Building muscle, strength, and gaining muscle mass is not child’s play and requires perseverance, consistency, and firm determination. However, it does not require just that but knowledge about what you are doing and how it changes your body. Weight training falls into two categories- Compound and Isolation. You might have heard the terms- compound and isolation exercises in the gym. These are fairly common terms, however, these exercises are very different from each other in ways like the muscle groups they target, the effect they have, and the pros and cons. But before getting to that let’s learn about what are Isolation exercises and compound exercises.
What Are Isolation Exercises?
Isolation exercises are exercises that target one specific muscle group at a time. For instance exercises like Bicep Curls work your Biceps, Leg extension work your legs, and Tricep pushdown works your Triceps.
What Are Compound Exercises?
Compound exercises are exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once. For example, exercises like Squats work your quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors and calves, Bench Press targets your pectorals, deltoids, triceps and trapezius, and Deadlift targets your hamstrings, glutes, back., hips, core and trapezius.
We think now you would be wondering whether Compound Exercises are better than Isolation Exercises or are they equally beneficial. Well, both have their pros and cons so let’s learn about those and then decide.
Are Compound Exercises More Effective Than Isolation?
As we said before, both compound and isolation exercises have pros and cons so let’s talk about those and determine which is more effective.
Pros of Isolation Exercises
- Isolation exercises focus on and isolate one muscle group which helps it grow.
- By putting all the load on one muscle group, there are no secondary muscles that get involved which puts all the focus on one muscle group.
- If you had a recent injury or want to focus on a particular muscle group then isolation exercises can be very helpful.
Pros of Compound Exercises
- Compound exercises work on multiple muscle groups and make more functional movements.
- When you focus on more muscle groups you will be able to put more pressure on the muscles which can lead to faster movements.
- Indulging in Compound exercises will also help you save a lot of time because just with 2-3 compound exercises you are indulging in a full-body workout.
Can You Build Muscle With Just Compound Exercises?
The simple answer to this question is yes, you can build muscle by just indulging in compound exercises. However, this also depends on your personal fitness goals and what you wish to achieve. Compound exercises help in building strength, power, and muscle gains as well. These exercises also boost testosterone and growth hormone production which helps in burning fat and building muscle.
Now that you know how you compound and isolation exercises we hope you would consider starting your fitness journey and workout. If you want to now join a gym and be more consistent and want a more enthusiastic environment to workout then do it with FITPASS– India’s largest network of gyms and fitness studios that offers you the freedom to workout wherever and whenever you want. You can choose from 1,50,000+ workout sessions and 5500+ gyms and fitness studios across the country.
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