Program Design #5: Compound Before Isolation
This design principle relates fairly closed with #3: Heavy before Light. One of the main reasons I will choose compound movements earlier in the workout is because compound movements lend themselves well to using heavier weight. Heavier weight is best moved when you are fresh and can put forth good effort and concentration. Compound exercises require much focus on form to execute properly and can be tough to perform well, especially for beginner, to do when in a fatigued state.
Compound exercises offer you more bang for your buck, especially if you are short on time. Let’s say you have 20 minutes and were hoping to work your entire upper body. You could do chest fly, lateral raises, tricep pushdowns, dumbbell back fly, stiff arm lat pulldowns and bicep curls. You’d barely get to spend an appreciable amount of time on any of the exercises, you’d feel rushed and probably would not feel like you had a very good workout. However, you could do rows and presses for 10 minutes each and have time to move some decent weight. You’d incorporate all of the major muscles of the upper body with just two exercise as opposed to six!
I am not saying to avoid isolation exercises completely, please do not misunderstand. I simply want them to have their proper place in respect to compound exercises.
Isolations exercises can be very useful as a warm up for a specific joint; using light weight to simply pump some blood into a specific area. Also, isolation exercises are excellent to use as a way to “finish off” a muscle that is fatigued from the compound work. When you are fatigued, it is much easier to approach and complete a single joint isolation exercise then to imagine knocking out sets of a difficult compound exercise.
Below is a sample list of a muscle group and corresponding compound and isolation exercises for that muscle group.
Compound Exercise
Legs – Squats, Deadlifts, Leg Press
Chest – Bench Press, Dip
Back – Row, Pullup/Lat Pulldown
Shoulders – Shoulder Press
Arms – Close Grip Tricep Press, Chinup
Isolation Exercise
Legs – Leg Extension, Leg Curl, Calve Raise
Chest – Chest Fly
Back – Back Fly, Straight Arm Pulldown
Shoulders – Lateral Raise
Arms – Tricep Pushdown, Bicep Curl
To Recap: In general do compound exercises earlier in the workout and with heavier weight than isolation exercises. Do compound movements more often than isolation. Do isolation as tools for a warm up or to address a specific weakness. Do isolation when you are already fatigued and you are looking to polish off your workout. Typically you will also do isolation exercises for high reps.
You only have so much time in the gym and in life. Use it wisely!
