Which type of exercise is better? Basic or Isolation?
That all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to build strength or size, or are you trying to refine the musculature that you already have?
Basic exercises, also referred to as compound movements, are the exercises that work several groups of muscle together with a single movement. The best example of a basic movement is the squat.
Each time you squat down and then press your body back up, you are working muscles in your quadriceps, hamstrings, buttocks, lower back, and other back muscles. Many muscles throughout the body are also actively involved in stabilization during this lift.
Isolation exercises are the movements that stress only one muscle group at a time. An example of an isolation exercise is biceps curls. With each repetition you do, the weight is moved almost completely by your biceps muscles.
Building the Right Foundation
If you are trying to build a base of strength or muscle size, basic exercises are key to your success, and for most people out there, basic exercises should compose a majority of their workouts.
This is because basic movements will give you the best gains for the amount of effort you put in. It’s true that working more muscles with a single workout is clearly more time efficient than working each muscle separately, but there’s more to it than that. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: compound, focus, isolation, Training Tips
Image credit: cronfeld
Getting calluses while you lift weights is normal, but a lot can be done to reduce the number of calluses that form on your hands.
If you’re getting calluses while lifting, you’re doing some things right. You’re training hard, using a heavy weight, and doing plenty of Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: back, callus, pulling, Training Tips
Image Credit: PrairieArt
Talking about the shoulder muscles can really get confusing.
Chances are, if you ask someone for a shoulder rub, they’ll grab the meat that sits close to the base of your neck. This part of your “shoulders” is referred to as the trapezius muscle, or your “traps”. Read the rest of this entry »
I just got off the phone with Skip La Cour, 6-time national bodybuilding champion. DRUG-FREE national champion, that is.
- Skip La Cour – drug-free champion
Skip is smart, funny, motivated, hard-working – things “bodybuilders” aren’t often credited for. But to compete in that arena without steroids pretty much assures that only the most elite – both physically and mentally – survive.
I was talking to Skip for advice, and I’ll tell you about that in another post. But for now I want to tell you how I was able to get an hour of his time… This is really important for those of you looking to add mass.
Having conquered the natural bodybuilding world, Skip has turned his attention to business. One of those businesses is MassMachineNutrition. [This is NOT an affiliate link or anything. I do not make any money at all from this link.]
I saw that he was offering a free hour of consultation for everyone who orders his Maximum Mass Pack – protein powder, creatine, glutamine, multivitamin.
I did a double-take. Was he really going to give me an hour of one-on-one advice just for buying stuff I would have bought anyway? The price he was charging was a good price for the supplements so this was a no brainer.
Now, I’ve followed Skip for the past couple years and I know I’ve mentioned him before in earlier articles.
I’ve never endorsed a supplement company before. But after talking to Skip about his ethics, I know he is delivering good stuff.
But even if you like where you get your protein and creatine now, or frankly even if you don’t use any supplements at all, you really should go to http://www.massmachinenutrition.com/mmp right now and get the free hour of advice. Skip totally OVERDELIVERS in that hour and no matter where you are in your muscle journey you will not regret it. (Really, if you don’t use protein powder, etc. buy it, get the advice, and give the protein powder to your buddy.)
Plus, you get a 13-hour audio seminar for free.
It’s really unbelievable. The way I look at it is I just paid Skip a little more than I’d pay a know-nothing personal trainer at 24Hour Fitness and I got a ton of supplements free and a 13-hr course for free.
Seriously, right now you need to go to http://www.massmachinenutrition.com/mmp and get his Maximum Mass Pack and the free hour of advice.
And again, I make absolutely no money from this. I’m referring you to Skip because I know it is worth it for you. You will not be disappointed. Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.Tags: skip la cour, supplements
Which type of exercise is better? Basic or Isolation?
That all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to build strength or size, or are you trying to refine the musculature that you already have?
Basic exercises, also referred to as compound movements, are the exercises that work several groups of muscle together with a single movement. The best example of a basic movement is the squat.
Each time you squat down and then press your body back up, you are working muscles in your quadriceps, hamstrings, buttocks, lower back, and other back muscles. Many muscles throughout the body are also actively involved in stabilization during this lift.
Isolation exercises are the movements that stress only one muscle group at a time. An example of an isolation exercise is cable chest flyes. With each repetition you do, the weight is moved almost completely by your chest muscles.
Building the Right Foundation
If you are trying to build a base of strength or muscle size, basic exercises are key to your success, and for most people out there, basic exercises should compose a majority of their workouts.
This is because basic movements will give you the best gains for the amount of effort you put in. It’s true that working more muscles with a single workout is clearly more time efficient than working each muscle separately, but there’s more to it than that. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: basic, chisel, dynamite, exercise, explosive, foundation, isolation, movement
All this time you thought those thousands of sit-ups were going to build you a six pack… only to have me tell you that you might have been wasting your time.
(And chances are, you have no business doing any abs work – unless your diet is great, you are Read the rest of this entry »
Anybody new to the gym knows how difficult it can be to make sense of all of the machines and equipment that fill the workout room. Instead of trying to analyze each of the different machines in the gym, get to know the free weights first. The free weights will give you the greatest returns for the effort you put in.
Barbells are probably the most basic instrument for lifting free weights. They can come in many sizes, but the most standard is called the Olympic barbell (the top bar in the picture above).
The Olympic barbell weighs either 45 pounds or 20 kilograms (44.5 lbs) depending on which part of the world you live in. It’s usually used for the heavier exercises such as squats, bench presses, deadlifts, shoulder presses, etc.
The smaller straight bar shown just below the Olympic bar is great for many upper body exercises where having the weight closer to your body is beneficial. For example, if you were doing standing bicep curls, you may find that having the weights closer to their center of gravity (and closer to you) makes them easier to control. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 101, barbell, collar, dumbbell, EZ Curl, Olympic bar, Weight lifting
For Newbies Only:
We will continue our series of Weight Lifting 101 posts here by introducing some new terms that you will have to become familiar with if you are going to succeed in changing the way you look. As you may have already guessed, working out with free weights is a little bit more complicated than doing steady cardio. It’s not as easy as just hopping on a treadmill for 30 minutes.
Since weight lifting is a form of anaerobic exercise, your muscles will not be able to maintain such a high level of intensity for long periods of time. Instead, you will break your exercises into a series of sets that comprise a certain number of repetitions. Let me explain what this means by defining the terms you’ll need to know. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 101, repetitions, rest, routine, sets, Weight lifting
