55 Single Joint vs. Multi Joint Movements

An indepth dive into single joint and multi joint exercise movements with Dr. James Fisher, researcher & senior lecturer in sports conditioning & fitness at Southampton Solent University in the United Kingdom.
https://www.solent.ac.uk/staff-profiles/academic-profiles/james-fisher/james-fisher

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Inform_Ep 55_Fisher 1_March14 Transcript

Arlene [00:00:01] The Inform Fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman and co-host Mike Rogers is a presentation of Inform Fitness studios a small family of personal training facilities specializing in safe efficient high intensity strength training. In this podcast Adam and Mike interview experts and scientists and discuss the latest findings in the areas of exercise nutrition and recovery what Adam calls the three pillars. This show also aims to debunk the sacred cows popular misconceptions and urban myths in the field of health and fitness. 

Arlene [00:00:43] On this episode an in-depth dive into single joint and multi joint exercise movements with Dr. James Fisher researcher and senior lecturer in sports conditioning and fitness at South Hampton Solent university in the United Kingdom. 

James [00:00:59] Things that this debate has come around. Is there a need for these additional single joint exercises or can we get a lot or all of the same benefits from only multi joint movements. And if we can and can we really abbreviate workouts down on the more abbreviated or workout becomes the more we might be able to get more people to exercise and simplify protocols for people that currently perceive exercise to be complicated and time consuming. 

Adam [00:01:29] Welcome to the show I'm really happy to have Dr. James Fisher with us today. It's been a while since we've done a podcast is starting our fifth season and couldn't be happier to kick it off with Dr. James Fisher. 

Adam [00:01:41] Dr.Fisher is a researcher and senior lecturer in sports conditioning and fitness at South Hampton Solent university in the United Kingdom. Dr. Fisher completed his HD from Nottingham Trent University and he has published more than 70 peer reviewed journal articles relating to exercise physiology and athletic performance. Much of his research considers methodological approaches to resistance exercise including modalities and advanced training techniques. He's also publish critical commentaries challenging existing paradigms and practices that have higher risk of injury and lack evidence of efficacy. So indeed he has publicly challenged which I like the notable academics and fallible processes in an attempt to ensure that scientific publications pertaining to resistance exercise preserve honesty and application. Finally James has published multiple large review articles aiming to provide trainers and trainees with an evidence based approach to optimizing resistance exercise for improving muscular strength purchase fee and cardiovascular fitness. So he sees as a priority of his academic position too to bridge the gap between what science says and what people are actually doing out there in the real world. James also by the way was a great Britain Paralympic basketball coach from 2008 to 2013 including the London 2012 Games. Very cool. He has been a tutor with the UK Anti-Doping organisation and is an IFBB accredited weight training prescription specialist and he speaks all around the world. With any remaining time he well he sleeps now actually. He is a proud husband and father and a competitive cyclist. Welcome James. 

James [00:03:23] Thank you very much Adam and thanks for that introduction. It's amazing what I can write them myself send them across. 

Adam [00:03:29] Actually we're going to talk about today James. We talked about this earlier. We want to talk about compound movements very simple movements. Won't you just help us define. First of all the difference between a compound movement and a simple movement or is otherwise known as multi joint movement and single joint movements. 

James [00:03:45] Yeah absolutely. So let's start with a single joint. So a single joint or an isolation movement is a movement normally around one axis or around a single axis. It's normally a single muscle or muscle group working to perform that movement in a rotary fashion which is the way the body works for example a knee extension or a knee curl bicep curl or TRICEP EXTENSION. In contrast the compound movement has a linear output because it's multiple joints working around a rotary fashion but because there are multiple joints the outcome is linear. So it's normally a chest press an overhead press a leg press because it's multiple joints it's multiple it's multiple muscle groups to produce stop that movement. 

Adam [00:04:29] Very good. We've covered this before in other episodes but I wanted to just review that real quick before we get into the weeds here. So what is the debate between compound movements and simple movements?

James [00:04:40] Well I guess the debate sort of springs back to where resistance trading as we as we probably currently see it as a product of body building originates from from having a high volume of training and the perception that we need to target muscles individually as well as left heavy weights by doing come from movements. And of course you know also obviously Arthur Jones obviously said or suggested that the last didn't get sufficient stimulus from things like a pull down or a chain exercise because they were the stronger muscle. So there was a need to do a single joint movement in the likes of the pullover and we know where that kind of led with Nautilus and so forth. So you know I think that this debate has come around of of you know is there a need for these additional single joint exercises or can we get a lot or all of the same benefits from only multi joint movements. And if we can then can we really abbreviate workouts down on the more abbreviated or workout becomes the more we might be able to get more people to exercise and simplify protocols for for people that currently perceived exercise to be complicated and time consuming. 

Adam [00:05:54] Yeah you know that reminds me when you talked about the bodybuilding world feeling that these single join or simple movements are necessary to build muscle and create hypertrophy hypertrophy is a fancy word for just getting getting big getting swaddle reminds me of an episode we did with the body builder Doug Brignole and he is he's of the belief that you definitely need to do single joint movements for hypertrophy for sure and multiple sets in large volume and really kind of pooh poohed the idea that you need movements for that effect. 

James [00:06:30] Yeah. I think a lot of bodybuilders do this because they you know let's take a typical bodybuilding workout of you know very high volume you know five to 10 sets of exercises and an hours and hours spent in the gym doing various split routines. Well if they're...