Q: In your Positions-of-Flexion training, you used to emphasize compound exercises, what you called midrange. Now you focus on isolation exercises. Is that an age thing to minimize injuries?
A: It has more to do with understanding biomechanics now, thanks to Mr. America and Mr. Universe Doug Brignole and his book The Physics of Resistance Exercise…
Doug clearly lays out the requirements for the “ideal” exercise for each target muscle, and most of those are isolation exercises. Not all of them, however…
For example, the dumbbell decline press is multi-joint but still the perfect move for overall chest development from a biomechanics standpoint…
Researcher Chris Beardsley has an interesting take on isolation vs. compound moves:
Exercises that involve smaller amounts of working muscles (such as single-joint or single-limb exercises) lead to less central fatigue and therefore allow more peripheral fatigue to be achieved compared with multi-joint and two-limb exercises. This is an argument in favor of making extensive use of single-joint exercises for bodybuilding.
Central fatigue has to do with your overall nervous system. It’s very damaging and can derail muscle stimulation during the workout and post-workout recovery.
Peripheral fatigue within the working muscle’s motor units. That can help activate high-threshold motor units and can significantly enhance fast-twitch hypertrophy.
In the words of Tarzan: Central fatigue bad. Peripheral fatigue good.
You’ll see in my workouts in Old Man, Young Muscle that I still use a number of multi-joint exercises; however, it’s usually for only one set and as an add-on move after the ideal. That means the weight is less due to peripheral fatigue from the ideal exercise so there’s a lot less central fatigue happening due to lighter weight and only one set.
For example, I’ll use dumbbell squats as an add-on quad move AFTER sissy squats. The sissy squat is my ideal exercise and is isolation. You’ll see more examples in the workouts on pages 60 and 61 of OMYM.
Isolation good.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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