Healthy 'N Fit's first article!!

[healthy n_fit]

Compound VS. Isolation movements

Hello fellow lifters. How many of you reading this now have wondered about compound and isolation exercises? Have you ever wondered which one is better? If you have said “YES” to any of those questions, then read on! There’s a lot to learn in this article!

Compound Exercises

Ah yes! These are indeed considered the “beef” of one’s program. First, let me go into a little detail about this type of exercise. Compound exercises involve two or more joints. They also involve a large amount of your muscle mass. The Squat, for example, can involve as much as 80% of your muscle mass!
Compound movements also help the output of Testosterone, Growth Hormone, and other Anabolic hormones. These are definitely the hormones you want to be at optimal levels. They are the primary mass builders. Compound movements use a significant number of stabilizing muscles, which is a necessity for the overall look of a bodybuilder, or the strength of a powerlifter. Also, Compound movements, if done heavy enough, can raise your bone density and mass significantly! One other excellent benefit of doing compound movements is that they help to boost your performance in sports.

Now that you know why compound exercises are great, here’s a list of exercises to do!

-Bench Press(Incline, Decline, Flat, dumbells, etc.)
-Squat(Back Squat, Front Squat,etc.)
-Deadlift( Bent knee, Stiff leg deadlift, Sumo stance, Conventional stance,etc.)
-Military Press
-Pull ups
-Dips
-Barbell rows
-Power cleans(And all other Olympic lifts of course.)
-Close grip Bench Press(Primarily for the triceps)
-Lunges
-And much, much more!

Isolation Exercises

Definition, shaping, and toning. These are the words that can describe Isolation movements. Though not as efficient as Compound movements, they do have their place in one’s exercise program. Isolation exercises only use one joint. They also use little muscle mass, and they do little for anabolic hormone output. Now before you accept isolation movements as garbage, here’s a few benefits to them. You can directly work aweak muscle group to bring it up to par, you can use isolation movements to finish up a workout to totally exhaust the targeted muscle group, and you can help with the definition of your muscles, though cardio and diet are the major factors in definition. In fact, a great benefit of isolation movements is that compound movements do not always work a muscle group to its fullest. Here’s a list of isolation movements, which actually, some of these movements are excellent, such as triceps extensions.

-Triceps
extension(Standing, lying, dumbells, etc.)
-Barbell curls(And dumbells too.)
-Cable crossovers
-Dumbell Flys
-Calf raises
-Hammer curls, preacher curls, etc.
-Front, lateral, and rear raises
-Hyper extensions
-Leg extensions
-Leg curls
-pushdowns
-sit ups
-And much more!

Conclusion

Both Compound and Isolation exercises have their purposes. They both can help you on your journey, either for a herculean body, or Samson like Strength. I sure hope many of you who read this
has learned a little bit more. Even if you learned only one more thing from my article, I 'm glad. Have a good day!