Big Lifts and Isolation Exercises Aren't Trained the Same

Big Lifts and Isolation Exercises Aren’t Trained the Same – When you’re building a house, each tool has its purpose and is used in its own way. You don’t use a hammer the same way you use a saw. It’s the same with lifting exercises. For size gains, the “big basic lifts” and the more targeted work don’t serve the same purpose and shouldn’t be programmed and trained the same way.

The purpose of the big lifts is to get a decent training effect on several muscles at the same time while also improving neurological factors. They also have a greater impact on neurological activation (amping you up). For more isolated or targeted work, the goal is to get a maximal training effect on a single muscle while reducing the impact on the nervous system.

My simple guidelines for these two exercise groups:

BIG LIFTS

• Do slightly lower reps (5-8).
• Perform more work sets (4-6).
• Stop further away from failure (with around 2 reps left in the tank).

TARGETED OR MACHINE EXERCISES

• Do slightly higher reps (8-15).
• Perform fewer work sets (2-3).
• Go to muscle failure or stop when you know you’d fail on the next rep.