Alpha Progression
Isolation exercises
Isolation exercises are exercises that allow you to target a specific muscle or muscle groups while minimizing the involvement of the rest of the muscles in your body. Thus, you can target specific muscles.
Isolation exercises are so-called small exercises, because unlike basic exercises, no (large) muscle chains, (i.e. a large number of muscles), are used.
An example of an isolation exercise is the triceps press on the cable pulley. Here, your triceps are trained specifically, or isolated. In the basic exercise of the bench press, however, you train not only your triceps, but also your chest and shoulders, so this would be a basic compound exercise, not an isolation one.
Isolation exercises are suitable for both beginners and advanced athletes. However, beginners should perform fewer exercises in isolation and focus more on multi-joint exercises, otherwise known as compound exercises, to strengthen the body evenly and build basic musculature.
Furthermore, isolation exercises are good for compensating for weaknesses. For example, if your shoulder is a weak point, you can compensate for it with isolated deltoid exercises.
As a rule, isolation exercises burn fewer calories than compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once. This is another reason to include a balanced combination of isolation and compound exercises in your training plan.
With the Alpha Progression App you can create a training plan with isolation exercises of your choice or integrate isolation exercises into your existing training plan.
