Who uses pre-exhaustion for pecs?

[1fst400]

Many people find benefit pre-exhausting their pecs by starting with flyes, crossovers, or pec deck before hitting compound movements, while others do not. Do you use pre-exhaustion and find benefit or not?

 

[telkins92]

I find that pre exhausting pecs takes a toll on the heavier compoumd movements one thing i will say is that pre exhausting legs is excellent destroy the hams and quads then see how much you squat lol

 

[alfresco]

yes

I used it years ago with great success. I no longer
train my chest, have not for years and years, but
do weight dips for my tri’s . . . does that count?

But if I were to train my chest, the only way I would
do so is flys followed by some sort of chest press.
The key to making pre-exhaustion to work best is
to move as fast as possible between movements,
3 seconds or less as your muscle regains ~ 50% of
their strength after that. Many here may poo-hoo
time factor but it really does make a night and day
difference in results. Try it, you might like it.

Another added benefit, especially with bench presses
(I think one of the worst, most dangerous movements
done in a gym if you do them on a bench, not the
floor . . .) is that you must drastically reduce the amount
of weight you use for your chest presses, thereby
reducing your chance of shoulder / chest injury. But
again, you must move as fast as possible between
movements to take advantage of that.

Hope this helps.

 

[nothuman]

No, makes my main lifts weaker.

 

[little slice]

I feel like pre-fatiguing is most beneficial for guys whose arms and shoulders tend to take over bench pressing-type movements.

 

[ADRiLASh]

I only use to train legs.

2 sets pre-exhaust leg extensions 12-16 reps
X sets of squats
...

 

[cardealer]

Yes,flyes then flat bench.Always sore the second day after.Must drop flyes and instantly start bench press.

 

[MisterB]

i still do it the classic way, strength lifts before detailing type lifts

 

[cthompson]

Depends how my shoulders are feeling. If they are sore or hurt I will always pre exhaust so I don't have to go as heavy on pressing movements.


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[RedThunder]

I think of exercises before the big compound lifts and ways to put blood in the muscle and warm up my tissue and joints. This is very effective and benificial from a safety perspective. I would never ahnihalate my chest with a pec deck or cable flys before I bench.

 

[little slice]

i still do it the classic way, strength lifts before detailing type lifts

yeah same here.


I go really high volume on flies, like sets of 30-40 with light weight to etch in the details and striations.

 

[Elvia1023]

Yes I do them but probably for 20% of my chest workouts. I like to mix things up so no workout is ever the same. I mainly do the standard of going up in weight through my sets on a particular exercise. I may finish there, do a drop set or rep out 1 lighter set.

When pre exhausting I do the usual of flyes (maybe more than 1 type). I tend not to do things like chest dips beforehand... if anything they will come after the presses. You are weaker on the presses but on pre exhaust days weight is not important to me. Presses will usually be slow and controlled and my main thought is squeezing on every rep and getting a great pump.

 

[dragonfire101]

I use to when a gym I workout at dumbbells only went up to 120. Dumbell bench was my main movement. So sometimes I pre-exhaust with flys.

Actually best my chest looked good was pre-exhaust with flys and supersetting heavy dumbbell press with bench pushups in same workout.

 

[concreter]

Every so often I will start with crosses, it is a nice break from the heavier compound movements.
I would not call it a pre-fatigue exercise as I take advantage of my chest being fresh and able to triple the weight used and add in additional sets.

 

[flipper2012]

I pre exhaust everything now! Chest, back, legs, shoulders. You get a way better pump, limit injury and it gives you time to warm up and get your mind right.

I think it was Scott Stevenson who said your body doesn't know how much weight your lifting it just knows how much stress is being put on the worked muscle. In most cases if you start off with a basic movement your joints are taking the brunt of the load as the muscle is not warmed up and firing properly.

Once you get past the ego part then you realize it makes much more sense at least IMO.

 

[buck]

The last EEG study I saw showed the triceps ended up actually doing more work after pre-exhausting the pecs. Which makes sense to me as if a muscle is tired how can it actually do more work. If you could get more contractions out of it then it would mean that you weren't trying hard enough to start with.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Like someone else mentioned, I have to do it with my legs.

I'll hit quads and hamstrings with rest pause DC sets to get them gassed—THEN hit leg press or hack squat. If I don't do that shit then I spend half my time warming up and trying to find all the 45's.

Overall I've been adding in a lot more warmup sets though, just to increase overall volume.

 

[LATS]

The last EEG study I saw showed the triceps ended up actually doing more work after pre-exhausting the pecs. Which makes sense to me as if a muscle is tired how can it actually do more work. If you could get more contractions out of it then it would mean that you weren't trying hard enough to start with.

YES.. the studies now find that since the pecs are prefatigued the body throw most of the activity to the triceps.. complete opposite of pre exhausts selling point.. that being said i do pre exhaust because im a old bastard who joints are finished.. so it allows less weight on my shoulders..

 

[bonacris]

I pre exhaust with cables. 6 sets of 20 reps with a squeeze. Great pump and has really allowed me to concentrate on pressing with my pecs when benching as I can now feel them. Always had shoulders take over when pressing so this is working great for me

 

[maldorf]

I feel like pre-fatiguing is most beneficial for guys whose arms and shoulders tend to take over bench pressing-type movements.

I agree. I did that for awhile because I was that way and feel like it helped me feel my pecs work better so that when I moved back to doing presses first I was better able to establish that mind to muscle connection. Sure enough I was able to feel my chest working during the bench and it would get more sore the next day. Growth seemed better afterwards.