Isolation?

[LCDforMe]

I'm confused. I hear it a lot on here that you're not supposed to use isolation excersizes, so what do you do for like your biceps and for calves? Are things like calf raises bad or is that not an isolation excersize?

Sorry for being a retard.

 

[Urban]

they're not bad really (adding ONE isolation exercise to your routine is not going to make you overtrain) but calf raises specifically have virtually NO athletic carryover. Want to build up your calves for athletic purposes? push a car, drag a sled, do sprints (or hill sprints) while carrying a sandbag, etc.

Same goes for curls. IMO the best bicep exercise is climbing a thick rope.

 

[Urban]

I'm not sure if this is what you're confused about or not, but for strength development you should be thinking in terms of movements not muscles. This means using more muscles in combination with eachother to mimic the way you use them in your chosen activity. it trains yoru central nervous system to recruit several muscles simultaneously to accomplish a given feat. Isolation exercises simply don't do that.

 

[Mikeultra]

Urban is right. Calves? Biceps? Sounds like you want to fallow a Bodybuilder split

 

[Mark Limbaga]

Isolation is not bad but keep it to a minimum and focus on the basic free weight exercises.

 

[LCDforMe]

What if you don't have a thick rope to climb, I can't climb one anyway I doubt, but I don't have access to a rope anyway.

Urban, your second post is basically what I was getting at. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Urban]

Buy 4 feet or so of thick rope, swing it over a pull-up bar and do pullups on it.

 

[slayer36]

do some weighted chinups