Have you joined the gym; your coach is going to put together a routine for you but you still don’t know what type of body you are looking for? Not sure whether to focus on Fitness or bodybuilding? Let’s analyze then Bodybuilding exercises vs fitness exercises.
Well, as we have already seen the differences in cardiovascular training between athletes and fitness practitioner’s vs athletes dedicated to the world of bodybuilding.
Today I will continue to mark differences between these two disciplines but this time focusing on the type of training, which although they have a lot in common, depending on the discipline you do, you will see that there is a great basic difference.
Exercises in culturism
Broadly speaking (and without taking other factors into account) the world of bodybuilding relies on two types of exercises in an attempt to “Develop your weaknesses”, bodybuilders are going to incorporate compound exercises and isolation exercises into their routines.
Exercises like dumbbell flies, THE CONCENTRATE bicep curls or leg extensions are basic part of the repertoire of exercises a bodybuilder.
While they are great for building these muscles, many of these exercises do little to stimulate the metabolism and promote a comprehensive change in our body.
Also, since these isolation exercises work only on a small area at a time, many different exercises must be done to get a full workout for that muscle, which in turn leads to a greater time commitment.
Here you can learn more about compound and isolation exercises COMPOSITE AND ISOLATION EXERCISES
Exercises in fitness
This group of athletes, on the other hand, are more focused on the harmonious appearance of the body and its bodily function. Disciplines such as functional training or CrossFit point in this direction.
And since the body was not designed to engage each muscle and / or movement pattern in isolation, they rarely perform isolation exercises the way bodybuilders do.
Instead, they focus on exercises or movements that involve several muscle areas at the same time, just like what would happen during a sporting event for example.
These exercises come at a huge metabolic cost and speed up the metabolism much more than in bodybuilding.
And what kind of training are you going to do?
How do you see the FOCUS of each discipline is totally different, however this should not be taken as two opposite realities, it is not that it is white or black, there are grays and, in those grays, you enter and the type of body you want to have in terms of muscle structure and capacity?
There are times when an isolation exercise can be used effectively to complement the training of a certain sport, greatly improving results and performance in that sport.
In other cases, a comprehensive workout helps improve flexibility and highlight muscle tone from isolated workouts.
In summary? It is up to you to see where you will shift the balance when planning a workout, talk to your coach and always do long-term planning and thinking about the goals you want to achieve.