So Swanso and some of you guys say things like squats and deadlifts are the best possible workouts because your lifting the most weight. How is this necessarily good? What if you want to isolate and muscle to build it up better. By using a multi joint workout like squats you bring other muscles into play.
For example quad lifts (where your sitting and youve got the bar across your shin and you lift it till your legs are straight forward) vs Squats to work your quads.
Quad lifts are like
95% quads
Squats
maybe 50% quads
30% hamstring
20% core
All approximates but you get points. So say 200 lbs on quad raise vs 300 pound squat. (These kind of numbers arent that great either I can do almsot that much on quad machine not nearly that much on squats) So on quad raise you have almost 200 pounds on quads on squat youve only got 150 if that. Why not isolate?
Question on workout theory
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
Isolation is fine, but frankly if you think about it, you just end up having to workout longer.
Think about this. You do Isolation work on a Bicep, like Preachers, Concentration Curls etc etc. If you're not targeting the Brachioradialis muscles effectively, you then have to do things like Wrist Curls / Reverse Wrist Curls, exercises which I think aren't good for the Wrist joint, but that's a seperate issue.
You then end up having to spend time doing 3-6 sets on the Brachios, just to work and isolate them.
You end up lengthening your workout, getting a more prolonged Glycogen to Glucose conversion, and will end up taking longer to recover, because of the more depleted Glycogen stores.
Multi-purpose exercises are better for you in the main, as you get a good hit on more than one muscle, reducing the time you need to spend working out, and potentially improving recovery.
That's why I do exercises say for Legs, that work both Legs together, not seperately I.E. Hamstring Curls, not Lunges. Saves time.
The only time I do stuff like Isolation is usually for things like Quads, Calvs, Hams and Triceps.
Even those can't be truly isolated I think, as Hams and Quads are Antagonistic muscles, and work the opposite way to each other, same with Bi's and Tri's, so which ever one you are working, the Antagoniser, must be worked to some small degree, depending on whether it assists in Contraction or Expansion, of the working muscle.
Some muscles also are very difficult to Isolate. The Traps have 3 sections, so it could be argued, it's easier to do something like Shrugs, as part of a Traps workout, rather than trying to Isolate the Upper, Middle and Lower Traps, which may be very difficult to do anyway.
I personally used to do Brachio work, and to be honest since I stopped, and just incorporated things like Bicep Curls, Reverse Curls etc etc into the mix, I have never lost any size in the Forearms. I know this as I've never suffered any strength or lifting decreases, on any Arm or upper body exercises.
I also made some small gains since stopping Brachio Isolation work.
Isolation work is not a bad thing, it's just not necessary, and for reasons I mentioned earlier, it's arguably best left as a now and then kind of thing.
Think about this. You do Isolation work on a Bicep, like Preachers, Concentration Curls etc etc. If you're not targeting the Brachioradialis muscles effectively, you then have to do things like Wrist Curls / Reverse Wrist Curls, exercises which I think aren't good for the Wrist joint, but that's a seperate issue.
You then end up having to spend time doing 3-6 sets on the Brachios, just to work and isolate them.
You end up lengthening your workout, getting a more prolonged Glycogen to Glucose conversion, and will end up taking longer to recover, because of the more depleted Glycogen stores.
Multi-purpose exercises are better for you in the main, as you get a good hit on more than one muscle, reducing the time you need to spend working out, and potentially improving recovery.
That's why I do exercises say for Legs, that work both Legs together, not seperately I.E. Hamstring Curls, not Lunges. Saves time.
The only time I do stuff like Isolation is usually for things like Quads, Calvs, Hams and Triceps.
Even those can't be truly isolated I think, as Hams and Quads are Antagonistic muscles, and work the opposite way to each other, same with Bi's and Tri's, so which ever one you are working, the Antagoniser, must be worked to some small degree, depending on whether it assists in Contraction or Expansion, of the working muscle.
Some muscles also are very difficult to Isolate. The Traps have 3 sections, so it could be argued, it's easier to do something like Shrugs, as part of a Traps workout, rather than trying to Isolate the Upper, Middle and Lower Traps, which may be very difficult to do anyway.
I personally used to do Brachio work, and to be honest since I stopped, and just incorporated things like Bicep Curls, Reverse Curls etc etc into the mix, I have never lost any size in the Forearms. I know this as I've never suffered any strength or lifting decreases, on any Arm or upper body exercises.
I also made some small gains since stopping Brachio Isolation work.
Isolation work is not a bad thing, it's just not necessary, and for reasons I mentioned earlier, it's arguably best left as a now and then kind of thing.
by doing the quad raises which i've never heard of (just re read it leg extensions i think), your taking out the weak link which would probably be either your hams, glutes, low back or core...continually building up the quads will cause severe imbalances (muscular and postural)...this is where a lot of peole go wrong they keep trying to make their strong points stronger so their weak points get weaker in comparison, again causing imbalances and increasing injury risk from when yuo need to explosive movements such as you do in sports and real life..also your potential for the weight you can squat is much greater than what you could ever do for a leg ext...the squat record is something like 900 - 1000pds or something but your leg would snap cleanly in half if you tried to leg ext that wt
bosu balls are good for rehab purposes but sworthless for muscle / strength building...why?..because all the balancing requires a lot of stabilisation muscles to kick in which in turns shuts of the prime movers (in this case quads / hams) which is what your probably trying to train...search "pistols" and "single leg bridge on bench" and try them...glute ham raises are fantastic also but the hardest exercise you can do i think
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i kinda agree with you to brad i was always doing Isolation almsot whole life an di was doign great (but not as great as i thought i can do) and some ppl with good bodys and muslce say do it one way while othjers say do it another way to me idk tey but im tryign to et a workout for both kinds then decide but msot likly im going to do the workoing swans05 gave me