Training Myths That Won’t Die #11: “Isolation Extremism”

It seems that nearly every time you scroll the c omments of a training video on YouTube (your
first mistake), you’ll catch the “target muscle gurus.” Mostly teenagers that have only been
training for a few years, these folks offer free advice on how ANY and EVERY exercise can be
modified to “hit the target muscle more.”

Often, they make great points! But the answer to the question of “when to isolate” is NOT
“always,” and here are some reasons why:

First, let’s clear up WHY we want to isolate a muscle more. The obvious primary reason is that we
want to overload the target
target muscle well. But a potential consideration is that we might also be
isolating to keep other muscles out of a movement for several reasons, some of which include
keeping total fatigue down, and some even more specific, like trying to keep your lats out of
benching for chest today
today so you can be fresh for your big back session
session tomorrow.

Isolating definitely has benefits, and we’ll get to the much more detailed list of them in a bit, but
before we do, it is worth
worth mentioning that isolation likely
likely has downsides as well. The
The big downside
of isolation moves is that they are not compound moves. What’s so good about compound moves?
A couple of things:

a.) Compound moves are likely more disruptive.

To get as sore from leg extensions as you do from leg presses, you’d have to do some ungodly
higher proportion of extensions. Compound moves just create more damage and disruption than
isolation moves do, which also means they probably help you grow more. Now, damage isn’t the
only factor in growth, but it’s likely an important one.

b.) Compound moves

moves are safer at heavier loads.
loads.

What about tension? That’s

That’s important to growth
growth probably more than damage,
damage, right? Yep, and
compounds usually put more tension through the muscle. Because compounds don’t rely too
much on any one muscle, your body can shift around to prevent the forces on any one element of
connective tissue from being too high. You can squat for sets of 6, but doing curls for sets of 6
might not be very wise. Compound moves also offer more load at the stretch, which is yet another