Isolation of Body Parts Versus Complex Movements to Lose Stomach Fat

If you want to lose stomach fat, then it is important that you learn about weight training so that you will be able to get strong and lean body that is both resistant to injury and, at the same time, looks good.

While working as a personal trainer as well as fitness professional, I encounter a lot of questions about how to lose lower belly fat. However, there is one type of question that shows that there are still a lot of people who miss the big picture when it comes to the benefit of doing strength training. This question often goes like this: "What exercise can I do to isolate my _______ (insert your muscle of choice - abs, quads, biceps, triceps, etc)?" The thing here is that it really don't not matter what muscle you want to isolate. In most cases, I surprise these people by telling them why on earth why they would want to isolate it in the first place.

The first thing that I teach my clients is that the body really does not work properly with muscle isolation. Instead, it works better in movements along a kinetic chain. This means that the large portions of the body usually assist other portions of the body in order to complete complex motion. The thing here is that there really no such thing as definite muscle isolation. This means that if you want to lower belly fat, it is important that you not only do abdominal exercisebut also other exercises for your body as well. The thing here is that there are nearby muscle groups that will definitely assist with whatever movement that you make so that you lose stomach fat in the process. Although I am promoting complex movements to train specific parts of the body, this article is all about comparing isolation of body parts over complex movements.

Once you attempt to isolate your muscles by performing single exercises, then you are creating a non functional body thus you end up getting more injury on your body. The thing here is that your body is a compilation of body parts so it is important that you also perform complex exercises. This is true for whatever body parts that you want to train. For instance, if you want to lower belly fat, then you do not only need to do abdominal exercises but other exercises as well.

If you attempt to isolate your abdominal muscles by doing abdominal exercises, then you are creating a non functional body which makes you more prone to getting injuries. The thing here is that your body is made up of several body parts so make sure that your exercise regimen promotes your body working together. The problem with isolating your body parts is that you are more likely to experience having more problems in your body than positive results. In fact, if you do abdominal exercises alone, you are more prone to having joint problems, tendonitis and excessive body fats. Now if you want to have a leaner, muscular and healthy body free from injuries, then performing complex movements is still better than muscle isolation.

If you focus on how your body functions and exercise to achieve these functions, then you will really end up getting the side effects that you need compared to doing muscle isolation. For instance, look at the physiques of world class athletes such as NFL running backs and sprinters. They have great muscles but they never really train for muscle isolation. So how is it possible that they got rippling muscles? The secret is that they don't focus on muscle isolation but they perform complex movements that allow them to move all of their body parts at the same time.

Another benefit of doing complex movement is that you eventually loose more body fat than muscle isolation. If you focus on these multi-joint movements compared to the single joint muscle isolation, you do not only burn a lot of calories for each work out but you also increase the metabolism of your body. Once your metabolism is increased, you end up producing more hormones that will help dissolve all the fats found in your body. Here's another scenario. If you exercise on a machine for leg extension, then you are working mainly on your quadriceps only. Constant use of the machine for an extended time will get you knee joint instability plus the exercise does not let your burn a lot of calories. On the other hand, if you exercise and perform squats, lunges, step ups and other multi-joint movements, you are creating more stable joints in the process. Moreover, you also burn a lot of calories in just a short period of time compared to doing single joint exercises.

It is therefore very important that majority of your weight training workouts should be comprised of multi-joint exercises. However, this does not mean that you have to exclude single joint exercises in your regimen altogether. There are still some benefits of single joint exercises. As a recommendation, make sure that your training program is made up of 90-95% multi-joint exercises and 5-10% single joint exercises.

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