Training

Are isolations generally worth the investment?

smr_1Oct 30, 8:22 PM

Pretty much as the title says, currently I’m running pretty much a full compound upper lower split Consisting of pike pushups, pull ups, dips, rows and push ups, for lower it’s a squat variant, deadlift variant, abs and calves. I don’t feel I need isolation but I guess it’s a case of would isolation actually be beneficial. Predominantly lat raises, face pulls, biceps and triceps. Split over the upper and lower days to balance them. Are they worth the small time investment and additional wear and tear on the joints?

7 replies

fuckthatikeepsitreal·Oct 30, 10:44 PM
I think the arm pump is worth it
propheciah·Oct 30, 11:35 PM
Bicep and tricep isolations become crucial if you want a balanced physique and you’re actually getting decent hypertrophy in your torso from doing compounds. If that doesn’t matter so much to you or you don’t feel you’re in that position then keep doing what you’re doing. It won’t affect your overall fitness much
complex_beginning_68·Oct 31, 10:59 PM
They don't add "wear and tear", if training them properly they will help prevent injury.
malk25_3·Nov 1, 10:00 PM
Mostly dependent on what your goals and are and how much time you have available. Full body workouts based only on foundational compounds are all you need to stay generally strong and fit. They make sense if you don’t have much time to workout, so isolation movements aren’t a priority since less bang for your buck so to speak. But at a certain point, if you’re doing a lot of harder progressions it might be tough to fit everything in that single workout. Once you split that up, you might find certain muscle groups you want to challenge like arms that aren’t adequately hit by your compounds, and doing other compound variations like chin ups for biceps or close grip push ups might be impractical because of built up fatigue in your back and chest respectively. That’s where isolations make sense. Isolations also have the effect of building up joint resilience which is great for injury prevention, particularly in things like biceps and leg curls. Just to clarify, face pulls are technicall
bakihanma·Nov 2, 12:47 PM
Depends on how your body is building. In general, they are only useful if you have imbalances depending on the imbalance. For example: If your pull ups are stalling, building your biceps could help since they contribute to the lift. It just depends.
comfortable_bee2996·Nov 3, 12:44 PM
your torso muscles can easily steal the work from your arms in compound movements. lateral delt gets little to no work without isolation. so the answer is yes, you should isolate.
poo_pee_man·Nov 3, 5:00 PM
For me isolation is for muscle weakness, for example if you notice you use more of your chest during push ups, your triceps probably doesn’t have that much strength and muscle compared to your chest so that when doing isolation exercises for it will help.

Back to Board