One of the most common reasons why people may not start their fitness journey’s is not knowing where to start when it comes to exercises. They may go to a gym and might see a whole bunch of people on different machines or free weight areas doing different movements and not understanding what these movements are or even what muscles they work. They may understand that doing some sort of bicep curls will yield bigger/stronger biceps, but what about effective exercises that work more than just one small part of the body? Well, that’s where compound exercises come in.
When it comes to weighted exercises, compound exercises or movements are one of the most important exercises to help individuals at any level of their fitness journey. Those looking to lose weight, gain muscle, train for a marathon, compete in an Olympic sport, or even maintain their current shape can all benefit from compound exercises.
Benefits of Compound Exercises
Compound exercises are movements that require several muscle groups and joints to work at the same time. Examples of compound exercises include but are not limited to: bench press, overhead press, squat, deadlifts, lunges, leg press, pushups, pull ups, and many others. This is different from isolation exercises that only focus on one particular muscle and joint for the entirety of the movement. Examples of isolation exercise include but are not limited to: bicep curls, leg extensions, hamstring curls, lateral dumbbell raise, tricep pushdown, and others.
Since compound movements recruit more muscles throughout the movement, it will also add muscular strength and endurance much more efficiently to more muscle groups compared to isolation exercises. So, in a sense, it’s more bang for your buck.
Take the barbell squat for example. It is one of the greatest compound movements anyone can do because it requires almost the entire lower body’s muscles to work at the same time. Muscles used in a standard barbell squat include: quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves, adductors, lower back, and core. Some of the muscles mentioned experience greater force than the others, but they are all being used to preform the movement.
Time is another benefit to doing compound exercises. If individuals do not have a long time to get an effective resistance workout and wish to hit multiple muscles groups, doing compound exercises would make much more sense.
Benefit of isolation exercises
Just because compound exercises are important, it doesn’t mean that isolation exercises don’t have a place. Since isolation exercises focus on a much smaller group of muscles, it gives people the ability to put in extra work and attention in areas they feel are weak or small. This can be important when trying to improve heavy compound lifts as the movement itself is only as strong as the weakest muscle involved.
Isolation exercises are also often recommended to correct muscle imbalances or weakness that often occurs pre or post injury. By isolating specific injured muscles and slowly incorporating light weight and slow repetition movements, people can teach their body to fire its muscles properly without changing the movement path which will allow the body to recover faster.
Which is better?
Both compound and isolation exercises serve their place in a workout routine. If time is not a major factor for people, adding isolation exercises in a workout is a really great idea and allows them to maximize their training to its fullest potential.
An example of a workout that incorporates both is as follows:
Push day (Chest, Shoulders, and triceps):
- Bench press (Chest focused compound that uses all three muscles)
- Chest fly’s (isolation chest movement)
- Overhead press (Shoulder focused compound that uses all three muscles)
- Side lateral raise (isolation shoulder movement)
- Dips (Chest and tricep focused compound that also uses shoulders)
- Tricep pushdown (isolation tricep movement)
When it’s all said and done, it’s up to the individual on how they prefer to train. If a person wants to only do isolation exercises so that they can focus on each individual muscle, that is just as fine as individuals who prefer to only do compound exercises. The most important factor that is overlooked with resistance training is enjoyment. If people are doing something that they don’t really enjoy and are “forced” to do an exercise that they don’t particularly care for, the likelihood that they stop exercising altogether is increased. Enjoy the fitness journey.