Compound or Isolation Exercise

Have you heard your trainer use the phrases “compound” or “isolation” exercise, and not sure what they mean? Here is a breakdown on each and what benefits each have:
Compound exercise is where you are using multiple groups of muscles. This is beneficial if you are wanting to do a full body workout in less time and burn more calories for weight loss! These
also help build up strength in everyday living. There is less fatigue on individual muscle groups as they are all working together and not individually. An example of a compound exercise is squats!
They use multiple muscle groups: glutes, quads, hamstrings and thighs!

Isolation exercises are when we only use one individual muscle group. Isolation exercises are beneficial for when fixing up body alignment, imbalances or needing to activate a specific muscle group – essentially all rehab-based training. They are also more beneficial for specific muscle building, as you are able to focus your energy and attention into just working that one muscle,
rather than having to work on a group of muscles at once. An example of an isolation exercise is Bicep curls! When doing a bicep curl we are isolating the bicep muscles to perform the movement.
Both compound and isolation exercises have their place in a well rounded workout regimen and it is important that we are doing both.

If you are interested in getting a complete, efficient and functional workout, doing predominantly compound exercises during your training is ideal. However, if you have imbalances with muscle groups, focusing more on isolation exercises can help to fix up these imbalances, as well as reactivate the muscles that is not working efficiently. This is vital to avoid injury from overuse of the predominant working muscle.

At New Start PT, we focus on doing a mix of both types of exercise, though the majority of the sessions run in our gym in Bowen Hills will have a focus on compound based movements, as they are overall a more effective use of time, due to the reasons listed above!