A popular bodybuilding concept asserts the superiority of compound weight lifting workout plans as compared with isolation movements; proponents preach that the most effective method of muscle building involves choosing weight lifting exercises that utilize the greatest number of muscle groups.
Moreover, those who follow this form of weight lifting believe that because the amount of weight used in the compound exercise is larger than isolation movements, total muscle growth will also be significantly superior, and therefore a weight training session should focus upon compound exercises as its foundation.
But many will push this notion further, removing all isolation exercises from their weight training routine, focusing completely on compound workouts alone, with the idea that this will offer the most significant muscle size increase.
As usual with bodybuilding folklore, the truth is somewhat different from the popular claims, as although compound weight lifting exercises are very potent, and should become the basis for any effective weight lifting workout routine, certain isolation exercises are also a necessity for any individual who wishes to produce the best possible muscle growth, and those who fail to implement isolation weight lifting techniques 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 burst with muscularity, and this disparity stems from avoiding correct isolation techniques.
Arms are in fact one muscle group where this is extremely common, with many saying that compound back exercises are sufficient to promote complete biceps development, and consistent compound chest and shoulder exercises will beef up the triceps with large amounts of muscle, all without isolation exercises to target these specific areas.
Obviously, performing 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 lifting exercise such as seated rows is the back, with the biceps, in this instance, used for support in completing this exercise.
The goal is to focus upon the back muscles during the seated row, and as a result, the arms will not receive sufficient 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 the triceps during bench press, where the goal is to overload the pecs, and the triceps are not to fail before the chest in order for the weight lifting movement to function as intended, therefore, the triceps only experience partial overload.
Because of this, isolation exercises focusing on smaller muscles become necessary if those areas are to experience their genetic potential, which means that isolation weight lifting exercises shunned by many bodybuilers, such as curls, side laterals, and triceps pushdowns become critical in providing sufficient overload to achieve failure for smaller muscles, as a bodybuilder, with these added exercises, is then able to push those isolated muscles to complete failure, and therefore produce the greatest muscle growth.
There is no doubt that an effective weight-lifting workout system cannot be based upon isolation exercises alone, and certain bodybuilders on the other extreme unfortunately become fixated on performing every possible weight-lifting variation of a particular exercise, extending workout’s length to a point of emotional breakdown.
Therefore, the proper pairing of compound and isolation weight lifting exercises is necessary for those who wish to achieve the most impressive gains in muscle growth, without neglecting any specific muscle group. The mistake many make is to either construct their weight lifting workout plans with far too few isolation exercises, where certain muscle groups are neglected, or they alternatively perform such a substantial quantity of isolation exercises that their weight lifting workout sessions lack intensity, which destroys the potential for maximum muscle building.
Remember that the most effective bodybuilding techniques involve a perfect blend of both compound and isolation weight lifting movements to avoid any of these possible pitfalls. If you currently find that smaller muscles such as the forearms, triceps, and biceps are lagging in size when compared with other muscles (chest, back, quads, etc), then I suggest considering implementing some isolation movements for these specific muscles so that they can grow to their maximum genetic limits.
