Mythbusters Vol 7
by Nate Green
07/16/09

Dave Tate and others weigh-in on the difference between "compound movements" and "isolation movements" and the necessity of eating 6 times a day.

T-Nation actually published an article that said meal frequency was irrelevant... and then cited a published scientific study?! I'll just stick to six meals a day, bro.

Interesting...The meal frequency thing has always been something Ive wondered about. Being a runner, its just difficult to get in 5-6 meals a day and schedueling it around training sessions can be hell.

Usually I do four, and although I have not seen much muscular increase (Im a runner keep in mind, not one of the ungodly strong dudes on this board) but I have noticed that I can plan meals around running sessions to have eak energy reserves

Good read. I'd like to see elbow tendinitis covered in a future article. It's something many of us tolerate, but prehab/rehab info on the subject is about as easy to find as a virgin in the
Bunny Ranch.

fta:
"To do that, put your arm out to the side and press forward for five seconds and backwards for five seconds into a fixed object such as the hand of your training partner or a door frame. Repeat this five times in each direction."

So for the heck of it, i jumped and did this (have a shoulder with slight pain); immediately noticed a difference. I really got my money's worth out of this article.

That bit about eating every few hours surprised me, I thought that was one bit of nailed on bodybuilding orthodoxy. I know Hale wrote that it's "fine" to eat frequently, but I thought it was more than fine, I thought it was absolutely required.

Is that really a myth that's been busted or just the opinion of one particular coach?

"Here's the thing that cracks me up: how the fuck do you define what a compound movement is?"

I thought it was pretty easy to define a compound movement. That being said, of course it's dumb to shun isolation movements when hypertrophy is the goal. The damn fitness industry ruined this concept thinking that no one wants larger muscles.

so who's gonna start eating 3 1300 calorie meals a day because of this article! not me... I don't like to feel too full.

Steve Reeves and alot of the 70's bodybuilders only ate 3 times a day. I find 4-5 to be best for me.

In regarding compound and isolation exercises, I think that everyone has different structures with some muscles that respond better than others so isolation movements can make a huge difference in adding muscle and shape. Some of the basic exercises will build a certain strength base and some size but some people might find out that certain movements do not give them the results they are looking for.

A personal example for myself are my delts and arms. I have to hit my delts with every isolation movement and basic movements to get any kind of roundness to them but I can do anything for arms and they will grow.

I felt the seated calf raise example was a stretch. You shouldn't be using your arms to help lift the weight up, that negates the point of the exercise. If you say that, then every free weight exercise is a compound movement...you have to lift the weight from the weight-rack to the bar at some point and that required more than one isolated muscle/movement.

Maybe we should get rid of the term "isolation movements" and replace it with "less compound movements."

when I first started working out and eating right I would start to freak out if I wasn't getting any food/protein exactly every 3 hours based on what I read on, well, practically every fitness site/source out there. It took a while to learn an hour here or there within reason didn't hurt anything, but that total cals at the end of the day mattered most.

That said, what do you guys do when you have to play "catch up" and you realize you still have to eat 1000+ cals before the end of the day, but its 9 PM you only have one meal left? Eat a 1000 cal pre-bed meal?

"Let's say you take a guy and make him do a full-body workout. During that session he might be lucky enough to do one set that's worth a fuck. And out of that one set maybe he had two reps that actually stimulated the muscle enough to get stronger or bigger. So over a period of that full-body workout he walked away with maybe ten total reps that are worth anything."


If FBW's are mostly a waste of time, what split would allow every rep to be a muscle builder? I love building muscle, but I refuse to do another rep that isn't effective. What is the (macro) answer - the perfect split which insures no wasted time. A famous x pro BB (a few years back) once said that he would only go into the gym if he could guarantee each lift would produce new growth. If he couldn't he didn't want to be there. I feel the same way. Assuming diet/cals/ratios, are spot on, and assuming reps/sets and exercises per BP will be altered periodically), and assuming muscle size is all that matters, what is the ultimate (body-part) split? Thanks.

I miss Tate's point. Seemed like completely random irrelevant piece of thought with a lot of f-words...

I am seeing more and more information, and not just here, suggesting that 5-6 meals are not necessary. I am not aware of controlled studies that prove that there is a measured benefit to having 5-6 meals per day. With that said, this does not mean that 5-6 meals is not good. A few people have already mentioned that it would be difficult to eat 4000-5000kcal in 3 meals. That seems a good reason to have more meals. Another good reason to have more meals, is that if you are eating a deficit, eating more often may stave off hunger pains.

I'll throw a rhetorical out there. For arguments sake, if there was no difference in 4 meals or 6 if the total food quantity is the same, who benefits if you believe 6 is better?