Key Points
- Compound exercises utilise multiple muscle groups and will give you the most bang for your buck when you are training. For maximum muscle (and fat loss if necessary) they should be the core of your programme.
- Compound exercises help you to build a balanced physique as you are working muscles in unison.
- Isolation exercises on the other hand typically work a specific muscle or group of muscles.
- This is great to bring up weaker areas such as arms and chest for the guys and legs and bum for the girls.
- You may be wondering in this case, why not just do isolation exercises for everything? Because to hit the same amount of muscle as you would during a compound exercise it would take you 2-3 times as long. If you only have a limited time to train then compound exercises would be much more beneficial.
