Q: I had a friend visiting over the holiday and we went to work out a few times together. She has a personal trainer and also works out by herself. She was touting compound exercises and how they are so much better for getting the results you want. While I agree that they are good exercises, I do believe that you need to also do isolated exercises based on what your physical goals are. I don’t think she was in agreement with me on that. Could you give me your advice/opinion on this?
A: Great questions! Okay so here is my honest answer and I think you have an idea of what I may say… first to explain the differences:
There are two broad categories of lifting weights: compound and isolation. Each does yield a different overall result.
A compound exercise involves two or more different joint movements. For example, a squat is a compound exercise because the hips, knees and ankles move when you do the exercise properly. An isolation exercise involves only one type of joint movement. For example, bicep curls are an isolation movement, because they only involve the elbows.
The consequence of involving more joints is that compound exercises “recruit” more motor units (a motor neuron and its muscle fibers) than isolation exercises. This is important because recruiting motor units is how you encourage development in your muscles i.e. growth.
Benefits of compound:
-compound lifts tend to be much more practical/ lifestyle type movements, since real-life activates almost never use muscles in isolation; moving a chair is not an isolation exercise.
-using more muscle groups per exercise, you can work more muscles using fewer exercises. This is key when we only have so much time in our day dedicated to working out.
With this being said, isolation exercises still hold their value and there is a time and a place for them! Isolation exercises should be used as supplements to your major compound lifts, not in place of them. For example, let’s say you are a figure competitor and been doing a program based on compound excises and still see that you are looking to increase the size of your delts, maybe you need to focus on isolating that muscle for certain exercises. That is a perfect situation when adding an exercise that isolates your delts is a great idea. Your body also gets extremely use to one thing so it is best to alternate different exercises with compound vs. isolating exercises.
MY ANSWER— CHANGE IS KEY!! DO BOTH COMPOUND AND ISOLATED EXERCISES FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FIBER RECRUITMENT! CHANGE IS KEY!! UTILIZE BOTH TYPES OF EXERCISES!!!!
There are two broad categories of lifting weights: compound and isolation. Each does yield a different overall result.
A compound exercise involves two or more different joint movements. For example, a squat is a compound exercise because the hips, knees and ankles move when you do the exercise properly. An isolation exercise involves only one type of joint movement. For example, bicep curls are an isolation movement, because they only involve the elbows.
The consequence of involving more joints is that compound exercises “recruit” more motor units (a motor neuron and its muscle fibers) than isolation exercises. This is important because recruiting motor units is how you encourage development in your muscles i.e. growth.
Benefits of compound:
-compound lifts tend to be much more practical/ lifestyle type movements, since real-life activates almost never use muscles in isolation; moving a chair is not an isolation exercise.
-using more muscle groups per exercise, you can work more muscles using fewer exercises. This is key when we only have so much time in our day dedicated to working out.
With this being said, isolation exercises still hold their value and there is a time and a place for them! Isolation exercises should be used as supplements to your major compound lifts, not in place of them. For example, let’s say you are a figure competitor and been doing a program based on compound excises and still see that you are looking to increase the size of your delts, maybe you need to focus on isolating that muscle for certain exercises. That is a perfect situation when adding an exercise that isolates your delts is a great idea. Your body also gets extremely use to one thing so it is best to alternate different exercises with compound vs. isolating exercises.
MY ANSWER— CHANGE IS KEY!! DO BOTH COMPOUND AND ISOLATED EXERCISES FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FIBER RECRUITMENT! CHANGE IS KEY!! UTILIZE BOTH TYPES OF EXERCISES!!!!
