A common method of classifying weight training exercises is in terms of the way the exercise trains your body and how many muscle groups are being employed significantly when it is performed.
They can be classified as,
- Compound Exercises
- Isolation Exercises
Compound Exercises
A compound exercise is any exercise that involves the use of more of major muscle groups at a time. Usually, there is larger muscle group that ends up doing the large majority of the work, & then smaller muscle groups that are recruited secondarily.
Some important compound exercises are
- Deadlifts (many variations)
Primary Muscle Group: Posterior Chain (Hamstrings, Glutes, Back, etc.)
Secondary Muscle Groups: Much Of Lower Body, Much Of Upper Body - Squats (many variations)
Primary Muscle Group: Quads
Secondary Muscle Groups: Most Of Lower Body (Glutes/Hamstrings), Lower Back - Flat, Incline or Decline Bench Press (barbell, dumbbell or machine)
Primary Muscle Group: Chest
Secondary Muscle Groups: Shoulders, Triceps - Overhead Shoulder Press (barbell, dumbbell or machine)
Primary Muscle Group: Shoulders
Secondary Muscle Group: Triceps - Rows (barbell, dumbbell, or machine)
Primary Muscle Group: Back
Secondary Muscle Group: Biceps - Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups, Lat Pull-Downs (any type of grip)
Primary Muscle Group: Back
Secondary Muscle Group: Biceps - Dips (on parallel bars with slight forward lean)
Primary Muscle Group: Chest
Secondary Muscle Groups: Triceps, Shoulders
And, as you can see from the list above:
- All chest pushing/pressing exercises also use the shoulders and triceps.
- All shoulder pushing/pressing exercises also use the triceps.
- All back pulling/rowing exercises also use the biceps.
- Deadlifts and squats (and split squats, lunges, step ups, leg presses) also use a variety of lower body muscles and, in some cases, the lower and/or upper back.
Compound Exercises Can Affect Your Planned Frequency, Recovery & Volume
Now, you must be wondering why one should care about what secondary muscle groups get trained during compound exercises. Here’s why.You’re using a workout schedule that will allow you to train each muscle group with an optimal frequency, right?
Well, based on the information , can you see how easy is would be to unknowingly train certain muscle groups more often than you’re aiming to as a result of their secondary use during exercises that primarily target other muscles?
Moreover, there is also the important issue of recovery. For example, you might train chest one day and triceps the next. In reality, you’ve trained triceps 2 days in a row (because of their secondary usage during chest exercises).
A similar issue can easily arise with pretty much every muscle group there is if you don’t plan carefully enough. This is another reason why I consider these the best workout schedules. Each one pairs muscle groups up in a way that avoids any potential problems with frequency/recovery as a result of secondary usage during compound exercises.
The same potential problem can exist for your planned volume per muscle group too. This goes back to what I’ve mentioned before about smaller muscle groups (like biceps and triceps) needing less direct volume due to how much indirect volume they get during compound exercises.
This is all stuff that needs to be taken into account when creating your workout routine. Luckily, if you’ve been following along from the beginning, it’s all stuff that has already been taken into account.
Isolation Exercises
An isolation exercise is any exercise in which only one major muscle group is trained by itself. Typically, the movement is done in such a way where usage of all other muscle groups is avoided, which leaves one muscle group isolated and able to do all of the work.Here’s a list of the most common isolation exercises along with the muscle it isolates/trains:
- Flat, Incline or Decline Flyes (dumbbell, cable or machine)
Muscle Group Trained: Chest - Lateral Raises or Front Raises (dumbbell, cable or machine)
Muscle Group Trained: Shoulders - Biceps Curls (barbell, dumbbell, cable or machine)
Muscle Group Trained: Biceps - Triceps Extensions (barbell, dumbbell, cable or machine)
Muscle Group Trained: Triceps - Leg Extensions
Muscle Group Trained: Quads - Leg Curls
Muscle Group Trained: Hamstrings - Calf Raises
Muscle Group Trained: Calves
Compound Exercises vs Isolation Exercises
Now that you have a damn good understanding of both types of exercises, it’s time to compare them and figure out which is best for you. Here we go…Round 1: Generally
Compound exercises allow you to engage more muscle groups, which in turn allows you to lift more weight, which in turn allows for faster and more consistent progression, which in turns causes a lot of good stuff to happen that all leads to the results you want to get.Isolation exercises isolate muscle groups so they are trained by themselves. This means you’ll typically be using MUCH lower amounts of weight, which in turn means there won’t be anywhere near as much consistent progression, which in turn means the potential for results won’t be nearly as high as with compound exercises.
Let me explain that another way. Which do you think has more potential to improve the way your body looks or performs… adding 100lbs to your bench press, or adding 10lbs to your dumbbell flyes??
Obvious, isn’t it?
In general, compound exercises allow you to create MUCH more of the right type of training stimulus than isolation exercises can. And for this reason (and many other less important ones), compound exercises beat isolation exercises by a fairly large margin for most people, most of the time.
Round 2: Specifically
But wait, this battle isn’t over just yet.You see, there are plenty of specific situations when isolation exercises can definitely be of use and serve an important purpose in your workout routine.
For example, let’s say you’ve already done some bench pressing but still need to get some additional chest volume in. However, at the same time, you don’t want (or need) any additional volume for your shoulders and triceps.
Since every compound chest exercise uses the shoulders and triceps secondarily, your best option in this scenario is to do a chest isolation exercise like dumbbell flyes (rather than another type of press).
In this case the isolation exercise allows you do a second exercise for a muscle group to reach the optimal amount of volume, and it does it in a way that isolates that muscle so that no other secondary muscles are being trained with unwanted volume.
Another similar example is in the case of people who are training primarily for building muscle and have a hard time actually using their chest when bench pressing. This is somewhat common, and it means your triceps and shoulders are taking over and doing most of the work.
Aside from trying to correct this issue as much as they can, how else is this person supposed to properly train their chest? That’s right… with an isolation exercise like flyes.
And here’s yet another example. Let’s say you are doing chest and shoulders in the same workout. You’ve already done some flat bench pressing and some incline bench pressing, and your triceps (which are used secondarily in both) are pretty much dead at this point.
Does it make sense to do some kind of overhead press for shoulders and therefore use your already very fatigued triceps? In this case, a shoulder isolation exercise like lateral raises might be a better choice for some people.
And let’s not forget that isolation exercises are really the only way we can directly train smaller muscle groups like the biceps, triceps and calves without adding additional unnecessary volume to the larger muscle groups.
So really, while compound exercises are the winner of this battle in terms of what tends to be best in general, isolation exercises definitely have a time and place in the workout routines of many people.
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