Are Isolation Weight Lifting Exercises A Waste Of Time For Maximum Muscle Gain?
Posted: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
by Francesco A. Castano
IncrediBody.com
A popular bodybuilding notion asserts the superiority of compound weight lifting workout plans as compared with isolation movements; proponents preach that the most efficient method of muscle building involves choosing weight lifting workout plans that utilize the greatest number of muscle fibers. Moreover, those who follow this type of weight training believe that because the amount of weight used in compound exercise is greater than isolation movements, overall muscle gain should also be substantially superior, and therefore a weight training session should focus upon compound exercises as its foundation. But many propel this notion further, removing all isolation exercises from their weight training routine, focusing solely on compound workouts, with the feeling that this will provide the most substantial muscle size gains.
Arms are one area where this is very common, with some saying that heavy compound back exercises are by themselves capable of producing full biceps development, and compound chest and shoulder movements will beef up the triceps with massive amounts of muscle, all without any isolation exercises to focus upon these specific areas. Obviously, performing heavy compound weight lifting movements will no doubt force the smaller muscle groups such as the biceps to grow, but the emphasis of the workout set when performing a compound weight training movement such as seated rows is the back, with the biceps, in this example, used for support in completing this exercise. The goal is to focus upon the back muscles during seated row, and by this very definition, the arms will not receive considerable overload since the back muscles are to achieve maximum emphasis, which means that the biceps are only trained to a certain percentage of their possible capacity. This same concept applies to triceps during the bench press, where the goal is to fatigue the pecs, and the triceps are not to fail prior to the chest in order for the weight training movement to function as intended, therefore, the triceps only experience a fraction of the necessary overload.
Because of this, isolation exercises focusing on smaller muscles become necessary if those areas are to reach their genetic potential for muscle growth, which means that isolation weight lifting exercises shunned by some bodybuilders, such as curls, side laterals, and triceps pushdowns become critical in providing needed overload to reach failure for smaller muscles, as a bodybuilder, with these added exercises, is then able to push those isolated muscles to complete failure, and therefore lead to the greatest possible muscle growth.
There is no doubt that an effective weight training workout regimen cannot be built upon isolation exercises alone, and certain bodybuilders on the other extreme mistakenly become obsessed with performing every possible weight lifting variation of a specific exercise, extending their workout length to a point of mental fatigue. Therefore, the proper combination of compound and isolation movements are necessary for those who wish to produce the most dramatic gains in muscle size, without avoiding any specific muscle group. The error many make is to either construct their weight lifting workout plans with insufficient isolation exercises, where smaller muscle groups neglected, or they alternatively perform such a large number of isolation movements that their weight training workouts lack intensity, which destroys the potential for maximum muscle gains.
Remember that the most potent bodybuilding methods involve a perfect balance of both compound and isolation weight training movements to dodge any of these possible pitfalls. If you currently find that smaller muscles such as the biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms and lower back are lagging in size when compared with other muscles (chest, back, quads, etc), then contemplate implementing some isolation movements for these specific muscles so that they can grow to their maximum genetic potential.
Francesco Castano authors MuscleNOW.com, a diet and weight training program teaching the exact techniques for building muscle mass without supplements or drugs. He also owns IncrediBody.com, an online fitness superstore selling exercise equipment at guaranteed lowest prices.
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