Tuesday 15 March 2016

Muscle Isolation

Are you tired of training with a full body program? If the answer is yes, then this little insight into a different training technique may be what you are looking for!


Muscle isolation is a great way to change your training if you are looking to pack on lean muscle, as it focuses on each muscle working independently. By doing this you are making each muscle work harder, instead of multiple muscles working together. Another great reason to try this is you can train more days in a week, with one muscle resting while you train another area of the body. This is the type of weekly split you could use.


Monday – Legs
Tuesday – Chest
Wednesday – Back
Thursday – Shoulders
Friday – Arms

Saturday/Sunday – Rest
For this style of training you would be using the hypertrophy range. This method looks to enlarge muscle size and you will also notice strength improvements. You want to stick to 4 sets of 8 reps with a weight that is challenging especially when you get to the final rep on set 4.
Now we will look into potential exercises for each day:
Legs
Quadriceps - Bulgarian Split Squats, Static Lunges, Leg Extension
Hamstrings - Stiff Leg Deadlift, Good Mornings, Leg Curl
Chest
Bench Press, Dumbell Bench Press, Dumbell Flys, Cable Flys, Chest Press Machine, Pushups
Back
Bent Over Rows, T-Bar Rows, Single Arm Rows, Seated Rows, Lat Pulldown, Pull ups
Shoulders
Shoulder Press, Single Arm Shoulder Press, Lateral Raises, Front Raises, Upright Row, Reverse Flys
Arms
Biceps - Preacher Curls, Spider Curls, Incline Curls
Triceps - Rope Pushdown, Skullcrushers, French Press
Start with two to three exercises per day, with 4 sets of 8 on each.
With muscle isolation you want to focus on the movement and on form. You need to try and feel the muscle you have isolated doing the work. This is what we call the mind muscle connection. You must ignore any other muscles that are trying to get involved. As your muscle will be isolated it will fatigue a lot quicker than normal so try and find the right balance with your selected weight so you are able to perform all sets with good form. Once your muscle and mind connection improves, along with your strength, then it's time to up the weight.
Remember when you go to the gym you should always focus on yourself. Don’t worry about what other people are lifting and feel the need to compete. My favourite saying is "leave your ego at the door!". Just do your best to improve from your last session. A great way to track this is to get a gym diary and log your workouts along with the weights you use.


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Elliot.


 
























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