Why is compound better than isolation?

R

Rich667

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I don't understand why compound exercises are supposed to be better than isolation exercises. I understand that compounds work more muscles at the time, but surely if you are doing a full body workout it doesn't how many bodyparts you do at once as long as all body parts are done evenly.

I read this (I don't now if it is true but I am just quoting it to see what you guys think):

"Sure you can lift way more weight with a compound exercise. But why is that?

Because with a compound exercise you have 2-3 different muscle groups, sometimes more, all helping to lift weight.

Of course you are going to lift more, since with an isolation exercise you are only using 1 muscle group.

But here's where the reality of the situation comes in...

Sticking to the example of the bench press: 9 times out of 10 if you are performing the bench press it's because you are trying to build a bigger chest.

Well, realize that out of the total amount of weight that you may be lifting, the muscles that do most of the work are the

triceps, then the shoulders,......then, and only then, does the chest come into the picture.

You're chest is not doing even half of the work it takes to bench press, regardless of how well you perform that exercise and focus on the pecs."
Click to expand...

I found this on this site:

HTML: 
http://www.approvedarticles.com/Article/Isolation-Exercises-Will-Build-More-Muscle---Weight/920

I don't know if any of this is true, its just that a lot of the things I have been reading on the internet about working out say conflicting things.

I am a newbie to working out and I just want to get the truth. Its one of the things I hate most about the internet, one site will say one thing, and then another would say the complete opposite.

Help
 
Compounds are far greater than Iso's. IMO the main reason for this is that compounds lifts place the body under the greatest level of stress which sends your endocrine system into overdrive and you get a far greater hormonal release which is vital to muscle growth.

Not only that but as compounds make your stabalizing muscle work you'll prevent developing muscle imbalances. If the muscle you isolate grows stronger than surrounding muscle and creates an inbalance then you risk injuring yourself.
On the subject, there is also the idea that your body will only allow for a certain amount of imbalance between muscles, therefore, after you've gained a bit from your iso's, your body will prevent any further growth until other related muscles are brought up to size. I'm not sure if that's 100% fact but I've heard it said many times by reputable people and it seems to make sense

As for the bench using delts and tri's more than pecs; I think that is certainly true if you have poor form or are trying to lift too heavy. By perfecting technique you can use the pecs a lot more during the lift. Probably best to ask someone who's into their BBing like BigStew about that though although I think it's fair to say that the bench will never be the best pec exercise
 
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I've done so much R&D on this, I could write a book....well not really but,

Where your source says that you can lift more weight with compound exercises, that must have been written by a friggin moron.
Why? Because it's like comparing apples to oranges.

Because Isolation and Compound lifts are not the same, they can't be - because they are two different things. Because of this, you can't compare how much weight you can lift with either.

ie. You can't compare how much weight you can curl and how much you squat, and make that out to be isolation vs compound. That's just really stupid, because they are completely different lifts.
And it's like that always.


Now with compound, you are working out many different muscles, in many different ways, which is far far better for promoting growth. More testosterone is released into the system from working out so many different muscles.

You can't really do a full-body workout with isolation alone, because you body has so many different muscles, you will need to spend hours and hours with every single iso, trying to make sure every single muscle gets a workout...whereas with compound, just a few good exercises will get the job done.

As for bench pressing, well if they aren't building my chest, then I really don't know what is, because I do not do isolation.

Maybe pushups? Pushups are a compound exercise too :D

Isos work one thing, one joint, etc. Compound exercises build REAL WORLD strength. I mean, look at the workout of the 300, did they do any isos? No, they certainly did not.

And what CRC said about endocrine system is also very true & important.


I used to have a somewhat of an isolationist workout....when I started. I saw progress, sure. Then I switched to a compound FBW, and never looked back. Because it became quickly apparent which is better.


Isolation exercises have their place....at the end of a compound workout, to finish off, and work on any muscles which you wish to pay special attention to, maybe because of a muscle imbalance (however unlikely), or special strength reasons or more definition or whatnot...


And that's my opinion :cool:
 
I vote compound too :)

Bench pressing hits your pecs in a major way.

If you look at bench pressing with dumbells, and you have the dumbell's center of gravity directly above the elbow joint, your triceps don't need to do any work except perhaps a bit of balancing. As you push the weight up, you need to straighten your arm to keep the dumbell balanced above the elbow, so the triceps is doing the majority of the balancing and adjusting, but it's nowhere near the work need to actually lift the weight, which is done by the pecs pulling your upper arm towards the center.

Just because your elbow joint moves, that doesn't mean your triceps is working hard, it's just like lats and pull-ups may look similar but don't hit the same muscles.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I can bust myself doing bench presses, then proceed to training triceps afterwards, that wouldn't be possible if my triceps was doing most of the load.
 
The example he used with the bench press is true, however, that doesn't mean you should do isolation instead, simply choose compound movements that hits the chest more (If you want big pecs)

Now, with compounds you are putting large parts of the body under alot of stress (because of more weight lifted). Lets compare two quad builders, leg extension and front squats. Front squats hits the quads, but also the glutes, hams, you use the lower back, abs, traps, etc to stabilize. Heres a few thing front squats do that leg extensions won't do.
They put your entire body under stress, when this happenes your body sends out growth hormones to repair the damage. You also put alot more stress on your bones, this causes them go grow denser (they won't become bigger, but more dense) also, since so many muscle groups are involved, you train the CNS (central nervous system) because a great deal of coordination is required. I don't think there's any isolation that gives you these advantages (these arguments can be made for most compound movements)

Now, I'm not saying isolation exercises don't have their place. I use some at the end of my workout to hit some muscle groups I want to grow more, etc.

The guy bases his entire argument around the bench press and how it isen't great for building pecs. Which is a flawed argument if you bring it into compounds vs isolation, because the bench press isen't the best pec building compound out there. (not that I think flyes will build a bigger chest than bench..).
 
Rich667 said:
I don't understand why compound exercises are supposed to be better than isolation exercises. I understand that compounds work more muscles at the time, but surely if you are doing a full body workout it doesn't how many bodyparts you do at once as long as all body parts are done evenly.

I read this (I don't now if it is true but I am just quoting it to see what you guys think):



I found this on this site:

HTML: 
http://www.approvedarticles.com/Article/Isolation-Exercises-Will-Build-More-Muscle---Weight/920

I don't know if any of this is true, its just that a lot of the things I have been reading on the internet about working out say conflicting things.

I am a newbie to working out and I just want to get the truth. Its one of the things I hate most about the internet, one site will say one thing, and then another would say the complete opposite.

Help
Click to expand...

Compound is by far better than isolation. You work on more muscles in your body than you do with isolation. It's more effective, saves you time and makes alot of sense. Personally speaking, I believe a combination of bechpresses and dumbbell presses/fly is the best chest workout techniques!
 
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