Current Events > I'm starting to think compound barbell exercises are inferior to isolation ones

(+) Yeah! (+)

I started with a barbell routine, and all I really got from it are bigger legs and back. My physique wasn't balanced, and for all the bragging people do about being "functional" I wasn't really that much stronger. You don't go around squatting stuff and deadlifting things over 100 pounds that often in your daily life.

However, grip strength, arm strength, and just all around upper body strength comes in handy much more handy. Not only has isolation exercises helped me in those areas, but I feel like I have a much more balance physique instead of having a T-rex build.

So why is it that everywhere you go, people always say compound barbell routines are the way to go?
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maybe you were just used to compound exercises and then doing isolation ones shocked your body into getting stronger. it's usually better to switch between different types of exercises for that reason
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ThyCorndog posted...

maybe you were just used to compound exercises and then doing isolation ones shocked your body into getting stronger. it's usually better to switch between different types of exercises for that reason

It's funny because many barbell advocates will hate on this too because "muscle confusion" is a myth, and we should be focus on progressive overload.
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idk, I definitely feel it more and get stronger if I take breaks from certain exercises to switch over to others. I don't know or care what you'd call it, but sticking to the same workouts all the time doesn't seem efficient to me in my experience
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