Generally all weight lifting exercises can be categorized into two major types of movements; compound and isolation. Both offer different types of benefits and drawbacks and the decision of which to include in your program is largely going to be based upon your individual goals.
Compound Lifts
Compound lifts are those that tend to be multi-joint in nature and utilize a larger number of muscle tissues. They will often work two to five different muscle groups at once, hence they are going to be much more energy demanding than others that only work a single muscle.
For this reason, those who are looking to maximize the calorie burn they experience during their workouts would be advised to include as many compound lifts as possible.
Another great thing about compound lifts is that they allow you to cut back on the total time you spend working out because you now will not have to work each muscle group separately. If you can hit your chest muscles, tricep muscles and shoulder muscles all with a single bench press movement, that will save you from dedicating quite so many additional exercises to those other muscle groups as well.
The main compound lifts that most individuals include in their workouts are:
-chest press
-deadlift
-squat
-lunge
-military or overhead (shoulder) press
-bent over row
-pull up
-push-up
For the vast majority of people, these are going to be the main exercises to focus on in your weight lifting routine. By putting together a combination of these you really will not go wrong as you will be working all the major muscle groups and so long as you are providing an overloading stimulus incorporated with enough rest.
Do note that since these exercises are more intense in nature, you obviously do not want to go performing multiple sets of them all each workout. That would be too much for your body to handle and you would wind up fatigued, overtrained and injured.
Isolation Lifts
Isolation lifts on the other hand are ones that are only going to target in on one specific muscle. The advantage to this is that if it is a weaker area for you, you can help to develop the strength moreso. For example, if you have really weak tricep muscles and relied solely on a bench press to work them, you may never get them to their full potential because the chest muscles will always be coming into play and giving them help to execute the lift (since chest is the predominant muscle that is targeted with a bench press). By performing a few isolated tricep exercises you can be sure that you are in fact working that muscle as well.
Another time some individuals choose to perform isolated exercises is when they really want to target in and bring a muscle to full definition. This is usually done in the later stages before a bodybuilding type of competition when a muscle may be lagging. Careful attention does have to be paid at this point however as usually you will also be at a reduced calorie level during this time (while trying to bring out maximum leanness) and therefore the total volume of your workout really needs to be watched to ensure it does not get to be too much. If that occurs you could risk a loss of muscle mass because recovery abilities will be compromised with not enough fuel.
If you want to include some isolation exercises with your workout, consider reducing the number of sets you perform of them compared with your major, compound lifts. A good range for your compound lifts is 2-5 sets and then isolation ones should come in between 1-3 sets. The more compound lifts you are performing per workout the fewer isolation lifts you should be performing as well.
Isolation exercises would include:
-bicep curls
-tricep kickbacks
-overhead tricep extensions
-lateral raises
-front raises
-upright rows
-rope pull-downs
-leg extensions
-hamstring curls
-calf raises (note since there isn’t really a compound lift that works the calf muscles, this is one instance where you should always include these with your compound lifts)
