Compound vs Isolation Training for strength and muscle

Abdominal muscle | Anabolism | Building Muscle | Catabolic | Exercise | Fitness | Personal Training | Squat | Training

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Jenny Cromack

When it comes to training there is no argument that exercise selection will make or break a gym plan. The common misconception especially amongst beginners lifting weights is that more is better, after all it would seem logical that hitting the same muscle from every possible angel is beneficial….. WRONG

 

Isolation exercises are great for tweaking muscles once you have established your primary goals, however for those looking to make significant strength, muscle gains or drop body fat they are not ideal. Here is why!

 

  1. Muscle fibre stimulation– isolation exercises simply don’t stimulate as many muscle fibres as big juicy compound movements. This increased fibre stimulation greatly amplifys the intensity of your workout, making the movement far more challenging than isolating single muscle fibres.

 

  1. Reduced time in the gym– Tied in with the previous point as you are hitting bigger muscle groups you don’t need to spend as long in the gym as you would if you isolated muscle groups, now doesn’t it seem like magic that you can get better results in less time??

 

  1. Greatest release of hormones– Compound movements cause the greatest release of anabolic hormones, the two prime examples been testosterone and human growth hormone (hgh). The more taxing the exercise on the system the greater the release of hormones. I guarantee after a heavy squat session in a 6-8 rep range you will be very hungry the following day, this Is because the body requires massive amount of energy to repair these muscle groups, opposed to a session spent doing bicep curls.

 

  1. Reduce the risk of overtraining– One of the main reasons most gym goers who lift weights don’t get the results they want is that they simply over train, most isolation programs require a body part per day split, its impossible to train every body part without using others, this eventually leads to overuse of a muscle. For example to hit the chest you may perform a the bench press, although this predominately hits the chest it also works the triceps, so if you follow with triceps in the following days they haven’t had enough time to recover and overtraining occurs.

 

  1. More time to focus on other aspects of your fitness– if your spending less time in the gym you can spend more time working on cardio or flexibility elements of your training.