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PHYSIO  December 1998

PHYSIO December 1998

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Subject:

ISOLATION CREED

From:

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Reply-To:

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Date:

Sun, 13 Dec 1998 18:56:16 EST

Content-Type:

text/plain

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text/plain (96 lines)

This email which I wrote for another user group may also be of interest here.

The discussion began with this remark:

>> . . . . It seems people have forgotten that the seated leg ext. machine was
designed to rehab the knee. Why anyone would do leg extensions in a seated
position is a good question.

***This letter raises a very important issue:  why, indeed should one try to
perform many exercises in attempts to restrict joint involvement and 'isolate'
certain muscles?

Sure, sure, we have heard from traditional bodybuilders that this offers
better development than  allowing several joints to move in any multi-
articular movement, a forbidden action which is supposed to decrease isolation
and the training effect.  Sure, physical therapists sometimes isolate joints
if other joints contributing to a movement are injured.  

The fact remains that many muscles are multi-articular (involve several
joints) for a very good reason, namely to offer the smoothest and most
efficient possible control over the body as a linked system of bones.  There
is also the fact that, if one prevents movement about any one joint, then the
stress increases at the next free joint in that chain.  So, if one immobilises
the hip, as is the case during seated knee extensions, then stress will
increase across the knee joint. 

That is why more and more physios are now discovering that closed chain squats
are more effective and less stressful than knee extensions for rehabilitating
knee injuries. Nevertheless, we still see them and many bodybuilders swearing
by prone leg curls to 'develop the hamstrings'.  If you raise the hips, this
is regarded as dangerous or cheating, so the well-meaning instructor insists
on pushing down on the hips or using a leg curl device which is angled upwards
to keep the butt of the user fixed in place.  

The idea here is that, even though the hamstrings are biarticular muscles, one
is supposed to obtain a superior training effect if one forces them to behave
like a one-joint (uniarticular) muscle. The same thing applies to preacher
curls, sit-ups, tricep push-downs, calf-raises and many other traditional
isolationist exercises.  Invariably one can raise greater loads if one allows
the muscles to behave in their naturally intended multi-articular manner, so
that it is difficult to understand scientifically the rationale behind
isolation training in the uninjured person.

Practically speaking, one needs to look at the magnificent muscularity
developed by gymnasts who always use multi-articular exercises to develop
their great strength and capabilities. It is irrelevant to state that since
they are not as big as bodybuilders, their training methods are inferior for
enhancing hypertrophy - their goal is functional and very skilled strength.
The point is that some of their type of multi-articular training exercises (or
simple variations of these) could serve as a very useful adjunct to
traditional bodybuilding methods, especially those based on machines and
'strictness' of execution.

In the days before the popularity of machine training, the vast majority of
exercises methods used joints in their naturally dominant mode of multi-
articular action, so it might be inferred that the 'muscle isolation'
philosophy is largely a consequence of the machine training philosophy and
that marketing has more to do with most isolation exercises than applied
anatomy or kinesiology.  Certainly, we have 'isolation' exercises like
concentration curls with dumbbells and many others, but the isolationist
philosophy tends to cloud the vital role that is played by non-isolation
exercises, free weight and free standing (without weights) training.

All too often, the term 'strict' says nothing whatsoever about correctness -
it simply means that the exercise is meant to isolate a given muscle.  This,
of course, is frequently a lot of nonsense, because what they really mean is
that a given joint action is isolated, not a given muscle action!  It is very
difficult indeed to isolate muscles, especially as the load increases and
tends to cause overflow and synergistic involvement of adjacent muscle groups.

So, as was commented originally: "Why anyone would do leg extensions in a
seated position is a good question". Indeed!  Why on earth would anyone
regularly choose to do ANY isolated or 'strict' exercise?  Surely, physios
should have realised many years ago that simple actions such as walking or
stair climbing (later with added loads) which offer concurrent biarticular
action of the knee and hip extensors and flexors (plus some functional
adduction) would have offered superior and more functional early stage
rehabilitation of the knee than seated knee extensions?

It seems as if the bodybuilding profession was not the only one to be
seriously afflicted with this "isolation über alles" (isolation above all)
disease!   In the world of aerobics and general fitness and shape, the pre-
eminence of ab crunches and all those weird and wonderless sit-up devices
shows that this isolationist creed is alive and flourishing!  Yes, isolation
exercises can play a role in some aspects of training, but they are among the
most overused methods of training in the entire world of strength and shape
training.

Dr Mel C Siff
Littleton, CO, USA
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