Part 3 of 5 - Movement Categories Series
By: Jason Bungo, CSCS
Isolation movements are exercises that isolate a single joint of the body. We also refer to these movements as accessory movements and we use them to add extra work to a targeted muscle and often times in corrective exercise programming to help iron out any kinks or pains an individual may be having. I say extra work due to the fact that all of these muscles and movements are also being trained while performing our fundamental strength movements. Think of movements like bicep curls, lateral raises and leg extensions when thinking of isolation movements. These movements are targeting primarily just one muscle of the body.
To overview our movements we will look at each joint of the body. In our upper body we have our shoulders, elbows, wrist and neck. For our purposes we will not be delving into any neck training exercises and there are not many scenarios for where we look at neck training other than for fighters, wrestlers and specific injuries. In the lower body we have our hips, knees and ankles. Our core work, covered in part 2 of the movement categories series, can also be viewed as isolation work for the lumbar region.
The Shoulder:
Being a ball and socket joint, the shoulder is able to complete "8" different movements. Here is a brief breakdown of the movements of the shoulder and the isolation exercises to target these movements.
Flexion: Front Dumbbell Raise
Extension: Straight Arm Cable Pulldown
Horizontal Adduction: Dumbbell Chest Fly
Horizontal Abduction: Bent Over Dumbbell Reverse Fly
External Rotation: Band Shoulder External Rotation
Internal Rotation: Band Shoulder Internal Rotation
Abduction: Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Adduction: Steep Decline Cable Chest Fly
The Elbow:
Has "2" movements, flexion and extension. Flexion is our bicep curl variations and extension is our triceps extension variations.
The Wrist:
The wrist is capable of "6" different movements, but we will generally place most of our focus on flexion and extension. Examples of exercises to train these movements include wrist curls and reverse wrist curls, which can be done with dumbbell and barbells. The wrist can also perform "2" additional movements, opening and closing the hand.
The Hips:
The hips are another ball and socket joint and they are capable of completing "6" different movements. Here is a brief breakdown of the movements the hip is capable of and examples of exercises to train each movement.
Abduction: Hip Abduction Machine
Adduction: Hip Adduction Machine
Flexion: Banded Hip Flexor March
Extension: Cable Ankle Cuff Hip Extension
Internal Rotation: 90/90 Position Hip Internal Lift Off
External Rotation: 90/90 Position Hip External Lift Off
The Knee:
The knee has "2" movements, flexion and extension.
Flexion: Hamstring Curl
Extension: Leg Extension
The Ankle:
There are "4" movements completed at the ankle.
Plantarflexion: Calf Raise
Dorsiflexion: Wall Leaning Toe Raise
Eversion: Band Ankle Eversion
Inversion: Band Ankle Inversion
As we can see, isolation movements are simply isolated versions to add resistance to each individual movement a joint completes. The bulk of our training will be mostly our fundamental movements we talked about in the very first article of our movement categories series. However, when there are muscle imbalances or pain we will often use them to add that extra work to help strengthen our problem areas. I often think of leg extensions for individuals to keep the quad and knee healthy and strong and reverse flys for balancing out our often slumped forward posture.
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