Isolation exercise
An isolation exercise moves a single joint and concentrates the load on one muscle — the biceps curl, the triceps extension, the leg curl. It moves less absolute weight and leaves less systemic fatigue, which makes it useful for adding volume to one muscle without spending the client's recovery capacity.
An isolation exercise moves a single joint and concentrates the load on one muscle — the biceps curl, the triceps extension, the leg curl. It moves less absolute weight and leaves less systemic fatigue, which makes it useful for adding volume to one muscle without spending the client's recovery capacity.
Also written as: single-joint exercise · accessory
In practice
It is the tool for correcting a specific imbalance, or for bringing a lagging muscle up to its weekly volume without adding another squat to the week.
The common mistake
Filling a session with isolations because they are felt in the muscle. Local sensation does not measure stimulus, and a twelve-accessory session eats the time the client had for the work that decides things.
