isolation

[spanishflava17]

whats the difference between just having an isolated workout routine and a paired routine. Like monday biceps tuesday chest wed back...etc as opposed to mon back and biceps tuesday chest triceps. I heard that if i work out just isolating the muscl on that day its good for strenght on that body part.

[Taylor]

most people here tend to recommend do the once a weeks......all the personal trainers at my gym recommend doing the paired routine....

i did the isolation routine for a while and now I'm doing the paired routine....

the main difference to me is your working each body part TWICE a week instead of once with the paired routine....

i got it divided like
mon - back, legs, rear delts, biceps, forearms (heavy)
tuesday - chest, shoulders, triceps (light)
wed - rest
thurs - back, legs, rear delts, biceps, forearms (light)
fri - chest, shoulders, triceps (heavy)

i've been feeling it more ever since i switched over....I'm spending about two hours lifting a day instead of one, that's the main difference (i rest a good bit between sets on heavy days)




like i said i'm feeling the new routine more then the isolation workout, but i just switched it up last monday

give em both a shot, record your stats for each routine, divide them by a month or two and see which one works better for you



when i first did the iso, i had quick gains, but then those quick gains went kinda stagnant...I'm having quick gains with what i'm doing now but i believe it's because i started up with creatine again

[spanishflava17]

i see im a try it. Im give the isolation rotuine a month or 2 and see how it goes for me.

[shortz]

Originally posted by Taylor
most people here tend to recommend do the once a weeks......all the personal trainers at my gym recommend doing the paired routine....

i did the isolation routine for a while and now I'm doing the paired routine....

the main difference to me is your working each body part TWICE a week instead of once with the paired routine....

i got it divided like
mon - back, legs, rear delts, biceps, forearms (heavy)
tuesday - chest, shoulders, triceps (light)
wed - rest
thurs - back, legs, rear delts, biceps, forearms (light)
fri - chest, shoulders, triceps (heavy)

i've been feeling it more ever since i switched over...I'm spending about two hours lifting a day instead of one , that's the main difference (i rest a good bit between sets on heavy days)




like i said i'm feeling the new routine more then the isolation workout, but i just switched it up last monday

give em both a shot, record your stats for each routine, divide them by a month or two and see which one works better for you



when i first did the iso, i had quick gains, but then those quick gains went kinda stagnant...I'm having quick gains with what i'm doing now but i believe it's because i started up with creatine again

Looks like the start of some bad habits.

What are your goals flava?

[Taylor]

what is bad about it

[shortz]

Originally posted by Taylor
what is bad about it

First, you're using very high volume. Second, you're in the gym for an hour longer than most would recommend. After approx. 1 hour of hard work, your muscles begin to build up lactic acid. The body is also on the verge of expending it's glycogen stores and need replanished.

One of the old school PLing styles was to work on one compound exercise per day. You would go heavy and work up to triples or doubles. This would cause many workouts to go up to 2 hours, maybe even longer so that they could try and get in their auxillary muscle movements in too.

PLers are training smarter these days. Sure, many are still using light and heavy days in a routine like you have showed above, but volume is still low for the most part.

WSB uses ME and DE days. This is a light and heavy day. One day uses heavy weights and the other uses light weights but a fast tempo. Volume is generally low on both days though and workouts do not usually take longer than an hour.

You should not be takin long breaks when doing anything other than your 3 big movements either. 5 minutes should be the max when doing triples or heavier and 3 mins is the max when doing heavy iso and 1 minute is effective when going lighter on isos.

[Taylor]

i'm having gains for the time being doing what i am doing. I am stronger and as energetic as i've ever been, in the best shape i've been....so it's working for me, atleast for the time being

[spanishflava17]

my goals are basically to drop down a bit of bf, tone up a bit and and get some strenght gains. Thats why i was curious regarding the isolation excersises because ive heard that if u isolate the muscle instead of working out in a compound set then you see more strenght gains.

[shortz]

Originally posted by spanishflava17
my goals are basically to drop down a bit of bf, tone up a bit and and get some strenght gains. Thats why i was curious regarding the isolation excersises because ive heard that if u isolate the muscle instead of working out in a compound set then you see more strenght gains.

Absolutely not. You will get more strength gains and muscle mass from compounds than isos. You are using more weight and it involves much more muscle fiber doing compounds.

BTW, ditch "toned" from your vocab. It's simply a marketing word. Definition comes from diet and cardio and lifting weights will give you more muscle to actually see.

[Shibby]

Originally posted by shortz
Absolutely not. You will get more strength gains and muscle mass from compounds than isos. You are using more weight and it involves much more muscle fiber doing compounds.

I'm not sure where you get this from. Expending more energy through multiple muscles will not get the muscles stronger. Maybe you were refering to an over all strength and how much weight you can move in a certain directon.

[Taylor]

so much arguing.....


gonna confuse the hell outta spanishflava17

to sum it up for you as basic as i can
make sure your diet is right, make sure your protein intake level is at the right level...once i got my protein level right everything i did in the gym went up, eating right i feel is more important then anything

increase your cardio to help in losing the bf% and when you train, use low reps, high reps to increase your mass

i'd personally recommend you go with the compound workout after personally toying around with both, but just because compound works for me better it may not work for you as well as the isolation so you would have to discover that on your own

but i'd definetly recommend the compound, i feel it more when i'm done, i feel like everything has been worked more so then with the isolation

[shortz]

Originally posted by Shibby
I'm not sure where you get this from. Expending more energy through multiple muscles will not get the muscles stronger. Maybe you were refering to an over all strength and how much weight you can move in a certain directon.

Intersting. Can you explain this more? Are you saying that an isolation movement is responsible more for muscle mass and making a muscle stranger than a compound movement? If this were the case, would it be that we are wasting our time with compound movements and should go to a full iso routine?

[Shibby]

Well are you talking about compound movements(dips, pullups, ect.) or pairing up parts on days?

[Stonecold54]

Well first off strength and size are not correlated...your body will do everything it can do to NOT put on muscle since in is not a good state for the body to be in since more muscle makes the body increase its temperature which is not evolutionary positive. That said the debate of compound movements to isolation movements is one of mixing them properly...a workout of only compounds will leave weak links apparent in the program but a program of isolation movements will put a person in a state of overtraining rather quickly since number of sets will increase as well as frequency of training sessions. I don't recommend a volume higher than workouts at LEAST 3 days apart and no more than 45 minutes in the gym for that session. You should be able to get a good mix of compound and isolation movements to work 3-4 muscles groups effectivley (for me it would be something like-chest, shoulders, triceps and traps) the workout would be
Chest flye
Hammer bench
Laterals
Dips
Pushdowns
Shrugs

[spanishflava17]

I see. So basically working out in sets of two has a better overqall effect than working out isolated muscles. basically its like a trial and error wha may work for others may or may not work for me.