Are Isolation Weight Lifting Exercises a Waste of Time for Maximum Muscle Building?

A popular bodybuilding notion asserts the superiority of compound weight lifting exercises as compared with isolation movements; proponents claim that the most efficient method of training involves choosing weight lifting exercises that involve the greatest number of muscle groups. Moreover, supporters of this form of weight training believe that because the amount of weight used in compound weight lifting exercise is greater than isolation movements, overall muscle growth should also be far superior, and therefore a workout session should focus upon compound exercises as its foundation. But many take this idea one step further, eliminating isolation exercises altogether from their workout routine, focusing completely on compound weight lifting alone, with the idea that this will provide the most dramatic muscle size gains.

As usual with bodybuilding folklore, the truth is somewhat different from the popular claims, as although compound weight lifting exercises are in fact extremely effective, 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 most dramatic muscle gains, and those who neglect isolation exercise can begin to develop a disproportional physique, with certain muscle groups, such as the arms, becoming far less impressive as the chest and back regions begin to burst with muscularity, all due to a lack of proper isolation workout efforts.

Arms are in fact one area where this is very common, with some saying that heavy compound back exercises are sufficient to promote complete biceps development, and consistent compound chest and shoulder movements will beef up the triceps with massive amounts of muscle, all without any isolation exercises to target these specific areas. Obviously, performing heavy compound weight lifting movements will no doubt allow the smaller muscles such as the biceps to improve, but the emphasis of the workout set when performing a compound weight training exercise such as seated rows is the back, with the biceps, in this example, used as a supporting muscle group in completing this exercise. The goal is to fatigue the back muscles during seated rows to the point of failure, and by this very definition, the arms will not receive sufficient overload, since the back muscles are to achieve maximum emphasis, therefore, the biceps are only trained to a certain percentage of their potential capacity. This same concept applies to triceps during bench press, where the goal is to fatigue the pecs, and the triceps are not to fail prior to the chest in order for the exercise to function as intended, therefore, the triceps only receive partial overload.

Because of this, isolation exercises targeting smaller, assisting muscle groups become necessary if those areas are to reach their genetic potential, meaning that isolation weight lifting exercises shunned by some bodybuilders, such as preacher curls, barbell curls, side laterals, and triceps pushdowns become critical in providing sufficient overload to reach failure for smaller muscle groups, as a bodybuilder, with these additional exercises, is then able to push those isolated muscles to complete failure, and therefore produce the greatest possible muscle growth.

There is no doubt that an effective weight training workout plan cannot be based upon isolation exercises, and some on the other extreme become obsessed with performing every possible weight lifting variation of a particular exercise, extending their workout length to a point of ineffectiveness. Therefore, the proper combination of compound and isolation exercise is necessary for those who wish to produce the most dramatic gains in muscle size, without neglecting any specific muscle group. The mistake many make is to either stuff their weight lifting workout routines with far too few isolation exercises, where they neglect providing sufficient overload to certain individual muscle groups, or they instead perform such a wide variety of isolation movements that their weight training workout sessions lack intensity, which destroys the potential for maximum muscle building.

Remember that the most effective bodybuilding technique involves a proper balance of both compound and isolation weight training exercises to avoid any of these potential pitfalls. If you currently find that smaller muscle groups such as the biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms and lower back are lagging in size when compared with your larger muscles (chest, back, quads, etc), then you should strongly consider adopting some isolation exercises for these specific muscle groups so that they can grow to their maximum genetic potential.