Compound Vs. Isolation/3 days a week

[Johnny_Rotten]

Hey bros.

Just having an argument with another bro in the anabolics section.

I was just wondering on what will build mass better.

compound exercises or isolation exercises?

Also is working out 3 days a week sufficient when using AAS?

Cos at the moment i only workout 3 days a week.

Mondays, Weds & fridays. Rest tuesday, thursday & sat, sun to give my body time to recover.

So far this has worked wonders for me, but now that i'm using AAS will i need to train more or for longer?

[GCgainer]

You gotta go compound. Deads, squats, bench are the three founding fathers.

[Ronnie Rowland]

All bodybuilders need both compound exercises and isolation exercises in order to make maximum gains in muscle size! It doesn't matter whether they are training 3 day per week or 5 days per week.

[DNoMac]

I agree that you need both, but if it were between the two, compound. As far as split, I don't think there is a set rule. Listen to your body and see how long it takes you to recover. If you recover quickly, go ahead and lift. If you are seeing signs of overtraining, go back to 3 days.

[MuscleScience]

Yeah both is the key, there are only so many compound movements you can do. Plus the isolating effect is hard to reproduce with a globe style workout.

Having said if you go by exercise for exercise. Compound movements will in fact recruit more muscle fibers for the prime mover given that the load is proportional to that of and isolating exercise. Plus it will recruit more of the accessory muscles in that given movement.

Example.

Flat barbell bench vs pec deck flies.

[Princes_Gate]

I bench/dead/squat for my workout. Then when I feel sufficiently recovered I do it again.

I sometimes throw dips/military press in there and swap it around a little, but this works for me.

Probably average about 2.5 times a week. If you're doing the big 3 as heavy as you can go it's hard to recover fast enough to do much more than that