Isolation exercises

Geschatte leestijd: 2 minutenIn fact, there are two types of fitness exercises: Compound exercises, also known as compound exercises, and isolation exercises. With the latter, one muscle group works at a time. Compound exercises are exercises where multiple muscle groups work together. Many beginners start with isolation exercises because they think muscles grow harder through isolation. Muscles grow harder when they work together. Therefore, it is advisable to start with compound exercises first.

Isolation Exercises

Isolation exercises are specific exercises for activating a particular muscle group, such as biceps curls, triceps extensions, dumbbell front raises. Often, you target only one muscle group when performing these exercises and often only one joint. As a rule, you always do these exercises after compound exercises to give extra emphasis and focus to a muscle group.

Benefits of Isolation Exercises

As mentioned, with isolation exercises, you can focus on specific muscle groups, allowing you to train them more precisely and promote growth. When performing compound exercises, weaker assisting muscles are called upon, and you may not be able to train the main muscle as heavily as desired. Therefore, isolation exercises are perfect for developing strength in a muscle group. Bodybuilders often use this form of exercise to achieve local hypertrophy, but beginners also often work with these exercises because of their simple nature and execution.

Order of Exercises

Many fitness schedules consist of both compound and isolation exercises. The order in which these exercises are performed is important if you want to achieve maximum results in muscle strength, size, coordination, and sports performance. Therefore, it is recommended to perform heavier compound exercises first before targeting the same muscle group with an isolation exercise. By doing this, you enable yourself to perform the compound exercises to the maximum and optimal extent without them becoming pre-fatigued before moving on to other exercises.

You pick up the isolation exercises later to isolate the training stimulus on the specific muscle group. Otherwise, the compound exercises could be limited by the isolation exercises. Compound exercises are inherently more difficult to perform well, so the muscle strength of all muscles is crucial.

When to Do Isolation Exercises

Because you want to achieve specific training goals with isolation exercises, we have outlined below when you can use them and for what purposes, and when it’s best to choose compound or compound exercises.