Muscle isolation vs. full body

krissy3773

Which is better? Target specific muscles on certain days or do full body workouts so you're working everything together??

KMAltig

I have found success doing full body strength exercises. such as Squats, Bench Press, Dead lift,, military press, rows.... I am sure there are more you can do and others will have different opinions.

BellaFe

Interested to see the responses

neverstray

"Better" is relative. It depends. Compound lifts are really good and work on large groups of muscles, including core. Isolation exercises are good to add on top of the compound lifts. You don't have to, but you can if you want. If its one or the other, do compound lifts.

BeezNeez88

Depending on your goals would determine what you should do. One way to look at it could be this way: a marathon runner can run for a long time but probably not lift as much (High stamina, low strength), a body builder is strong and but probably could not run a marathon quite as quick or at all (High strength, low stamina), full body work outs will probably get you in the middle. Not as stamina ridden as a marathon runner but stronger, not as strong as a body builder, but can probably run longer.

crobl

FULL BODY!!!!!!!

Think of this logically - take a hamstring curl (works only your hamstrings) where you are laying prone and only flexing your knee - when do you actually do this in real life activities? Umm... never

But then, take a squat - (works hamstrings, quads, glutes, adductors, abs, etc...) when do you do that in real life? How about every time you bend over to pick something up??

waldo56

Isolation work is not ideal for beginners-intermediates and it definitely is not ideal if you're looking to lose weight.

waldo56

FULL BODY!!!!!!!

Think of this logically - take a hamstring curl (works only your hamstrings) where you are laying prone and only flexing your knee - when do you actually do this in real life activities? Umm... never

But then, take a squat - (works hamstrings, quads, glutes, adductors, abs, etc...) when do you do that in real life? How about every time you bend over to pick something up??

If you include the hip hinge (a la a glute-ham raise or natural hamstring curl, where the lower leg is prone and you curl your whole body) it very much mimics the horizonal force when running. GHR's are a fantastic way to increase your sprinting acceleration.

FullOfWin

Post by VoxExMachina on bodybuilding.com forums

Full Body Routines vs. Splits

The question often arises, especially from beginners, about what type of routine to use. Your buddy told you to use a full body routine, but the muscle mags suggest a 5-day "bodybuilder" split. You don't want to start off on the wrong foot, but there is so much information out there that sorting through what to do can be difficult.

This is some of my opinion on the subject, and maybe it'll help a few people out.


Full Body Routines:

In my opinion, this is the place for a beginner to start. I have many years of lifting experience, and have pretty much always used some form of bodybuilding split routine. However, if I had it to do over again, I would have begun with a good full-body routine, built around the compound lifts, done 3 times per week. When you are a beginner you don't generally have the muscular strength to work intensely enough, or with enough volume, to require as much recovery time as someone who is stronger or more experienced. If you are a young beginner, on top of that, you have very good recovery abilities due to high hormone levels. So, because you are recovered relatively quickly after each workout, you want to stimulate each muscle group more often to induce strength and growth.

Another reason to start with a full body program is that this gives you the opportunity to learn and practice the basic lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, barbell rows, etc. Whether your goal is bodybuilding, strength athlete, sports, or just remaining fit, these really ought to form the basis of any routine. No matter what path you choose to "branch out" on later, these core lifts will serve you well.


2-Day Split Routines:

So the next question becomes: when should I think about split routines? In very simple terms, the answer is: when full body routines become too much. Usually, as you get stronger, it becomes very difficult to maintain enough energy to do squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc. all on the same day. You may also find that you want to add in a few isolation exercises to bring up your weak areas, or you may want to begin focusing more on each core lift. Another issue is recovery; as you get stronger, you are able to work out more intensely, and that means longer recovery times. So at that point, it makes sense to "split" things up by only doing a part of your previous full routine on any given day.

A logical place to make your first split is into an Upper / Lower type routine. This will have you doing your upper body work like bench press, rows, overhead pressing on 1 day, and your lower body work like squats on another day. Another way to go would be a "push/pull" type split where you do all your pulling exercises (rows, deads) on one day and your pushing exercises (squats, overhead press, bench) on another day. Exactly how you do it is up to you, but the point is to divide the workload per session. This will give you more time (and volume) per body part, and also give you a bit more recovery before you work that muscle again. Most people will typically cycle through a 2-day split like these twice per week. So instead of every muscle being stimulated 3 times per week with the full body, now it's twice per week with the 2-day split.


3+ Day Splits:

3, 4, 5 (or more!) day splits come in when you again feel the need to divide your workload to match your recovery abilities, or increase the amount of work you want to do on specific muscles or lifts. Generally, these type of splits are mostly bodybuilding related, but even strength athletes may chose to split so they can work on speed lifts one day, strength work another, etc.

At this point (speaking to bodybuilding) many lifters will only hit each muscle group once per week. This has the advantage of letting you really hammer a muscle group with a lot of weight and volume, and then give it plenty of time to recover while you're bringing the pain to the next group. Your full body effort is broken down into segments that are manageable from a workload, energy, and recovery standpoint.

If you are an "experienced" (older) lifter with decreased recovery abilities (we all ain't as young as we used to be), this type of split often is useful for staying healthy due to the increased recovery time per body part. The kids might not think it's important, but your tendons might.

There are so many variations of splits that I won't even attempt to detail all the possibilities. If you follow the advice in this post, by the time you need a multiple day split, you'll know your body, your goals, and have a pretty good idea of what you want to do.


Final Thoughts:

I believe it's a logical notion to start with a full body routine, and begin splitting only when you feel the need to increase your recovery or increase your volume. If you stick with the concept that you're trying to hit a muscle as often as you are able while still recovering adequately, and let that be your guide, you'll do okay.

Hopefully, this gives some food for thought to help you decide what type of routine you should use. Ultimately, however, it's worth saying that you can do fine with any well-designed program even if you begin with a split routine right from the beginning.

ArroganceInStep

Isolation work is not ideal for beginners-intermediates and it definitely is not ideal if you're looking to lose weight.

That depends on what you mean by isolation work. There's no problem with splitting up your workout across multiple sessions (I do a leg day, a press day, and a pull day). If that counts as isolation work it can definitely be done as an intermediate or even novice lifter.

If you're talking about doing 86 different bicep curls to get your muscle pump EXACTLY symmetrical when you've still got 20% BF to lose and can't squat 1/4 BW...then yeah there are better things to do with your time.

Think of this logically - take a hamstring curl (works only your hamstrings) where you are laying prone and only flexing your knee - when do you actually do this in real life activities? Umm... never

But then, take a squat - (works hamstrings, quads, glutes, adductors, abs, etc...) when do you do that in real life? How about every time you bend over to pick something up??

Is a squat superior to a hamstring curl when it comes to building strength? Of course. That doesn't mean the hamstring curl is useless. Doing high reps on it is what helped me boost my squat since my hams were ridiculously underdeveloped. Don't neglect the value of accessory work. When you're just starting out by all means stick with just compound exercises and get the technique down, but after a while you will have to start looking at your body to see what areas aren't progressing as quickly. You do need to build musculature to create a foundation to generate further strength gains. That's mostly food, but accessory work helps with this and with injury prevention.

And this last bit is just nitpicking, but bending over is more like a deadlift than a squat