Muscle isolation is a body-mind technique that will make your muscular evolution soar. Do you want to know it? Keep on reading.
The question is: in what percentage do you involve each of your muscles in the exercises you perform. An electromyographic study has already answered this question. Greater intensity is created in the primary muscle being worked if the athlete initially lowers the total training weight and is able to involve or recruit the maximum number of muscle fibres of the primary motor (muscle to be developed), with the minimum participation of other muscles.
How to transmit a higher percentage of intensity to the muscle concerned?
- Having a basic knowledge of human anatomy: where the muscle we are going to train goes from (insertion and origin), and what is the disposition of the muscle fibres of the muscle.
- Mastering the perfect technique of each exercise.
- Learning the technique of muscle isolation.
Muscle Isolation
It is the ability of an athlete to learn to create an intense relationship between the mind and the muscle. To work trying to involve or recruit the maximum number of muscle fibres of that muscle, minimising the involvement of the other muscle groups.
This technique becomes very difficult when the athlete is more concerned with moving the weight and reaching the proposed repetitions than with localising the work to the maximum.
To achieve this purpose it is very important that you review the execution of the techniques in the different exercises of your programme. Of course, once you have learnt this technique of muscle isolation, you cannot simply isolate and that's it, but you need new stimuli such as the progressive use of increasing loads.
Muscle isolation training
We will continue to apply the increasing load system to this programme with the modification of one element: I propose the descending series technique.
The idea is to complete the established number of repetitions, reaching muscle failure or having performed some forced repetitions, and from that point onwards progressively reduce the weight. The weight that we subtract should be sufficient for us to be able to perform three or four more repetitions, with respect to the previous series, before reaching muscle failure.
This technique will test your character and integrity as an athlete, as it will contract the muscle to levels to which it is not accustomed. It is not advisable to apply this technique systematically in all programmes, because it produces a great deal of wear and tear that could lead to a state of overtraining.
I hope you enjoy the training by applying these techniques and that will allow you to improve your physical fitness.
