A common training term that we hear often is pre-exhaust training. Pre-exhaust as the name suggests refers to a training pattern where you start your training by exhausting a muscle by performing isolation exercises and then later move on to compound exercises for an overall breakdown.
Besides the fact that your muscles and tendons will be warmed up before you start the bigger, compound movements, you’ll actually be able to accomplish more. Sometimes we end up not working our muscles to the full ability and not getting enough breakdown for muscles to grow. Pre-exhaust training ensures that you go all out and give your muscles the necessary wear and tear in order to make them grow.
Generally, pre-exhaust sets are better when done for time, not reps. this allows you to control the time-under-tension and focus on just working the muscle, rather than counting reps.
Pre-exhaust training can also be a good way to train during injuries as you can get the most out of lighter weights as well. Generally, weight training is associated with heavyweights, lower reps in order to build those muscles. But in case of injuries, the idea is to train smarter and lighter, so as to avoid injuries and yet get a decent muscle breakdown. Another benefit of pre-exhaust training is the breaking of plateaus. It helps you break plateaus when your training becomes quite monotonous and non-challenging.