Compound Movements over Isolation Every Time!!

I’ll start by saying the bodybuilders are the only people who should be doing isolation lifts of any kind. And not just any bodybuilder, an advanced one who’s already put years under the bar, built a serious foundation of strength, and is chasing refinement. For everyone else, leave the curl bar, leg extension machine, and whatever other shiny machine that takes up 80% of most gyms alone. Stick with the power rack, a barbell, and some plates — you’ll need nothing else.

And this isn’t just a hot take. This is especially true for young athletes and lifters just learning the ropes. Why? Because compound lifts force you to train the body the way it was designed to move — as one unit.

When you squat with a barbell, you’re not just training “legs.” You’re using your quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, lower back, upper back, core, even your shoulders and arms to keep that bar locked in place. When you deadlift, it’s your back, hamstrings, forearms, lats, traps, glutes — the whole chain firing together to get that bar off the floor. These lifts teach you how to coordinate muscles, brace your core, and move with power.

And here’s the kicker: that’s how the human body actually works. Nothing in real life or in sports happens in isolation. No athlete ever made a play because they had “big biceps.” Think about it. Throwing a baseball, swinging a bat, kicking a soccer ball, making a tackle, sprinting down a field — every one of those movements is powered by multiple muscle groups working together. That’s athleticism. That’s performance.

So, if you’re teaching a young athlete how to lift, what makes more sense? Having them sit on a machine that locks them into one plane of motion, isolating a single muscle… or teaching them how to recruit multiple muscles at once, build coordination, and train their nervous system to produce force?

And let’s be real — the big compound lifts take care of the “show muscles” too. If you’re bench pressing 300 pounds, your triceps and shoulders are getting smoked whether you do kickbacks or not. If you’re knocking out sets of chin-ups with good form, your biceps are under more tension than any set of curls could give them. Same with deadlifts and rows — your grip, forearms, traps, and lats all get hammered without you ever touching a single “isolation” movement.

Meanwhile, I see it time and time again. Kids in some fitness class or messing around in a commercial gym, bouncing from machine to machine, thinking they’re training. In reality, they’re wasting time, learning bad habits, and in some cases, putting themselves at risk because these machines teach them nothing about stability, bracing, or how to actually move their body under load.

If you want strength, power, and durability — stick to the basics. Squat, deadlift, press, pull, clean. Train movements, not muscles. Build a strong back and legs, and the rest will follow. Leave the isolation work to the pros chasing stage symmetry. For athletes, young lifters, and anyone who actually wants results that transfer outside the gym, compound movements aren’t just better — they’re the only option.