Does doing isolation exercises first make you stronger?
The effects of pre-exhaustion, exercise order, and rest intervals in a full-body resistance training intervention.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Pre-exhaustion training — a popular method among bodybuilders — showed no superior benefit for strength or body composition.
Many fitness influencers claim pre-exhaustion (e.g., leg extensions before squats) maximizes muscle activation and growth — but this study found zero advantage over other orders.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a trained lifter, feel free to reorder your workouts based on preference, energy levels, or time — pre-exhaustion isn’t necessary for better gains.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Pre-exhaustion training — a popular method among bodybuilders — showed no superior benefit for strength or body composition.
Many fitness influencers claim pre-exhaustion (e.g., leg extensions before squats) maximizes muscle activation and growth — but this study found zero advantage over other orders.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a trained lifter, feel free to reorder your workouts based on preference, energy levels, or time — pre-exhaustion isn’t necessary for better gains.
Publication
Journal
Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism = Physiologie appliquee, nutrition et metabolisme
Year
2014
Authors
J. Fisher, L. Carlson, J. Steele, Dave Smith
Related Content
Claims (3)
No matter the order of exercises, people who were already trained got much stronger after 12 weeks of lifting — all groups improved a lot.
Doing isolation exercises before compound lifts (like leg extensions before squats) doesn’t make you stronger or change your body more than doing the lifts in a different order, as long as you’re already trained.
Starting your workout with big lifts like squats and bench presses doesn’t make you stronger or change your body differently than starting with small lifts like leg extensions — as long as you train hard for 12 weeks.