In this article, I would like to add my 2 cents worth to the “Isolation Exercises” debate.
Basically, isolation exercises (sometimes called isolation method or isolation methods) is any exercise or movement that works a specific muscle in a specific action that as the name implies: isolates all other muscles during the exercise. The theory behind it is that as part of your strength training exercises, you can target specific muscles and areas and train that area to achieve the desired results.
To me, Isolation exercises or isolation training certainly have their place such as training when injured as to not strain or aggravate the injured muscle or limb, to strengthen a particular area such as the back or even targeted muscle growth to help a particular aspect of a sporting movement. All those reasons are fine by me and I encourage their use when under those situations.
In my eyes, I feel the use of isolation exercises is sometimes used more for a cosmetic or purely visual aspect and well utilized in the world of body building where you want every single muscle to be defined and clearly worked. This is itself is fine and quite a necessary part of the body shaping or body building sport and I have no problem with it.
However, my whole approach, principles and ideals to fitness and health is to utilize overall, total body workouts which naturally improve your fitness and then as a result of course, your physical body, using programs and methods designed to be doable by all walks of life including those busy lives with families, kids, long work hours etc.
So although I agree with some of the reasons isolation exercises are used, I feel that some of them are really not all that helpful and some are downright dangerous! The body is designed to be worked, trained and sculpted all over and there is nothing more ridiculous looking than un-proportioned parts of the human body because they have been trained excessively while other parts have been neglected or ignored. I am sure you have seen the gym try hard that has a massive upper body yet has the legs of a chicken!
You will find that most good strength training exercises can be generally adapted to mirror or reflect actions we may undertake in the course of real life so for me, if the action seems to have no end purpose and also doesn’t feel right then it is a good idea to cease this exercise immediately. Some isolation exercises are downright painful and again should be ceased immediately if causing pain.
When working out your aim should definitely be to feel worked, muscle stressed and fatigued however there should never be sharp pain or feelings of painful awkwardness. Two exercises I am particularly not fond of are overhand wrist curls and also weighted shrugs. In my eyes, they serve no real purpose, hurt when you do them and generally just don’t feel right!
So there you have it! Just my humble opinion on which I am sure some people would disagree and that is fine. My last word of advice on isolation exercises is just to be sure on what reasons you have for doing the exercise, what are you trying to achieve as a result and above all, how does it feel while doing it? Look at isolation exercises in that manner and you will easily determine if it is the right thing for you!
All the best, Cameron Abel
