We all have a weak point genetically or even from our limb length relative to training. We could have weak pecs, triceps, or quads. Everyone has some sense of weakness in their muscles. But when we think of being as hypertrophic as possible, we need to look at some old-school bodybuilding principles.

Bodybuilders will typically say there are 5 to 10 key mass movements. Movements like the bench press, back squat/front squat, leg press, deadlift, or movements of that nature stimulate a ton of mass. Movements such as these are the key foundation exercises to building mass. But! Because we all have our genetic disposition, we might not feel or get fatigued in certain areas based on mass movements. For me, my triceps are extremely strong. Bench pressing, my triceps never get sore; my chest always gets sore. The bench press may not be the best exercise for my tricep growth but it might be for my chest growth. Someone else might have a similar issue with chin-ups. Their biceps get destroyed but they don’t feel it in the lats. The inverse may be true for another individual. 

I’m going to give you pairings that can be used to stimulate a ton of growth. Using me as an example and knowing I have strong triceps, I want to fatigue my triceps before I get on the compound movement. To pre-exhaust, I will use an isolation exercise for about 10 to 17 reps that target the strong muscle group. Then when I get on the compound movement, I will be more stimulated and get more volume, and it will lead to greater growth.

One example for an individual with extremely strong pecs, they can hit standing banded flies with PowerLastic bands for a set of 17 reps to fatigue and exhaust the pecs. From doing the flies, I will have pre-exhausted my pec muscles from the flies as I go onto the compound movement of the bench press to get the mass to grow. Not only does this help my pecs, but it also forces my triceps to work harder to overcome the massive load on the compound movement of the bench press.

Using my own body as an example, and as I mentioned before, I never get tricep fatigue from bench pressing. Stolen directly from Dave Draper and Bill Pearl, I do an isolation exercise like a tricep push down. I will do 17 to 20 reps to exhaust my strong muscle group with an isolated movement before moving to the compound movement of the bench press. My strong muscle group, my triceps, then fatigue at the same time as my chest when performing the bench press. 

The key here is to use a mass movement to stimulate overall hypertrophy. The mass movement can be a back squat, deadlift, bench press, strict press, pull-up, and a few others. With pre-exhaustion, the idea is to fatigue the specific area where we are strong to highlight the weak area in the compound movement. In this way, the weak area is stimulated and grown while more high-threshold motor units are recruited, which ideally leads to more hypertrophy in the weak area. 

We do have to be careful with pre-exhaustion. We can’t do the pre-exhaustion period for a long time frame. Because we are getting extra volume in our stronger areas, yes our weak areas will get targeted very well in the compound movements, but over multiple weeks the muscles being pre-exhausted start to get extremely swole from all the additional volume. We have to toe a fine line. About 2 to 4 weeks during the comprehension phase of programming is a nice time and length to execute the pre-exhaustion cheat code in training.