By Ian Graham and Bryan Kavanagh
Authors
of The Athlete Physique
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Isolation exercises rule, but
they are like the icing on the cake... You have to have all
the ingredients present, mix them together and bake the cake
before adding the topping. Too many trainees are trying to
ice the cake before it has been baked!
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No isolation here!
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The gym is littered with guys and
girls hammering out all sorts of isolation exercises... either to
tone, lose fat or even gain muscle before they have developed a
true level of strength.
You need a base of strength to achieve
anything in the gym, fat loss muscle gain or conditioning.
Strength is the well from which all
of your training capacity comes from.
The higher your max strength, the
harder and longer you can work because you are using a smaller percentage
of your max capacity to perform each exercise and the resultant
time to fatigue is prolonged.
You can do more work at much higher
intensities!
This rule holds for muscle gain and
fat loss.
The stronger you are on compound movements
the more you can lift when isolating the muscles too. However, if
you focus on isolating before you have earned the right to do so,
it can only hurt your progress and use up precious time you could
be dedicating to bigger, better, more bang for your buck exercises.
The RULES of ISOLATION
- Earn The Right To Isolate
- Bodyweight Before External Loading
- Push and Pull Before You Flex and
Extend
- Use Performance Parameters Before
Implementing Isolation Exercises
Are you breaking the isolation rules?
Isolating muscles while training versus
training heavy and with big compound movements has always been at
the centre of controversy. For example on 'bicep day' doing about
four different curl variations followed by some crunches. Here's
the first problem; dedicating an entire day to such a small and
comparatively weak muscle just doesn't make sense. Look at the following
two resistance training sessions:
Session 1: (Isolation Based)
Barbell Bicep Curls
Dumbbell Hammer Curls
Barbell Reverse Curl
Dumbbell Alternating Curls
Session 2: (Compound Movements)
Pull ups (pronated grip/ palms facing away)
Chin ups (supinated grip/palms facing you)
Parallel grip chins (palms facing each other)
Isolating a muscle is inherently wrong
as it doesn't happen in real life and doesn't make sense from a
physiological standpoint. Your body works in patterns of movement
it never isolates! Going against your natural coordination pattern
and lifting sub max weights is just silly! Unless you've earned
the right to do so that is.
Look at the session number 1 . . massive
'pump' right? 'oooh yea I'm hitting the biceps from every angle'.
Well not really, you are hitting the muscle sub maximally with lots
of repetitions and essentially you are training your biceps for
endurance! Now I know your going to say 'but bodybuilders use these
methods'!
You aren't a bodybuilder!
Less than 1% of the population are
of the genetic predisposition that they will make muscular gains
much easier than everyone else. That's life! If you wanted to be
a bodybuilder you should have chose your parents better because
they are the ones that gave you those genes.
Now look at the session number 2.
You might say 'there's no bicep exercises in there' look closer!
ANY pulling movement is essentially a curl with a pull attached
to it. I.e. Chins or any heavy pull are essentially working your
biceps they way they were intended to work! A functional movement!
Now what if I said that isolating
muscles was actually counterproductive... not only are you at risk
of not adding muscle but you are also breaking down muscle you added
in previous sessions? Have I got your attention now?
Any exercise initiates a stress response
from the endocrine system; cortisol. Low intensity and isolation
exercise, by its very nature never allows the body to reach the
intensity required to release growth promoting and fat releasing
testosterone and HGH and continually exposes the body to unopposed
cortisol which makes weight loss more difficult and breaks down
muscle. Cortisol, in its wisdom also increases blood sugar levels,
thus increasing insulin levels and decreasing fat loss.
What I'm getting at here is that most,
if not all exercise should contain a level of intensity and isolation
exercises such as crunches should 1) not be performed at all and
2) even if they are performed they should never be preformed on
their own! Ever heard of someone going to the gym to do their biceps
and their abs? Could they have picked a more low intensity workout?
Unopposed Cortisol City!
Now I am not saying that isolation
exercises should NEVER be performed! I am merely saying that if
somebody has only ever performed isolation exercises, they more
than likely are not strong! Have you been curling the same 25 pound
dumbbells for 3 months thinking that 'maybe next week you'll get
stronger/bigger. What is the definition of insanity?
'Repeating the same behaviour over
and over expecting different results' - Albert Einstein
Now in order to make a limb strong
enough to do heavy enough curls to tax the muscle appropriately
you need to train it the way it can be trained hardest! I don't
know about you but a 200 pound row or a weighted chin up would tax
the biceps a LOT more then a concentration curl!
'Earn the right to isolate'
Now that isn't to say that you can't
add a little volume to your training with isolation exercises but
2/3 sets at the end of a session will suffice. Do the important
stuff first! Challenge the biceps and grip heavily with chins, rows
and deadlifts (yes deadlifts strengthen your biceps too)
Set performance goals to earn the right to isolate
If you can currently only do 5 chin
ups and are eager to start doing arm curls… WAIT and only allow
yourself to introduce arm curls once you can do 10 full chin ups.
Apply this 'RULE' for numerous lifts/bodyparts.
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Bodyweight before external
load
Another great one I see is people
doing 5kg dumbbell presses. I am a strong believer that an
individual should be able to perform bodyweight exercises
before ever going near external load i.e. weights! It doesn't
make any sense! Bodyweight exercises are the best, most appropriate
exercises you can perform when starting out.
'I can't do a single push
up'
For those of you that can't
perform bodyweight exercises YET that doesn't mean you retreat
to the pink weights section! NO. Perform some assisted bodyweight
exercises such as band assisted push ups, chins, dips and
inverted rows, until you can perform the traditional versions
then move onto the advanced progressions for these exercises.
So your take home points are.
. .
1. Push and pull before you
flex and extend
2. Bodyweight exercises before external load
3. 'Earn the right to isolate'
4. Use Performance Parameters Before Implementing Isolation
Exercises
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CLICK HERE to learn more about Bryan's
book "The Athlete Physique".
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