and impacts nobody. When doing your flys all you have to do is just lean back and do your presses. Again, 3 seconds or less between isolation exercises and a compound exercise.
And all sets are to failure be it 1 or two 2 cycles. I usually did 2, any more than that I was not working hard enough. When starting out I would do 1 cycle as this will will make you extremely sore even if you are accustomed to the exercise.
And yes you will get stronger. I don’t remember all the poundage’s but do remember, eventually doing chins a dips with 25lbs between my legs. I did get stronger in all exercises but you gotta check your ego at the door on the compound movements which weight, when starting at about half of what you usually use.
An observation . . . When doing this routine incorporating the 3 second ‘rule’ it is extremely important and where many people fail because it is extremely painful. And when I was executing this correctly the isolation when done correctly I found that on the compound exercise, the first few reps were extremely difficult but then became ‘easier’ and then difficult and failure. I have no explanation for this but is was non the less interesting to me.
Can’t stress enough the rapidity between exercises. For me it made the difference between wasting my time and maximum results.
I remember working out at gym in SF that had at the time some of the first Nautilus machines. I remember using the compound leg machine that ha leg extensions and leg presses built into one machine so you could quickly execute on exercise after the other. After my set of leg extensions I repositioned my feet then proceeded to do leg presses, both exercises to utter and complete failure. When I got off the machine, I hit the ground faster than a used condom.
The pump was nothing like I have felt before or since. I could pump my arms over an inch for example doing this and they felt pumped and full even the next day.
Try it, you will like the results and hate me
if you do it correctly which is easier said than done.
Hope this helps, Long winded I know but felt it necessary to fully under this principle.
Let me know if this helps.