The difference between compound exercises and isolation exercises when lifting weights
In this blog we differentiate between compound exercises and isolation exercises. For those of you who have little time to spend at the gym, these exercises are essential to getting the most out of your workout.
What is the difference ?
A compound exercise is also known as a multi-joint exercise. This is an exercise in which more than one joint is required to perform the movement. An example of a compound exercise is the squat. To perform the squat pattern, three joints must move: the ankle, knee, and hip. The bench press and the back bench press are examples of compound exercises for the upper body. Both of these movements require shoulder and elbow function. The reason compound lifts are more cost effective is that they also work multiple muscle groups. The bench press uses the pectoral muscles, deltoids and triceps. This requires expending more energy than if you only used one of these muscle groups in a single-joint exercise. Exercises that isolate a single muscle group are called isolation exercises. Examples of an isolation movement would be a biceps curl, triceps extension, leg extension, or leg curl. The difference between a compound exercise and an isolation exercise is the number of joints that are moving.
What type of exercise should you do?
Compound exercises are more difficult but take less time than isolation exercises. If you don't have a lot of time to spend at the gym, a full-body workout with compound movements will help you get the most out of your workout. I've written blogs about how to structure this type of workout. If you want to sculpt your body in a particular way, and if you are focused on correcting muscular imbalances or rehabilitating injuries, each of these may require the use of specific isolation movements to develop particular muscle groups . So the question is what your goals are. Once you have defined your goals, you can design your training program.
Structuring a workout
The most effective way to structure a workout using both methods is to perform a compound movement first in your workout, followed by isolation movements to complement the muscles used in the compound movement. A quick example using the bench press would be to start with the bench press, followed by isolation movements to isolate the chest and triceps. You want to save as much energy as possible for your compound exercises, which is why you should perform this movement first. Fatiguing the triceps before a heavy bench press workout will not yield the best bench press results. This is why it is best to perform isolation exercises at the end of your workout.