Is Pre-Exhaustion Training Superior For Muscle Growth & Strength?

Pre-exhaustion training, you've probably tried it or had a gym rat swear it will help you break your training plateau.

But the question is, will it?

First of all, for those of you who are not aware:

What Is Pre-Exhaustion Training? 

Pre-exhaustion training involves doing an islolation exercise first before a multi-joint exercise, eg: performing leg extensions before leg press.

Studies have looked at pre-exhaustion previously (1) and found it "may have disadvantageous effects on performance, such as decreased muscle activity and reduction in strength, during multijoint exercise."

But this study only looked at it from an EMG perspective - meaning we only learnt about muscle activation and not growth and/or strength.

So what happens when we look at pre-exhaustion training from a muscle growth AND strength perspective? 

This study (2) examined 39 trained subjects (at least 6 months training experience) and put them into three groups:

GROUP 1: Isolation before compound movement with no rest

GROUP 2: Same as Group 1, but 60 seconds rest in between isolation and compound movements

GROUP 3: Same as group 1, but with the compound exercise first 

Subjects trained twice per week and rested 48 hours in between sessions for a 12 week period. 

And the other interesting approach was they did one set only of each exercise, and they were full body workouts.

When they reached muscle failure, the other exercise was started. Below are their workouts: 

Group 1 (no rest inbetween) and Group 2 (rested 60 seconds in between):

Pec Fly - Chest Press.....Leg extension - Leg Press....Pull-Over - Pull-Down.

Group 3:

Chest Press-Pec Fly.....Leg Press - Leg Extension....Pull-Down - Pull-Over.

So what did they find? 

They found that in group 2 (pre-exhaustion with 60 seconds rest in between) did gain slightly more strength...

So basically, the 60 second rest inbetween was beneficial, which is no doubt time efficient....

This finding certainly warrants an attempt by those of us who have been training for longer than 6 months, to give pre-exhaustion a crack in this context: 60 seconds rest after a isolation movement before starting a compound movement.

But the old "cable flies RIGHT before heading into bench press with NO rest bro" doesn't seem to be beneficial.

More on that later though.

But what about body composition? What changes were seen there?  

Well...there were none.

So the pre-exhaustion training brought about no more muscle growth or fat loss.

Practical Applications For Your Gym Workouts 

This study and subsequent article is not a definitive conclusion that pre-exhaustion training WILL or WILL NOT bring new gains in trained subjects!

But it is a hint that it potentially may be a vital tool, if further studies can prove it as such. Remember, that's with the rest in between though.

But it's nothing to get too excited about - we must remember that sometimes any change in our routine can provide fresh growth, and whether or not pre-exhaustion is a gold mine for fresh gains remains to be seen!

Although more research is needed, there's no harm in giving this protocol a crack and monotoring your strength results, to find out for yourself whether or not these researchers have potentially struck gold.

We do know that pre-exhaustion with NO rest in between really doesn't seem to be beneficial, but with a 60 second rest period? It might be the way to go, but that's likely independant of isolation before compound movement anyway. 

Whilst the strength gains evidence here could just be a change in training and not particularly pre-exhaustion, I really doubt you'd be complaining either way! 

"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!" 

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References

(1) Augustsson J, Thomee R, Hornstedt P, Lindblom J, Karlsson J Grimby G. Effect of pre-exhaustion exercise on lower-extremity muscle activation during a leg press exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2003 May;17(2):411-6.

(2) Fisher, James Peter, et al. "The effects of pre-exhaustion, exercise order, and rest intervals in a full-body resistance training intervention." Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism 39.999 (2014): 1-6.