Many of my clients in fitness and weight loss programs has always asked me, "Stan, what isolation exercise can we engage on for my tummy, biceps, triceps, waist line, love handle, laps etc."

But not minding the very body part or muscle that they need to isolate, from these questions I noticed that many have not understood the importance of multi joint exercise and strength training.
But why do they want these isolation exercises for weight loss or fitness is the question I keep asking myself. we know that our body works as a single unit and every organ, muscle or body part works together and better as a kinetic chain with one another - one contributes to the proper functioning or health of the other and this is true concerning everything that has do with our body in general, so there is no way we can achieve any good result in our weight loss and fitness program with isolation exercises.

For this we are going to compare the results of these single joint exercise or isolation exercises with the results of multi joint exercises or complex joint movements.

1. When we engage in isolation exercises or single joint exercises, we create a non functional body and also a body that can be injured by little things at anytime. This is why some move around with bandages around their joints as a result of joint problems, tendinitis and excess fat.
With multi joint exercise or complex joint movements, we create an active, functional and powerful unit that works as one, thereby giving rise to a good mass of muscle, lean, healthy and injury - free body and joints that performs great works.

2. Single joint exercises like machine leg extension meant mainly for quadriceps doesn’t burn much calories and still has an after effect of causing instability at knee joint but with compound exercises like squats, step-ups and lunges, a lot of calories are burnt resulting to weight loss and still more strong and stable joints and muscle are created.

3. With complex movement exercise, weight loss becomes very easy compared to when isolation exercises are done. This was fully explained in one of my former articles - "Fat Burning Exercise And Diet Tips For Tummy Fat Loss".

So, with this explanation, I believe you will choose compound or multi muscle exercises instead of this single joint exercise or isolation exercise in all your weight loss and fitness programs.