Social media is often saturated with bodybuilders lifting their top sets with furious intensity, but not so much attention is given to how the best competitors prep their body for the lifting that is ahead. That’s why Jordan Hutchinson’s recent Instagram post, explaining why he doesn’t go straight to squats, and how he readies his body for heavy reps, provides such a valuable lesson.
On Episode 245 of The Menace Podcast,Milos Sarcev recently told Hutchinson that he has some of “the best quads in the business.” On the same show, the Olympia bound bodybuilder told host Dennis James and the gang that he was no longer focusing on just heavy squats for his leg growth. Instead, Hutchinson explained that these days he is more likely to take some weight off and increase his time under tension. Now, in an IG post, he’s explained his preferred process in greater detail.
Jordan Hutchinson Promotes Warmups and Pre-Exhausts Before Heavy Squats
“How long do we have to work to get to our working sets?” Hutchinson asked himself while being interviewed in the gym. “It takes forever,” he concluded. “I mean, I remember the days where I’d just walk in the gym, walk straight to the squat rack, (then lift sets of) 135, 225, 315, 405, 495 (pounds), and that’s all I would do,” reflects the IFBB Pro. “Now I have to pre-exhaust my legs. I have to be more careful. If I’m doing a ham curl, I can’t just go straight into my top set (or) I’m going to tear something.”
At just 29 years of age, Hutchinson isn’t waiting until he’s over the hill before taking a sensible approach to training. But with his first Olympia now beckoning, his strategy is to remain in the game for a longtime rather than a good time. “So, we gotta be more cautious, and hit more volume working up. It’s not junk volume, but it is extra volume that we’re doing to warmup to our top sets,” he shared.
Commenting on his own video, Hutchinson further elaborated that he does “lots of feeder/warmup sets” and “hitting isolation movements” prior to his heavy compounds lifts such as squats. And you certainly can’t argue with his results. The big man won both the 2025 Tampa Pro, and Texas Pro, and is now headed to Sin City to make his Mr Olympia debut.
“I’ve truly seen so much more benefit at this stage in my training to really pre-exhaust my legs and get tons of blood in them with hitting adductors, leg curls, and leg extensions before going into a squat pattern,” explained Hutchinson. “I do think it’s very important in the early stages of trying to build muscle, and big legs especially, to be intense chasing strength under the bar, but there’s a point where you have to shift and make sure you’re doing the most for the muscle with the least damage to the joints. Longevity is everything because building lots of muscle takes TIME!”
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