We can look at exercises as a means of integration or of isolation. Integration is a way to integrate multiple muscle groups together to complete one exercise, for example, a bench press. We drive through our legs, squeeze our butts, keep our core solid, keep our lats down and engaged, then use our delts, tris and pecs to lower and raise the bar.
Compound lifts such as bench press, overhead press, bent over row, squat, deadlift and all of their variations, integrate many muscle groups, thus many fibers, overall helping you grow a great amount of muscle and strength.
Isolation is a way to isolate one muscle at a time, for example, a tricep kickback, a lateral raise or a leg extension.
We may use the bicep as an antagonist and delts as synergists, but we are really focusing on the tricep. Integration is really the key if we want to get strong.. using whatever means necessary to move the most weight.
This is very helpful to build the most muscle too, as doing compound lifts will help maximize the amount of fibers used.
But isolation is awesome for under developed muscles you may have or to hone in on a weakness, like if you struggle to lock out on bench press or if you want your glutes to be a little perkier. The good news is we do both on my program!
I recommend starting your workout with a compound lift, to integrate multiple muscle groups and a large amount of muscle fibers, then moving onto accessory lifts, to isolate just a few muscle groups that you want to make stronger.
If you need a program that sets all of this up for you, sign up for online training! For just $12 you can have all of your daily workouts written for you, plus video demos, etc. Join at kyrawilliamsfitness.com/signup