Unlike compound exercises that recruit many muscles, the objective of isolation exercises is to force a single muscle to do all the work and receive all the stimulation. The movement trains one muscle (the bicep) and involves one joint (the elbow) ( 2). Stabilizing muscles: back, midsection, and lower bodyĬolumn 2: Isolation exercises, also known as single-joint movements, train a single muscle group and involve one joint.Īn example of an isolation exercise would be a simple dumbbell curl.Secondary muscles: triceps and deltoids.Let’s take the bench press as an example ( 1). There is usually one prime mover and multiple other muscles that assist during a compound exercise. It involves the ankles, knees, and hip joints. The exercise primarily trains the quadriceps and works the calves, hamstrings, glutes, midsection, back, shoulders, and arms. Isolation ExercisesĬolumn 1: Compound exercises, also known as multi-joint movements, train more than one muscle group and involve two or more joints.Ī notable example of a compound movement is the barbell front squat.

It’s the running podcast made for athletes of all shapes and sizes.7 Conclusion Compound vs. Love running? Check out our podcast “We Run This” where we talk about running and the running lifestyle. To piggyback off that point, if you’ve been lifting properly, then your spine and the surrounding muscles are going to be strong enough that this shouldn’t even be an issue you need to worry about. It’s important to remember that the cable crunch is probably something you’re going to be doing 2-3x a week max, and for 6-9 total sets max.Įven at the heaviest setting, the weight stack will allow, that’s typically not enough load to cause serious damage. Now, obviously that much flexion and extension of the spine isn’t a great thing when we’re talking about most exercises, especially heavy compound exercises. The bigger the stretch and contraction, the more effective the movement, especially under heavy loads. I like to keep my thighs in that position, because it allows me to flex and extend my spine more, meaning I get a bigger stretch and contraction in my abs. In the video above you’ll see that my thighs stay perpendicular to the floor, and this is by design. Most of the people trying it lack the necessary core stability and strength to even get in position and perform a proper cable crunch. This is an ab exercise that gets fucked up more often Johnny Football. So yeah, you need to be doing the cable crunch. You can the same level of definition in your midsection, while carrying more body fat. Let’s stop and acknowledge just how big of a deal that is. You could be 12-13% and see the outline of your abs. If you’ve trained your abs though, and build a strong abdominal wall, this isn’t going to be the case. If you’ve got atrophied abdominals that only work when you do compound lifts, you’re likely going to need to be sub 10% body fat to start having a really appreciable definition in your midsection. One of the biggest benefits of building bigger abs though is the fact that your abs will start showing quicker, even when you’re carrying more body fat. Now, you may be wondering why the fuck you’d want big abs, right? The cable crunch is unmatched when it comes to building big and strong abs.

Obviously we know that when you’re able to load an exercise, that means it’s going to have a higher potential to build more size and strength, and the cable crunch is no exception. I love it because you can load it more than any other ab exercise like ab wheel rollouts, leg raises, or others. A post shared by Brad Bromlow cable crunch is by far and away one of the greatest ab exercises for building true abdominal strength and size.

Cable ab crunch