Pre-exhaust chest workout

Try this pre-exhaust chest workout to flood the muscles with blood and force new muscle growth.

Gabe Tuft joins INBA Pro Bodybuilder and Body Spartan Brand Ambassador, David Larson, for a pre-contest, pre-exhaust chest workout. The goal in this chest workout is to use a technique called, “pre-exhaust” which basically shocks the muscle group you’re working on. The idea here is to use exercises typically used as finishers or “burn outs” first, and then hit your compound movements afterwards. These two take it a step further and actually start the workout with a burnout and super set it with a compound movement – bench press. So get ready to check your ego at the door because this workout, isn’t about the weight, but it’s going to take everything you’ve got to finish it.

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Pre-exhaust chest workout exercise #1: Flat bench dumbbell flies super set with flat barbell bench press

pre-exhaust chest workout - flies

pre-exhaust chest workout - bench press

Start with a light weight and be sure you are doing the flies properly. You should be making an arching motion, similar to a pec deck machine. Avoid a pressing motion with the flies to maximize cross fiber recruitment. Plus, it’s just proper form. Pay close attention to Gabe and David’s form on these in the video above. Once you’re done with the flies, and without any rest, spin around on the bench and go right into the flat barbell bench press. You will have to significantly reduce the amount of weight you’re using for this chest workout, since doing the flies first will exhaust the chest muscles more than you’re used to. It would be wise to have a spotter on hand for this.

Set Super set Reps Rest
1 – warm up Yes 20/20 2 minutes
2 Yes 16/16 2 minutes
3 Yes 14/14 2 minutes
4 Yes 12/12 2 minutes
5 No 8-10/8-10 2 minutes

Pre-exhaust chest workout exercise #2: Close grip Smith machine incline press

Chest workout incline press

Use a close grip on this. Gabe puts his fingers on the inside of the index lines and flares his elbows out. Use a lighter weight with a 1/1/1/1/1 tempo on this. This means a 1 second hold at the top, 1 second negative, 1 second pause at the bottom, and a 1 second positive motion. The trick to this is the holds and squeezes. Be sure to soft lock at the top of the movement to keep constant tension on the chest, rather than locking out and transferring the tension to the shoulders and triceps.

Set Super set Reps Rest
1 No 20 2 minutes
2 No 16 2 minutes
3 No 12-14 2 minutes
4 No 8-12 2 minutes

The rest of the workout is below, but first – if you like this workout you need to try one of our shred programs.

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Pre-exhaust chest workout exercise #3: Pec deck – targeting upper chest

Peck deck

Chest workout peck deck

Lower the weight on this chest workout exercise to get higher reps. Here, we are also going to lower the seat so that the arms of the pec deck are slightly above your shoulders. We want to focus on the upper portion of the chest.

Set Super set Reps Rest
1 No 20 2 minutes
2 No 20 2 minutes
3 No 20 2 minutes
4 No 20 2 minutes

Pre-exhaust chest workout exercise #4: Cable flies super set with push-ups

Step slightly forward on the cable flies, arch your chest, and pin your shoulders back. This will keep the tension in the pecs and out of the front delts. As soon as your cable flies are done, hit the deck and start your pushups. The goal is 15-20 each set or failure. If you can’t do 15-20 normal push-ups, go to your knees and finish that way.

Set Super set Reps Rest
1 No 20 2 minutes
2 No 20 2 minutes
3 No 20 2 minutes
4 No 20 2 minutes

 

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Access to EVERY Body Spartan Program! 14-DAY FREE TRIAL
  • Get full access to our all of our amazing programs
  • Full, custom calculated nutrition
  • 10 & 12 week programs
  • Instructional videos
  • Full workouts
  • Triphase, polymorphic, and contest prep style training
  • Body composition tracker
$19.00 / month with a 14-day free trial