Are Isolation Weight Lifting Exercises Wasteful For Maximum Muscle Gain?

A widely believed bodybuilding notion asserts the superiority of compound weight lifting workout plans as compared with isolation movements; supporters preach that the most efficient method of muscle building involves choosing weight lifting workout routines that utilize the most 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, total muscle growth should also be significantly superior, and therefore a weight training session should focus upon compound exercises as its foundation. But many take this idea further, eliminating isolation exercises from their weight training routine, focusing solely on compound workouts, with the feeling that this will offer the most significant muscle mass increase.

As is customary with bodybuilding folklore, the truth is far different from the popular claims, as although compound weight lifting exercises are in fact very potent, and should become the basis for any effective weight lifting workout plan, certain isolation exercises are also necessary for any individual who wishes to produce the most dramatic muscle gains, and those who neglect isolation exercise will begin to develop a disproportional physique, with several muscle groups, such as the arms, becoming much less impressive as the back and chest begin to explode with muscularity, and this disparity stems from avoiding correct isolation techniques.

Arms are in fact one muscle group where this is extremely common, with some saying that heavy compound back exercises are sufficient to promote full biceps development, and compound chest and shoulder movements will beef up the triceps with massive amounts of muscle mass, all without isolation exercises to target these particular areas. Performing heavy compound weight lifting movements will no doubt allow the smaller muscle groups such as the biceps to grow, but the focus 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 as a supporting muscle group 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, meaning that the biceps are only trained to a certain percentage of their potential capacity. This same idea applies to triceps during the bench press, where the goal is to overload 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 partial overload.

Because of this, isolation exercises targeting smaller muscle groups become necessary if those areas are to reach their genetic potential for muscle growth, meaning that isolation weight lifting exercises avoided by some bodybuilders, such as curls, side laterals, and triceps pushdowns become critical in providing sufficient overload to reach failure for smaller muscle groups, as a bodybuilder, with these additional exercises, is then able to push those isolated muscles to total failure, and therefore produce the greatest possible muscle growth.

There is no doubt that a potent weight training workout plan cannot be built upon isolation exercises alone, and some on the other extreme unfortunately become obsessed with performing every possible weight lifting variation of a particular exercise, extending their workout length to the point of emotional breakdown. Therefore, the proper pairing of compound and isolation movements are necessary for those who wish to achieve the most impressive gains in muscle size, without bypassing any particular muscle group. The mistake many make is to either construct their weight lifting workout sessions with far too few isolation exercises, where smaller muscle groups suffer, or they alternatively perform such a wide variety of isolation movements that their weight training workouts lack intensity, which derails the possibility for maximum muscle gains.

Remember that the most potent bodybuilding techniques involve a proper balance of both compound and isolation weight training movements to dodge any of these potential pitfalls. If you currently feel that smaller muscle groups such as the forearms, triceps and biceps are lagging in size when compared with your larger muscles (chest, back, quads, etc), then contemplate adopting some isolation movements for these particular muscle groups so that they can improve to their maximum genetic potential.

Francesco Castano authors MuscleNOW.com, a workout routine for muscle building without supplements or drugs. He also owns FatVanish.com, where you will find his natural weight loss diet program.