What Is Pre-Exhaust Training – How Bodybuilders Prep for Workouts

This Pre-Lift Training Technique Can Help You Build More Muscle

If packing on mass is your workout goal, try this approach before your big compound lifts.

By Trevor Thieme C.S.C.S. Published: Sep 12, 2022

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Men’s Health.

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Our Takeaways:

· Pre-exhaust training is a good way to bring up lagging body parts.

· Supersets can be used with good effect to increase training efficiency.

· Pre-exhaust training ensures all muscles involved are adequately fatigued.

This is Your Quick Training Tip, a chance to learn how to work smarter in just a few moments so you can get right to your workout.

EVERY LIFTER—from grizzled six-day-per-week bodybuilders to trainees on three-day splits with under a year of training under their weigh belt—hits a plateau at some point. So you shouldn’t feel like your gym life is ending when you hit yours. They key is to find the best way to break through.

Maybe you’re stuck because you’ve been hammering the same workout program for too long. Perhaps your periodization plan isn’t quite periodized enough. Or maybe everything is on point, but constantly targeting your largest muscle groups with compound exercises has exposed a critical weakness: the relative strength of your assistive muscles (e.g., the triceps in the bench press or the hamstrings and glutes in the squat). If that’s the case—and the more seasoned you are, the more likely it is—consider incorporating “pre-exhaustion training” into your fitness program.

What Is Pre-Exhaustion Training?

Pre-exhaustion training is essentially a superset strategy, but instead of pairing exercises that target two different muscle groups, you pair moves that target the same one. First, you hit the muscle in question with an isolation exercise, and then with a compound one.

Classic examples include performing the dumbbell fly or cable crossover before the bench press, or the leg extension before the squat. In so doing, you increase the odds that the target muscle doesn’t outlast the supporting ones in the compound movement, and thus the set doesn’t end prematurely and the adaptation stimulus for all of those muscles isn’t compromised.

At least, that’s the theory. But in this case theory is paramount, because science is staunchly against pre-exhaustion training for all of the wrong reasons.

Science vs. Reality in Pre-Exhaustion Training

Many of the studies that discount the benefits of pre-exhaustion training suggest that targeting a muscle first with an isolation exercise decreases activity in that muscle during the subsequent compound exercise. But here’s the thing (and the issue many studies miss): That’s the point.

The goal of pre-exhaustion training isn’t to boost muscle growth by increasing activity in the target muscle during the compound exercise; rather, it’s to boost growth in that muscle and the supporting musculature by leveling the playing field and making sure that all of the muscles involved can be worked to fatigue. Performance outcomes should be secondary.

How to Weave Pre-Exhaustion Training into Your Workouts

Pre-exhaustion training is just like it sounds—exhausting—so only use it to target one or two muscle groups per workout with one or two supersets. Any more than that and you risk overtraining—especially if you have less than a couple of years of pumping iron under your weight belt.

But if you’re an experienced lifter who’s struggling to make gains in big compound moves like the squat, bench press, and deadlift, pre-exhaustion training can help you bust out of a rut—or prevent one from happening in the first place.

Strength Training: Recommended Amount and Advice

The Lift | Gabrielle Kassel

Strong Schedule: How Often Should You Strength Train? BOLD

Medically reviewed by Micky Lal, MA, CSCS,RYT — Written by Gabrielle Kassel on May 18, 2022

This article is a repost which originally appeared on GREATIST

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Our Takeaways:

· Strength training is an important part of maintaining health.

· It is recommended to train 3 days a week, though 4 to 5 days a week can offer more benefits.

· Compound movement provide more of a workout than isolation exercises.

This is a series where we break down simple fitness activities you can do anywhere — and not just do them, but do them right. With these helpful tips, you can take control of your exercise process at your pace.

Maybe you loathe lifting but have goals you wanna achieve. Maybe you’re worried you’re under- or overdoing it at the gym. Maybe your schedule is fuller than your Netflix queue.

Whatever your situation, you’re here because you want to know how often you need to do strength training to hit your goals.

Ahead, your answer.

The health benefits of strength training

Let’s get this out of the way first: Strength training zero days a week really isn’t an option. Even if you’re not interested in building a bulked-up trunk or hulk-like arms (no shade — to each fitness-er their own fitness goals), you should be strength training.

Why? Because the health benefits are LEGIT.

If you still need some convincing to get started, read on.

1. Stronger muscles, stronger heart

Whether you’re trying to run faster, hike a small mountain with a hot date, or dance for hours at the club later, strength training might just be the answer. Because yeppp, your aerobic fitness will benefit from some weight-room hangs.

Sure, lifting weights is known to build muscle and tone your physique. But, according to a 2013 research review, it can also increase your aerobic capacity — that is, it can help get blood, oxygen, and nutrients flowing to your muscles more efficiently.

In addition, strength training improves your lactic threshold.

“Lactic threshold is the amount of time it takes for your muscles to fatigue,” says Jordan Metzl, MD, a sports medicine physician and the author of Running Strong. Essentially, the higher your lactic threshold, the longer you can work out without getting tired. Go ahead and sign up for that race.

2. Injury prevention

Gaining strength also minimizes your chances of getting hurt. *Throws triumphant fist into the air*

“Strength training has been shown to increase bone density as well as increase the resilience of your tendons and ligaments,” explains Michael Boyle, a strength and conditioning coach and functional training expert in Boston. “So, not only are you simply able to lift more weight, but you’re also building resistance to injury.”

Strength training will strengthen your midline too. A strong midline = better balance. And better balance = reduced risk of falling and injuring yourself!

3. Can help with weight loss

Would your brain combust if you learned that you could hit your weight loss goals without stepping on a treadmill?

Welp, prepare for an explosion, because recent studies have shown that people who weight train can see fat and weight loss similar to those who spend the same amount of time doing cardio.

4. Improved mental health

Mental health is health! (If you read that punctuated by clap-hand emojis, you read it correctly.)

And guess what? Lifting things up and putting them back down is likely good for your mental well-being.

A 2013 study of 341 women found that participants who started strength training twice a week had better body image and began to enjoy physical activity more than before.

Also, in a small 2020 study in 24 adults, participants reported reduced anxiety symptoms after an 8-week resistance training program.

We need more and bigger studies to learn more about these mental health benefits, but the results so far are encouraging!

How often do I have to lift to reap these rewards?

The short answer: 3 days per week.

Talk to almost any gym rat or trainer and they’ll tell you that’s the recommended number of times you should get your hands on some weights.

And for good reason: “When you work out 3 days a week, you’re working out often enough that you’re able to really learn the skill of lifting,” says strength coach and registered dietitian Albert Matheny, director of ARENA Innovation Corp and co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab in NYC. (Yes it is a skill!)

“Working out 3 days a week also allows you to prioritize both intensity in your workouts and recovery when you’re not exercising,” he says.

To top it off, strength training 3 days a week still allows adequate space in your schedule for other types of workouts, should that appeal to you.

That said, 1 or 2 days a week will still get you benefits

Can’t make it to the weight room more than once or twice per week? That’s not bad at all!

Lifting just once a week is enough to get some benefit, according to trainers.

“I have clients who only strength train once or twice per week, and they still see some significant results in strength,” says Noam Tamir, founder of TS Fitness.

“Once per week is enough to see some results for beginners and is usually enough for more advanced athletes to maintain most of their current strength gains,” adds Matheny.

But Matheny emphasizes that if you have the option of working out 2 days a week instead of one, it’s a good idea to do that! “The difference between working out once per week and twice is significant.”

Learning new lifts will be much easier, too, if you’re going twice per week than if you’re only going once. Again, learning how to lift is half the battle for new(er) lifters.

If you’re lifting twice per week, you can bring your full oomph to each and every session. Assuming you don’t work out on 2 consecutive days, that means you’re maximizing intensity.

For people training for marathons or triathlons, adding anaerobic (strength) training 2 times per week may even be more optimal than adding more days of strength training, according to Tamir.

Why? “Because the added strength will give the body the tools it needs to handle the repetitive stress of movements like running, cycling, or swimming while still leaving time in your schedule to train,” Tamir says.

You might meet your goals faster if you work out 4 or 5 days a week

If your fitness goals are strength-specific, you may benefit from strength training more than 3 days per week.

“If you have a goal, like ‘be able to squat X within X months’ or ‘increase overall muscular hypertrophy,’ strength training more could help you reach that goal faster,” says Matheny.

However, if you’re strength training more than 2 days per week, you’re going to want to rethink what each of those workouts looks like.

“The typical rule of thumb for programming is that if you’re strength training 1 to 3 times per [week], each workout should have a full-body emphasis,” says strength and conditioning coach Jake Harcoff. “But if you’re training more frequently than that, it makes sense to start incorporating splits into your program.”

In practice, that looks like training legs on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, and so on.

Lifting 6 or 7 days per week is pushing it …

TBH, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need to be lifting 6 times per week.

“Strength training 6 to 7 times per week should most likely be left to the most elite lifters and longtime resistance trainers,” says Harcoff.

According to Harcoff, if you’re an average gym-goer, you’d benefit from going to the gym that often only if:

‧ you have only a short time to allocate to training (think: less than 30 minutes) each day
‧ your overall volume from the days you’re working out is low

Training this often isn’t recommended because it doesn’t give your body enough time to recover between sessions. And, as Matheny puts it, “If you’re not recovering, you’re not actually getting stronger.”

The best ways to get stronger

Regardless of how often you exercise, some training rules can help you reach your goals.

Do at least *some* compound exercises

What do the deadlift, squat, clean, and press have in common? They’re all compound exercises.

Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at once and therefore offer greater bang for your buck than isolation exercises.

To understand the distinction, consider the difference between a front squat and a biceps curl. While a front squat works your calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes, core, back, forearms, and chest, the biceps curl works only your biceps.

Especially for folks who are crunched for time, compound exercises are the way to go to maximize strength (and fat burn) gains.

Boyle’s recommendation: Squeeze a variety of compound exercises that target different muscle groups (both upper and lower body) into every session.

Make do with what you’ve got

Sure, your options may be expanded if you’ve got a barbell or kettlebell handy, but it is possible to get a full-body strength workout without equipment!

If you can’t get to a gym, Boyle recommends combining movements like push-ups, pull-ups, planks, lunges, and squats.

Metzl agrees, adding that burpees, as well as plyometric jump squats and arm walkouts to push-ups, can be a nice way to switch things up. “These moves ramp up your metabolic furnace for the day,” he says.

Lift more weight

“Keep in mind the size principle: The higher the resistance, the more muscle recruitment,” says Tamir.

Meaning, you shouldn’t be reaching for the 3- or 5-pounders if you can actually lift 10 or 12 pounds with good form. The more weight you can lift safely, the more gains you’ll see.

Warm up properly

No, this isn’t just lip service — warming up actually is important.

“A proper warmup is crucial before kicking off a high resistance, high intensity workout, especially if you’re sedentary the rest of the day,” Tamir says.

Track your post-training activities too

“Proper nutrition is still king when it comes to getting the results you want,” says Matheny.

And that includes what you eat right after your workout. “Eating healthy carbs post-workout will replenish your glycogen levels and help your muscles recover faster,” Tamir says.

More important is the window for consuming protein. To maximize protein synthesis, Matheny recommends having 20 or more grams of protein within an hour of working out.

Bottom line

As far as strength training is concerned, doing something is better than doing nothing. The recommended frequency is 3 days per week for good gains.

Hitting the weight rack or the mat once a week may not be enough to reach your loftier goals. But any workout you do in the weight room – along with proper nutrition and hydration – is still enough to increase your overall health and fitness level.

And if you prefer to hit the gym more often, as long as you’re recovering properly, have at it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Month?

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Month?

Written by Daniel Preiato, RD, CSCS on February 2, 2021 — Medically reviewed by Daniel Bubnis, M.S., NASM-CPT, NASE Level II-CSS

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Healthline

Edited for content.

When looking to gain muscle, it’s no secret that exercise and proper nutrition are key.

Additionally, numerous factors contribute to the rate of muscle gain, including your training experience, sex, age, and the type of exercise you do. As such, you may wonder how much muscle you can really gain in a month.

This article covers how much muscle you can gain in a month, including how to get started and supplements that may be worth taking.

How much muscle can you gain?

In most cases, gaining muscle is a slow, gradual process, and it can take years rather than months to see sizeable results.

That said, beginners and some intermediate lifters may be able to see small changes after just a few months of intense training.

Though it’s nearly impossible to determine exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, some studies can give you a good idea.

One study in 30 college-aged men with previous training experience observed a 23% increase in vastus lateralis size — one of the leg muscles — after 6 weeks of purposeful resistance training.

However, it’s important to note that this muscle growth was largely attributed to increases in water and glycogen stores, which is the stored form of carbs.

Similarly, one small older study observed a 5.6% increase in muscle size after 21 weeks of strength training in 8 non-strength-trained athletes, while 8 strength-trained athletes experienced less growth.

This suggests that trainees without prior strength training experience have a greater potential for muscle gains than athletes with training experience. What’s more, your genetic makeup may also mean you respond better to muscle growth stimulus.

While data is limited on exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, these studies suggest that short-term muscle growth is modest in natural athletes.

Summary

Though data on the specific amount of muscle you can gain in a month is limited, select studies suggest that new trainees can yield noticeable muscle gains in less time than those with resistance training experience.

How to get started

When looking to gain muscle quickly, there are a few factors you can focus on to get the most efficient results for your efforts.

High intensity resistance exercise

Arguably, the most important factor is to focus on high intensity resistance exercises in the 8–12 rep range.

These include compound movements like variations of the squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, snatch, and clean and jerk. These work multiple muscle groups at once, thus improving exercise efficiency and stimulating muscle growth.

In addition to compound exercises, include various isolation exercises to target specific muscle groups. Unlike compound exercises, isolation exercised target one muscle group at a time, providing maximal stimulation and growth potential.

While cardiovascular exercise is important for overall health, it does not play a major role in muscle gain.

Ultimately, it may be helpful to consult a certified trainer to help you put together a suitable exercise program.

Proper nutrition

Another significant component of gaining muscle quickly is proper nutrition.

For the best results, it’s recommended that you eat 10–20% more calories than your metabolic rate, which is also known as your total daily energy expenditure. This means consuming slightly more calories than you burn, as gaining muscle is an energy-expensive process.

This is often referred to as bulking and sometimes accomplished using a “clean” or “dirty” approach depending on your dietary choices and dedicated time for the process.

In addition to a calorie surplus, it’s important that you ensure a sufficient protein intake of 0.7–1 gram per pound (1.6–2.2 grams per kg) of body weight, as protein serves as the major building block of muscle.

You may want to seek advice from a registered dietitian for further nutritional guidance.

Summary

Two important factors when looking to maximize short-term muscle gains include high intensity resistance exercise and proper nutrition that prioritizes a calorie surplus and adequate protein.

Different populations

One of the main factors in the rate of muscle gain is your training age, or how long you’ve been training.

Two other important factors to consider are age and sex, which can also greatly affect muscle building.

Beginners

When just getting started with strength and hypertrophy (muscle building) training, you have great potential for muscle growth.

This is because training is a new stimulus, and as your muscles are worked, growth occurs to prepare them for future training.

That said, muscle growth is still limited during the initial stages of resistance training, while most of your strength gains are due to neural adaptions. This means that as you train, your brain gets better at recruiting muscle fibers to contract during a particular exercise.

Therefore, if you’re a beginner to resistance training, you’re unlikely to see any sizeable muscle gains in your first month of training, even if you’re gaining strength.

Intermediates

After training consistently for at least 1 year and grasping the fundamental movements, you move toward the intermediate phase of training.

This tends to be where trainees spend the most time, with some never progressing onto the advanced phase.

During the late–beginner and early–intermediate training phase, you have the most potential for muscular growth, as you have moved past the neural adaptation phase.

At this point, you can proficiently perform most movements and stimulate significant muscle growth.

Advanced trainees

The advanced phase of training takes a significant amount of time and effort to reach, usually at least 2 years for even the most gifted athletes.

At this point, most trainees have achieved most of their muscle and strength gains, and new muscle mass is hard to come by.

Progressing as an advanced trainee often requires advanced training techniques that provide maximal muscle stimulation.

Even in the best-case scenario, natural advanced trainees may not see more than a few pounds of muscle gain per year.

Men

In general, men have a few advantages over women when it comes to gaining muscle.

According to both older and new research, men tend to have larger, more numerous muscle fibers, allowing for overall bigger muscles and increased strength potential.

What’s more, men have higher levels of testosterone, the major circulating male sex hormone that’s responsible for male characteristics like muscle development, body hair, and deepening of the voice.

Considering these factors, men tend to gain more muscle than women over a month’s time.

Women

Women are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to quick muscle and strength building due to genetic and hormonal differences.

That said, women have an advantage over men when it comes to exercise fatigue and recovery, as they’re often able to handle more exercise volume and recover quicker.

This is mainly due to higher levels of estrogen, one of the primary female sex hormones, which is thought to have a protective effect on skeletal muscle.

Thus, although men may gain muscle at a faster rate than women, women appear to recover from exercise more efficiently, potentially allowing them to handle more training volume over time.

Older adults

Muscle and strength loss, also called sarcopenia, is one of several factors associated with the aging process in both men and women.

Fortunately, resistance training has been shown to slow, or even slightly reverse, this effect in older individuals.

While the rate of muscle gain tends to be slower in the aging population, improvements in muscle strength and functional mobility are still seen. This stresses the importance of following a regular exercise regimen that includes resistance training as you age.

Summary

The rate at which you can gain muscle varies greatly between populations, with beginners and intermediates seeing significantly more progress than advanced trainees.

Do supplements help?

During your quest for muscle gains, various supplements may enhance your results.

While many supplement companies claim their products can help you pack on muscle quickly, only a few types of supplements boast extensive scientific backing.

Here are the muscle-building supplements with the most scientific support.

Protein powder

Protein powders are the isolated form of various types of protein, including milk proteins like whey or casein or plant proteins like pea or brown rice.

When looking to promote muscle gain, getting enough protein is essential, as it provides the building blocks of skeletal muscle.

Experts recommend getting 20–40 grams of a high quality protein, meaning protein that contains all essential amino acids and is easily digested, within 2 hours of resistance exercise to maximize muscle gains.

While protein powders are not necessary, they can serve as an excellent tool to help you meet your daily protein needs, especially if you have trouble reaching them through your regular diet.

Creatine

Creatine is another highly researched supplement shown to promote muscle gains by increasing exercise capacity during high intensity training.

It plays a vital role in the phosphocreatine system. This system provides energy for muscle contractions that last less than 15 seconds, such as when you start sprinting or complete a heavy lift.

Creatine is found in foods like salmon and beef, but supplementing with it is an easy way to maximize its stores in your skeletal muscle and may be a worthwhile strategy when you’re looking to promote muscle gains.

HMB

Beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) is a metabolite — an end product of metabolism — of an essential amino acid called leucine. It has shown some promise in promoting muscle and strength gains when combined with resistance training.

Supplementing with HMB appears to increase muscle protein synthesis and reduce muscle protein breakdown, leading to gains in muscle mass. However, these benefits have mainly been observed in new trainees and the elderly.

This means that HMB may be worth trying for those who are new to resistance training, as well as older adults looking to retain muscle mass, but not for those with resistance training experience.

Summary

While numerous supplements claim to boost muscle mass, only a few are backed by research. The main ones include protein powders, creatine, and HMB.

The bottom line

How much muscle you can gain in a month varies greatly depending on factors like your sex, age, and training experience.

While select populations can see noticeable muscle gains in just 1 month, achieving significant changes in your body’s musculature takes effort and time — often several years rather than months.

To maximize your muscle gains, follow a consistent, high intensity resistance training program, stick to a proper diet that includes sufficient calories and protein, and consider taking select supplements.

It’s best to consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting an intense resistance training regimen, especially if you have any underlying ailments or injuries.