Why to do it: The pre-exhaustion technique, where you do single-joint exercises before compound movements in given workout (the opposite of what most people would typically do), is especially useful for training chest. Reason being, the triceps often tire out before the pecs on pressing exercises. By doing your isolation work first, you all but guarantee that the pecs will fatigue first, which, after all, is the whole point of training chest. Besides, anything different is a good bet for sparking new gains. “With this reverse order of exercises,” says Ryno, “you’ll be hitting the pecs in a unique way, giving your chest muscles a stimulus they’re not use to.
What to do: The next time you train chest, do all isolation exercises (cable crossovers, flyes, pullovers) first in your workout, making sure to exhaust the pecs by any means necessary – training to failure on every set, doing drop sets, rest-pauses, etc. Follow that with your pressing exercises (flat, incline, decline dumbbell and/or barbell presses). Exercise selection should go something like this: 2-3 isolation exercises followed by 2-3 compound moves.