Bench Press stuff

snake

Veteran
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
12,303
Reaction score
19,739
Points
383
Yep, you read it right. That's what makes it so interesting - the effectiveness of pre-exhaustion seems to depend on the muscle, and lift, in question.
And keep in mind we have 3 studies showing this now. Pre-exhausting chest before bench is counterintuitive.

I never did it but I'm going to flip that; one set of bench and right to cables and see what comes of it. I'll let you know what I think in a few months.
 

tinymk

Elite
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
2,262
Reaction score
3,699
Points
153
For what it is worth, he is a quick video of the meat and potatoes of a big bench(for me).
Floorpresses,
2-1/2" & 4" pinpresses(measured from the chest to the bar). Deadweight on the pins no rebound effect.
Close-grips with 100lb of chains. Brutal....The harder you push the heavier it gets.
Close-grip bench--closest accessory exercise to a competition bench. I bench narrow so I am in 2 fingers from my competition grip.

Hope it is useful to someone on the board..

 

Mythos

Elite
Joined
Jan 8, 2016
Messages
1,424
Reaction score
1,325
Points
113
Honestly, I always thought that pre-exhaustion was kind of stupid. Isolating a major muscle group before a compound lift is going to limit my total load on that lift, so why the **** would I do it? Mechanical load is THE greatest stimulus for muscle growth, I had no interest in limiting that.

Your experience goes together well with the data. An ever more relevant study for you is this. They did 1x10RM fly before 1x10RM on bench and found chest activation was the same but delt & tricep activation went up. Basically, your chest is tired so the other muscles take other the load - complete opposite of what pre-exhaust is "supposed" to achieve but, at the same time, makes a lot of logical sense. Pre-exhausting chest before bench doesn't work. It just doesn't.

The fact that it works for triceps, and not chest or delts, is really interesting (I know I've said that a lot in this thread but it is!). Makes me think about methods to bring up other weak points - biceps, etc. Backs up some training methods I use for clients.

It's funny, I always thought that this WAS the point of pre-exhaust! (To weaken more dominant groups to hit other ones harder making them compensate. )
 

TRUSTNME

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
Messages
174
Reaction score
47
Points
0
Very good post. Thanks for posting. Sometimes we forget how much of a difference having reminders, knowledge, adds to better performance conditioning and PR on bench.
 

New Threads

Top