Bodybuilding Article 14

Welcome to Bodybuilding Article 14 in our comprehensive series. Here we'll examine the role that pre-exhaustion has to play in adding intensity to training sessions.

Bodybuilding article 14 will contend that pre-exhausting primary muscles is a useful means of intensifying the exercise process. And don't forget, you can get the best deals on a huge range of bodybuilding supplements at Bodybuilding.com

Increase your training intensity through pre-exhaustion

You can only build muscle tissue if you can generate progressively stronger muscular contractions, so this calls for an emphasis on finding ways to increase exercise intensity. This should not be confused with exercise duration as maximum training intensity will actually shorten the time needed to achieve maximal muscular growth.

In an earlier article I outlined the ways in which you can intensify your training. Here we'll focus on the role that pre-exhaustion has to play in intensifying the training effect.

When an exercise employs two or more muscles it will be impossible to achieve failure for the primary muscle as the weakest muscle will give out first. This is perhaps best explained by giving an example. When targeting the chest, most exercises involve use of the triceps which is a relatively small and weak muscle. When performing the incline bench press for example, the triceps will fail before the pectorals have the opportunity to work to failure thus limiting the value of the exercise.

How do you get around this? By first performing an exercise that isolates and tires the pectorals before immediately moving on to the main exercise. For maximum benefits there should be no rest between the pre-exhaust exercise and the main compound exercise.

Beginners don't need to worry about pre-exhaust routines but when they advance to intermediate level they can be introduced once a week for each body part.

Examples of pre-exhaust routines commonly performed by bodybuilders are listed below:

Biceps - barbell curls and close-grip, palms-up pulldowns.

Triceps - pressdowns and dips.

Pectorals - flyes and bench presses.

Lats - dumbbell pullovers and barbell rows.

Deltoids - dumbbell laterals and presses behind neck.

Traps - shrugs and upright rows.

Thighs - leg extensions and squats.

Note to publishers

Don't forget to check out this week's recommended bodybuilding article entitled What causes muscle growth? 1. Stimulus - exercise is needed to make the muscles work, use energy and cause microscopic damage to the fibers. 2. Nutrition - after intense exercise the muscles need to replenish their stores of fuel. 3. Rest - it is during the rest or recovery phase that the muscles repair the microscopic damage and grow. Muscle size increases due to hypertrophic adaptation and an increase in the cross section area of individual muscle fibers. Intensive exercise impacts more on the strength influencing fast twitch type II fibers, therefore the increase in muscle size is accompanied by greater strength. . . . For the best supplement deals currently available, shop at Bodybuilding.com

Thanks for reading our article entitled Increase your training intensity through pre-exhaustion. If you wish to leave your comments on the article or feel like adding to it, please use the form below (your email address won't be used for any purpose except in the unlikely event that we need to clarify something with you).

Comments	Date
By Admin	2007-03-17 09:20:45
Hi Jim P. - Thanks for paying us a visit. Good question. Bear in mind that your ideal workout will address two main requirements - firstly to achieve the maximum stimulation for muscle growth and secondly to leave sufficient resources to allow your body to recuperate. High intensity training is perfect in this scenario as it stimulates maximum growth and is sufficiently short in duration to leave the body with plenty of recuperative capacity. The routine you mention is a classic chest workout - flyes will isolate the pecs yet leave enough strength in the triceps to get maximum value from the bench press or incline press that follows. To answer your question, for the flyes complete one set of 6-10 reps to the point of muscular failure and move immediately onto the bench exercise. Remember that as the pecs have been pre-fatigued you won't be able to bench as much weight as usual - concentrate on good form and perform 1-3 reps to the point of failure. Not everyone will agree with these recommendations but that's the beauty of bodybuilding - you've got to experiment a little and what works for others may not do the same for you. Try this routine for a while and make up your own mind - adjust things a bit to see if you can squeeze a little more out of it. As long as you base your workouts on sound proven principles and maintain proper exercise form you can afford to experiment a little. Good luck with your training.
By Jim P.	2007-03-17 04:34:23
I was just wondering what kind of rep ranges would be best for both the isolation and compound movements; for example, flyes: 6-8 reps to failure, followed by bench: 4-6 reps to failure? I know I wouldn't want the set to be too long and venture into slow-twitch fiber work. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.Thanks.-- Jim P.

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