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Honestly, at first, I underestimated you because I thought you were just another one of those 'biomechanic gurus,' as some might say. But after going through many of your videos, I realized that you dive deep into the topics and details, giving reasonable and logical explanations that aren't just based on three random studies but are grounded in logic, biomechanics, and your own experience, both with yourself and others. And I agree with almost everything you say. There should be more people like you instead of, to generalize, PhDs who abuse their authority for marketing purposes. I think a lot of people take what you say out of context, just from titles or single phrases, like 'the lat pulldown doesn't work the lats,' without watching the video where you thoroughly analyze the claim and simply tell the truth. Moreover, in this format with the whiteboard, it’s clear that you're pretty big, especially for being drug-free
As a 60 year old woman and relatively new to lifting (late to the party 😂) I found compound exercises created so much fatigue that 1) I lost progress and 2) I wasn’t thrilled about continuing to go to the gym. I switched from compounds 2X a week to an isolated upper and lower split 4 days a week. Fatigue is better, seeing growth and fell in love with lifting again!!
Agree with everything so just adding more of my own thoughts: I personally love the hyper specific approach for myself at least when training for hypertrophy and then more general motions are cool for phases focused on performance goals BUT when helping someone else using a "isolations as finishing touches" approach is *so fun*. When someone says something like "I can’t seem to grow my rear delts" and you can make a *massive* difference by adding the tiniest amount of hyper specific work on top of their current "compound" work it’s very cool. It feels like magic because this tiny amount of work is actually a massive relative increase for that tissue that was getting stimulated very inefficiently.
In my experience, nowdays as more "science-based" fitness influencers rising up, the pendulum has swung to the opposite side and we always hear about "If it is not concentrating on certain muscle or too many muscle groups involved it is not optimal for hypertrophy" way more often than "just do the big compounds and get big" kind of statements. As a novice level lifter I am beginning to incorporate more isolation movements(especially for arm size) but some compound movements are damn fun and look cool, also being quite effective on what they try to accomplish at least for me.
i think that's well said. and i agree that those claims are much more common now than ever. i still hear the opposite just about every day though (comments on my instagram, for example), so i guess it mostly depends on what bubble youre within and what side of the fence people perceive you to sit on. and P.S - something being damn fun is reason enough to do it in the gym!
@@The_Modern_Meathead With yourself having a biomechanics-based approach for training, I can see where those comments come from. Nevertheless your videos are providing some good guidance for a new lifter like me.
One question if i hit a pleatue in a compound movement lets say bench press where i cannot life more than 50 kg can by focusing more on isolation movements can i break the plateau
I'm not the content creator, but I have 10 years of training experience and have solved this with myself many times. Yes, you surely can! Just consider which muscles are involved in bench pressing. The front shoulder can be trained with any variant of front raises or shoulder presses; the triceps can be hit with a variety of exercises like a triceps pushdown/extension, triceps dips or a skullcrusher; the chest itself can be done in pec deck machines or with flys. There's also another way, which is modifying the exercise or modifying the program. Modifying the exercise: The lower part of the bench press is always the harder one, so you can take 30kg and focus on doing just the bottom half portion slow and stretching it at the bottom until you've dominated it. Then go for 35kg, then 40kg and so on. Will very easily break through the 50kg barrier with that. Modifying the program: You can try 5x5 programs or even low volume HIT programs. Both are great for progressive overload and whenever I've implemented them I just seem to get PR after PR. If you're training a lot, one or two weeks of HIT could take your systemic fatigue to very low levels and you'll feel that you're much stronger that way. Check that your calories and macros are in place. It's way easier to get a PR when you're gaining a bit of weight every week. If that matters to you, try to be consistent with diet and the PR numbers will follow as long as you train hard enough. Good luck, buddy!!!
I agree, but I think you over simplified it and made it too broad. You should've at least mentioned some nuance about biarticular muscles. Without that, your arguments fall apart. For instance, you sad "less specific" in general, but the truth is that can very from irrelevant to being the deal breaker for a muscle. You can do compounds only for chest and triceps developing the chest exactly the same as if it were an isolation, yet your triceps will be very poor, especially if you use dumbbells. You do dumbbell pressing for triceps, you will get no where, yet it's all you'll need for likely all your chest development.
i think what youre pointing to is very important, which is the idea that just because multiple joints are moving doesn't mean all compounds are created equal. and i 1000% agree. my goal with this video was to keep it broad, but i am happy to talk about those details with a different framing. every framing for every video has an upside and downside, and i often have to spend a lot of time thinking about what to include/exclude because of this. thank you for your comment though, it's thoughtful and nuanced. what do you think a good framing for another video would be to discuss what you're referring to here?
@@The_Modern_Meathead maybe you could title the video "Are compounds enough for biceps and triceps (or arms)?" Or "Are deadlifts enough for hamstrings?" By framing, I'm assuming you mean the topic/title, and these titles sound eye catching to me. Sorry though, not entirely sure what you mean my framing. I hope I didn't come off as rude in the comment. I personally believe biarticular muscles are pivotal in understanding compounds versus isolation, and without that, you couldn't possibly use them appropriately. If someone just wants the hamstrings to grow but prioritizing glutes, he or she may just thinks "less specific," so they'll SLDLs only for hamstrings and glute isolation exercises, not realizing they could've likely just as much growth for glutes using compounds but they will likely experience barely any noticeable size in hamstrings, both logically (the biarticular nature) and anecdotally speaking (low knee bend powerlifters realizing how bad their hamstrings have grow despite it being theoretically the best hamstring exercise).
