Leg extensions, lateral raises, calf raises, tricep extensions, hamstring curls all cause me intense burn during the exercise. all isolation exercises.
bench, squat, flys, military press don't cause any burning even at failure. compound movements.
is it as simple as compound vs isolation? or am i doing my big compound lifts wrong if i have zero burn even at failure. this is usually like 3x10 or 12x8x8 or some similar variation.
interesting observation. note that the chest fly is really an isolation movement, not compound. aside from that, compound movements might not take certain muscles groups to complete failure, as an isolation would. if you did some drop-sets or supersets, maybe you'd get the same "burn?"
Never really did drop sets because I don't understand the science/reasoning behind it but i'm willing to try it out.
misterE wrote:
interesting observation. note that the chest fly is really an isolation movement, not compound. aside from that, compound movements might not take certain muscles groups to complete failure, as an isolation would. if you did some drop-sets or supersets, maybe you'd get the same "burn?"
yea, i wouldn't necessarily do them all the time, as you'd be overtraining. but in essence it's a method of overload, a stimulus for your muscles. not sure of your strength, but as an example: at the end of chest workout load a bench press with 10 pound plates (say 4 on each side, plus 45# bar = 125#). do as many reps at 125 as you can, then take a plate off each side (105#) do as many reps as you can, keep taking plates off until you're left with just the bar, rep the bar out for as many as you can.
or try a superset, ex: flat bench, right into dumbbell fly, right into pushups to failure.
I notice that I don't feel as much of a burn during powerlifting movements/compound movements but do feel a burn during isolation movements.
I trust you are generally performing isolation exercises after compound exercises?
Some muscles are more sensitive than others. It may vary from person to person, but the quads are usually very sensitive, while the glutes are typically harder to feel. With an isolation exercise, you work a given muscle as hard as possible, while with a compound exercise, one muscle group is the limiting factor and the others get underworked,
The question is why are you doing these exercises? If you find yourself doing a specific bodypart on a specific day such as "chest day", do you realize that's for bodybuilding purposes only? I assume you're not yearning to be a bodybuilder. If you want to gain strength that is relative to running, do exercises like squats, deadlifts and power cleans. Specifically deadlifts. You can go many directions with deads. Very heavy max weight. 5x5 sets with progressively heavier load each set. 50 reps of a single weight for time. 5 reps at the beginning of each minute for 15 or 20 minutes. Don't do any heavy or high rep workouts until you learn proper technique, and more importantly, really feel comfortable doing them. As you learn deadlifting there is always a moment where everything clarifies and you suddenly feel really comfortable. Get creative to keep it fun, there is no specific rep scheme that is necessarily best. Picking up heavy s**t will make you rugged and make your entire core body very strong from knees to nipples.