1999blksi

come on Luka....at 291 and 65% bf....i think i know what im talking about when it comes to working out

shlammed

lol

BOND007

I would have to say that a fly assists in shaping and defining areas of the chest . It should be used when you have increased muscle there to define ....

shlammed

too bad most people aren't in a position to be worrying about isolating muscles and developing symmetry including me

But anyways, I wasn't suggesting NOT to do flyes, I'm just saying it's not an important movement and other movements such as presses and dips are more beneficial to chest development and should be focused on more. If I ever do flyes it would be the last movement of my chest workout because I wouldn't want to waste my energy on them.

1999blksi

actually I do a lot of isolation exercises

two reasons really:
1) it helps the muscle develop a purer shape
2) you target the INNER CHEST with ALL isolation exercies

shlammed

If you're in a position where you have the size and want to start focusing on symmetry then good for you. Focusing on compound movements is a much better approach for most people.

Isolation movements will never compare to compound movements when it comes to building mass, sheer strength, and total energy expenditure.

shlammed

as for #2

you target the inner chest with all chest movements period because it would be impossible to get one side of the pec to contract without the other side doing so as well. your pecs are split top to bottom not left to right. However you can put more STRESS on a specific area of the muscle fibres, but others would still be contracting at the same time.

shlammed

and what exactly do you mean by "purer shape" anyway? The shape of your muscle is pre-determined by your genetics.

Gallagher

key word is "were"

muhahhaha




still have a belly though......jogging everyday now (well trying to)



seeing a difference...

i have a hard time jogging though because my feet KILLLLLLL after.

I can barely walk.

thats me problem from me shattered foot days

shlammed

i cant stand running myself either

shlammed

will you be destroying your tri's again tonight neil?

1999blksi

ex) isolation exercise of 1 arm preacher curl will give you a nice bicept peak....and so on

Either way, I think that everyone should incorporate isolation exercises into their routine; not as a MAJOR part of their workout, but have a couple exercises a week which are strictly isolation

cibs

i def agree with luka on this one, isolation IMO isn't the way to go unless you're 'already there'.

I've gotten bigger bicep peaks doing compound movements than I ever had when I was doing iso exercises...

for the most part you either activate the muscle or you don't... like luka said your genetics is what determines what you look like...

shlammed

I get what you're saying and I agree except for the fact that training for a bicep peak is impossible because your muscle fibres run down the length of your bi's, not across it.

I do a few isolation movements here and there depending on the day but I don't put much focus on them and they are always at the end of my routine.

1999blksi

You have to still incorporate it somewhere into the workout....but if you are starting to workout then yea....no need for the iso in that pt

but in having this conv on this forum, with the majority of ppl partaking in this thread already have worked out for 1+ years (except Steve that fatass), I assume you all know the importance of isolation since we are all "somewhat" there.

shlammed

not me

I'm still fat and trying to burn it off so my biggest concern are big lifts that will burn the most calories. If you go back 2-3 years then sure I was probably doing more iso movements. Anyway, here is a post on another site from a guy with an excercise physiology degree who knows how to explain this **** a lot better then I do:


to think that you can contract one particular end or the middle of a muscle fiber and not the rest is ridiculous and goes against basic physiology....remember reading about the all or none principle? you can't contract a muscle fiber and then have that contraction stop halfway up to put stress in the middle of the fiber. The entire thing contracts equally or not at all. there is no in between.

short and long bicep heads can be slightly accentuated during different movements because they have different fiber locations and different origin points....the long head is biarticulate and crossed the shoulder joint, so incline curls which put the long head in a stretched position can cause more tension on that particular head.

same goes for sternal vs. clavicular pec heads, or the different heads of the deltoid complex. different fiber angles cause stress to different fibers, but not different PARTS of those fibers

there is no "upper" or "lower" bicep, or a peak point that can be trained using a particular exercise

stress runs along the entire length of a muscle fiber, not halfway up and then magically stops

shlammed

Here is another good post from Eric Broser:

Everyone has weaknesses on their physique, but many of them can be overcome to a degree with an intelligently planned training program. It is interesting. One of the questions I am asked the most often is, “Can you change the shape of a muscle?” This is a difficult query, and depending on which “expert” you ask, you are bound to get a plethora of different answers. There are some that say you cannot do a damn thing about the shape of your muscles, as this is genetically 100% determined.

Others believe that by “targeting” certain areas of a muscle, you can in fact, change its shape. Well, I personally fall somewhere in between. While I do not believe we can change the actual genetic “map” we have for each of our muscles, I DO believe that we can utilize certain exercises, angles, and grips to bring out the FULL POTENTIAL of each muscle. In other words, when someone is lacking upper pectoral development, I do not necessarily feel that its simply because genetics is “dictating” that the lower pec dominate the upper, but rather that the upper pectoral is not receiving the proper stimulation in order for it to grow to its potential. While some believe that an incline press does not target the upper chest, but rather the entire chest, this is where I disagree. Yes, it is true that you cannot completely isolate one area of a muscle from another no matter what exercise you use. However, you can affect certain groups of motor units more than others in a single muscle by using specific grips and/or planes of motion. This can then lead to accelerated growth in a particular “head” or section of a complex muscle. It is interesting to note that there are certain common “flaws” that seem to appear over and over again amongst so many trainees. I do not feel this is always a result of a genetic limitation but rather a function of unbalanced training. I have altered the basic shape of several muscle groups on my own physique greatly over the years, and have also done so with countless clients. The take home message here is, before you take the easy way out and blame faulty genetics for your disproportionate physique or lousy muscle shape, make sure you are doing everything possible training wise to address the problem. In other words, the genetics might be there (“in waiting”), but you are failing to actualize the potential of each individual muscle group

BOND007

TONITE IS LEGS

LEG EXTENSIONS 5 SETS
HAMMER STRENGTH SQUATS 5 SETS
LEG CURLS 5 SETS
SEATED CALF RAISE 5 SETS
STANDING CALF RAISES
ABDUCTOR MACHINE 5 SETS
ADDUCTOR MACHINE 5 SETS

CARDIO TO COOL DOWN MUSCLES .....

FUN FUN FUN

shlammed

cool
I'll see you there, sunshine.

shlammed

looks like my GF will be joining me tonight so I'm sorry but you cannot be my sunshine today