do you do more iso or compound exercises at the gym?

im mainly compound
everyone i speak to prefers iso

I would say close to even or maybe a slight edge to isolations

Most shoulder exercises are isolation, most biceps, most triceps, and then there's flies, calves, leg extensions, leg curls, abs, etc

I think it's important to do both

You'll build better shoulders if you do both a shoulder press variation and side raises and rear delt flies/face pulls, then if you were to only do a shoulder press or only do the isolations

You should also give them all just as much effort. If you go ham on the compounds and treat your isolations like an afterthought you're probably leaving gains on the table

I start out with Compounds and do some iso'd at the end of my workouts. 75%-25%

compounds, machines are for women

50/50

Also I have no machines, there’s plenty of ways to do iso with barbell, dumbbells, bands and a rack/bench.

Compound for 95% of my workout.

depends on your goals, people usually enjoy iso over compound because you get a better pump and its easier
I have never been out of breath or heavily sweating from curls or flys, but deadlifts, OHP, rows I get exhausted but very little pump
I usually start with compounds, then go to iso near the end when I'm tired

Probably close to 50/50

Lots more iso as I've gotten older. More reps, more frequency and less weight

Compound simply for time’s sake. Do not have time to do 14 different exercises in one workout.

Ive done less compounds now i enjoy isolation. I try to hit 1 compound for a muscle to catch some heavy ass weight, then just isolate it.

My leg day today was just machines, even tried the good girl bad girl machine. Chit slaps.
But mfs looked at me like i was a dork

70/30 roughly

Biceps, triceps, side & rear delts really do need isos.

I train with a bro split. 1 compound movement to start then Isolation movements on my target muscle.


Once you're an advanced lifter its really not practical to do a bunch of compound movements if you are training with intensity. I only train with 'moderate' weight in the 8-15 rep range doing compound movements. But even if I stop 2 reps shy of failure. That's incredibly taxing. You're talking bout a 3-4 minute recovery before the next set. So maybe 2 compounds in a day. 3-5 working sets on each lift tops. If I need a little extra work maybe 1 isolation movement thrown in...



Sure, that form of training is effective. You can make strength & size gains like that. But its not the most conducive training for hypertrophy/aesthetics. Furthermore, its incredibly boring. Lifting is a marathon, not a sprint. Doing only the same few compound lifts every single day/week for 30-40 years sounds boring as fukk.




The absolutely beautiful thing about using cables/machines is you change the angles/change the lifts completely. And if your gym gets boring. You can switch gyms with new machines that feel completely different/new from what you've been doing. Once you've been lifting like 12+ years its important to keep things fun/fresh.

You don't do chest flies, lat pullovers, leg extensions or leg curls?

I'd be willing to bet your chest and legs are not as good as they could be

My isos are already stacked up already but you’re probably right. I do full bodies and don’t have space for more isos at the moment.

Ring dips and ring push ups seem ok for now.