Women & Men May Respond Differently To This Common Strength Training Technique

If you’ve ever done triceps extensions before bench pressing, you may have noticed that the lift feels a little harder than usual.

That’s because you’ve already tired out one of the muscles helping you push the weight. This technique, called pre-exhaustion, is sometimes used to change how muscles work during a lift.

But a new study suggests women and men may respond to it differently, particularly when it comes to how their chest and triceps muscles work during bench presses.

About the study

Pre-exhaustion means tiring out one muscle with an isolation exercise (a move that targets one main muscle group) before doing a bigger exercise that uses several muscles.

In this case, researchers wanted to see what happened when people tired out their triceps before bench pressing.

They recruited 30 resistance-trained adults (15 women and 15 men) who had been lifting for at least a year. First, researchers measured how much weight each person could bench press for 10 reps.

During a second session, participants performed the bench press at that same weight twice, once without any prior exercise and once after doing standing overhead triceps extensions until they couldn’t complete another rep.

Electrodes measured how hard the chest, triceps, and front shoulder muscles were working during each bench press.

Women & men showed different muscle responses

Fatiguing the triceps first increased chest muscle activity during the bench press in both women and men. But the triceps themselves responded differently.

Women showed an increase in triceps activity, while men showed no significant change. Front shoulder activity stayed about the same in both groups. The technique also made it harder to complete the lift. After tiring out their triceps, participants managed roughly four bench press reps at a weight they could normally lift for 10.

Both women and men experienced a similar drop in exercise performance under fatigue.

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Does this mean pre-exhaustion builds more muscle?

Not necessarily. Just because a muscle works harder during one workout doesn’t mean it will grow more over time.

Researchers measured muscle activity during a single session, not changes in muscle size after weeks or months of training.

The difference in triceps activity between women and men also needs more research.

Previous studies in men suggested that tiring out the triceps might reduce how much they contribute during a bench press, allowing the chest to do more of the work.

Women didn’t show the same response. Researchers suggested they may rely more on their triceps to help complete the lift when fatigued, but they can’t say for sure yet.

How to experiment with pre-exhaustion

Curious to see how pre-exhaustion feels in your own workouts? Keep these points in mind:

• Try it occasionally: Do triceps extensions before bench presses to experiment with changing your exercise order.

• Adjust your weights: Your usual bench press load may feel much heavier after fatiguing your triceps. Consider lowering the weight.

• Be flexible with reps: Participants went from 10 reps to roughly four at the same weight after pre-exhaustion. Don’t force your usual rep count if you’re already fatigued.

• Prioritize good form: If fatigue makes it difficult to control the weight, reduce the load or stop the set.

• Keep expectations realistic: Pre-exhaustion can add variety to your routine, but there’s no evidence yet that it builds more muscle than performing exercises in the usual order.

The takeaway

Your chest and triceps don’t necessarily play by the same rules when they’re already tired.

This study suggests women and men may recruit those muscles differently during a bench press, giving researchers another reason to look more closely at sex differences in strength training.

For now, though, the best exercise order is one that helps you train consistently and safely.