Practice Isolation
January 4th 2007 10:59
If you have a genuine interest in building up your body either for strength, athletic performance, or aesthetics you are well served to become acquainted with some important principals that bodybuilders have been practicing over the decades. The principal that I feel is central to the kind of work that will yield benefits in any muscle groups of the body is isolation.
The human approach to performing work is to involve a carefully concerted group of muscles groups to perform a task. It is really relatively rare that any normal task involve just one muscle group. This is a brilliant economy of effort on the part of your body to keep from needlessly overtaxing one part while others sit idly by. However, such a pattern means that it is not likely that any body part will become abnormally large or well developed. This is not the approach one wants, if he/she wishes to build up the body.
A bodybuilder by definition wishes to do exactly what is very unnatural for the body. He wishes to force all his body parts to become hypertrophic-the fancy term for really developed and big. The method he uses relies heavily on the principal of isolation. He manipulates the movements he does to isolate his body parts one at a time as much as he can and forces them to do extraordinary work and thus hopes to create the extraordinary muscles he envisions.
A look at any bodybuilder assures us that isolation is thus a key element is building strength and size in a muscle, as well as conditioning it to perform at an abnormally efficient rate. Anyone wishing to gain fitness, not just bodybuilders, will be on the right track if they set up weight workouts which isolate their muscle groups and work them accordingly. This is not to say that exercises that involve several muscle groups at the same time do not have a place in conditioning. In fact, both kinds of exercises should be part of every comprehensive fitness plan.
Isolation should be in your mind whenever you work with weights. Every gym veteran knows that strict form needs to be adhered to when doing a movement. Swinging, using momentum, and calling on other muscle groups for help are usually frowned upon by personal trainers and other experts. This is because such "cheating" diminishes isolation and makes conditioning for the specific intended group much less likely.
Certain gym machines have their origin in the desire to more fully isolate a muscle group. An example is the seated curling bench,which I insist upon referring to by the now archaic term"preacher bench" after its affinity for the lectern from which a preacher might preach. The preacher bench is designed to keep the arms pinned to the bench and thus keep shoulders and hips from helping the biceps move a weight to the shoulders. It is worthwhile to learn how to use all such equipment in a gym and understand how they may serve to enhance isolation.
There are many movements, however, in which you must concentrate to achieve proper isolation, since "cheating" is
quite easy and can even be imperceptible. I think of shoulder presses. It is quite easy in doing shoulder presses to position the hands too close together. When the overhead press is done with hands in this position the triceps enter the movement and take the burden somewhat off the shoulders. A wider grip has to be assumed, therefore, and maintained.
Techniques like proper hand positioning for various movements to get the correct isolation involve some very subtle nuances. Yet attention to little changes in exercise performance can add immensely to success in muscle building. There is nothing more pathetic for a gym gray-beard like me than to see someone doing a movement which is completely ineffective, because the movement intends isolation and cheating etc.have eliminated it. Your servant, as always.
The human approach to performing work is to involve a carefully concerted group of muscles groups to perform a task. It is really relatively rare that any normal task involve just one muscle group. This is a brilliant economy of effort on the part of your body to keep from needlessly overtaxing one part while others sit idly by. However, such a pattern means that it is not likely that any body part will become abnormally large or well developed. This is not the approach one wants, if he/she wishes to build up the body.
A bodybuilder by definition wishes to do exactly what is very unnatural for the body. He wishes to force all his body parts to become hypertrophic-the fancy term for really developed and big. The method he uses relies heavily on the principal of isolation. He manipulates the movements he does to isolate his body parts one at a time as much as he can and forces them to do extraordinary work and thus hopes to create the extraordinary muscles he envisions.
A look at any bodybuilder assures us that isolation is thus a key element is building strength and size in a muscle, as well as conditioning it to perform at an abnormally efficient rate. Anyone wishing to gain fitness, not just bodybuilders, will be on the right track if they set up weight workouts which isolate their muscle groups and work them accordingly. This is not to say that exercises that involve several muscle groups at the same time do not have a place in conditioning. In fact, both kinds of exercises should be part of every comprehensive fitness plan.
Isolation should be in your mind whenever you work with weights. Every gym veteran knows that strict form needs to be adhered to when doing a movement. Swinging, using momentum, and calling on other muscle groups for help are usually frowned upon by personal trainers and other experts. This is because such "cheating" diminishes isolation and makes conditioning for the specific intended group much less likely.
Certain gym machines have their origin in the desire to more fully isolate a muscle group. An example is the seated curling bench,which I insist upon referring to by the now archaic term"preacher bench" after its affinity for the lectern from which a preacher might preach. The preacher bench is designed to keep the arms pinned to the bench and thus keep shoulders and hips from helping the biceps move a weight to the shoulders. It is worthwhile to learn how to use all such equipment in a gym and understand how they may serve to enhance isolation.
There are many movements, however, in which you must concentrate to achieve proper isolation, since "cheating" is
quite easy and can even be imperceptible. I think of shoulder presses. It is quite easy in doing shoulder presses to position the hands too close together. When the overhead press is done with hands in this position the triceps enter the movement and take the burden somewhat off the shoulders. A wider grip has to be assumed, therefore, and maintained.
Techniques like proper hand positioning for various movements to get the correct isolation involve some very subtle nuances. Yet attention to little changes in exercise performance can add immensely to success in muscle building. There is nothing more pathetic for a gym gray-beard like me than to see someone doing a movement which is completely ineffective, because the movement intends isolation and cheating etc.have eliminated it. Your servant, as always.
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