Be honest with yourself, have you ever considered training just that one specific muscle group you wish to grow better? If you’re honest answer is no, I personally congratulate you! As this article is going to cover the cons of training just the one group out of the whole body. If your honest answer was yes, maybe this article will change your perspective when planning your goals.
It’s not everyday that I come across a question regarding specific body part training, but unfortunately, it’s not that rare as well. Usually the male clients would would work their upper body, and skip lower body sessions whereas for the female clients it’s the opposite. It’s not wrong wanting to target a specific muscle group, you have your goal, and that’s great! But, and that’s a pretty big but, it’s not recommended to train only the muscle group that would support your goal.
If you’ve been following the articles section of the site and browsed some of the pain related articles, you probably remember some of the muscle related pain chains, where a single muscle can cause pain in a whole different area of the body. That is the first reason why you should not train just one muscle group. Without getting into specific muscles, as the examples vary from client to client, we’d use force explanations. If you train only a specific muscle group, every contraction of that group, over time, would generate more force, and as a result would require the surrounding muscles to generate more force in order to keep the skeleton aligned. Due to the fact that those surrounding muscles are not engaged as part of the training program, there would come a time where no more force could be generated from them, at which point the risk for an injury to occur is high. And an injured individual cannot participate in weight training, so the whole goal is missed.
In case the injury prevention does not change your mind, let’s dive into some of the less discussed topic of the body. The endocrine system, AKA hormones. Yes, hormones! Different studies conducted on the matter show that there is a relation between hormonal response and the amount of muscle tissue engaged. For instance Endocrine Responses To Resistance Exercise discusses the different variable that may effect endocrine responses to different weight training programs, examining specific hormone responses.
While the study found that the endocrine response may be related to the intensity, volume and amount of muscle tissue involved. Different study checked the relation between hormonal response and muscle strength when training a single arm, or a single arm and the legs. The results from that study, both on the endocrine and strength build up favours the arm legs group.
Bottom line for this paragraph, if you train the whole body, involving more muscle groups and therefor engaging more muscle tissue and raising the intensity of the session. You are more likely to progress more towards your goal faster.
Conclusion
You would benefit more from training your whole body rather than just focusing on that specific area you wish to change. Training your whole body would not interrupt your goal, it would most likely accelerate the process.
Engaging bigger muscle groups would trigger your endocrine system, and as a result help with your recovery and progress. Training the whole body would keep the balance between different muscle groups and would reduce the chances of an injury. Which would allow you to continue training towards your goal more efficiently.
Always make sure to consult a professional when planning your training program. Do not consult uncertified individuals regarding matters concerning your health. If you have any questions or found an error in this article, let me know. Stay Safe!