Choose the right muscle building exercise for your goals
A washboard stomach and rippling muscles are what many strive to – but getting there is not an easy road. Bodybuilding isn’t something one should decide to do on a whim. It takes incredible amounts of effort. However, if you have made the decision and you are ready to take the challenge, one of your first steps should be to do muscle building exercise.
Muscle building exercise is not just about getting your muscles bigger – in professional competitions judges look at the aesthetic of the muscles too, including symmetry. Performing on stage also takes hard work – flexing each and every muscle so that it displays at its best takes athleticism and fitness.
Different types of muscle building exercise:
Isotonic and plyometric exercises
If you break down the meaning of these words, you get a good idea what these exercises are, ‘iso’ means same and ‘tonic’ means strength while ‘plio’ means more and ‘metric’ means distance. In isotonic tonic exercises the force you apply to your muscle doesn’t change, but the length of your muscle decrease or increase. In plyometric exercises the length of the muscles stretches and contracts quickly to increase the power output of a muscle.
Isolation exercise and compound exercise
As the name suggests, isolation exercise focuses on movement around one joint. Specialised equipment is many times used for isolation exercise, for example the leg extension is an isolation exercise for the quadriceps.
Compound exercises work on a number of muscle groups at once and movement will come from two or more joints. An example of a compound exercise is the leg press, it works on muscles in the quadriceps, but the hamstrings, glutes and calves are also involved while movement takes place in the hip, knee and ankle joints.
Let Hennie help you get the right exercise for you
Hennie Kotze is a celebrated South African bodybuilder with a passion for bodybuilding. He will help you with all aspects of his training, including muscle building exercise – get in contact with him today.
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