compound vs isolation exercises

Posted by: Steve

I�m a 46 year old, fit (6�-2� � 200LBS. 15% BF) former competitive bodybuilder. I recently purchased an entire commercial circuit of brand new Nautilus Nitro EVO equipment. I�ve been TRAINING ON IT EXCLUSIVELY it since January 1st and have made amazing gains (even at my "advanced" age) following a Monday/Thursday whole body routine of ONLY ISOLATION MOVEMENTS (after a brief, general warm-up on my Nautilus E10 elliptical). I have every isolation piece for every individual muscle group, 12 machines in all: ABD/ADD, LEG EXT, LEG CURL, CALF, AB, ROTARY TORSO, LOW BACK, PULLOVER, REAR DELT/PEC FLY, LATERAL RAISE, ISO TRICEP AND ISO BICEP. I train in circuit fashion (in the order listed above) from largest to smallest muscles moving from one exercise to the next with minimal delay to enhance the cardiovascular benefit (ie; total conditioning). Every exercise is taken to failure using perfect 3-3 form. My entire workout is completed in EXACTLY 30 minutes and my heart rate stays above 160BPM the whole time.

My question is:

Many experts recommend predominantly compound movements. Why?...I�ve found that compound movements do not effectively isolate the larger muscles that they supposedly target (i.e.; pecs and delts as in pressing movements) but rather over work the smaller (weaker) muscles of the upper arm (triceps in this example) at the expense of being able to get the larger muscles to failure. I do understand that�s why Aruhur Jones recommending pre-exhausting the larger (stronger) muscles BEFORE doing compound movements but if I�m already taking my pecs to absolute failure on pec fly for example, why would I need compound movements which provide LESS DIRECT and LESS BALLANCED, LESS RANGE OF MOTION stimulus to the individual muscles I�m trying to hypertrophy?

Thanks in advance for your time!

~Steve

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