Adelfo Cerame: Viva Las Vegas! Or, How to Get Shoot Ready, When You are Caught Red-Handed on a Bulk ;-)

Image 1: These are (from left to right) Tommy Reynolds, Adelfo Cerame, Francine Sablan and, of course, Myotropics Physique Nutrition CEO Vince Andrich. While this photo shows the three of them, when Adelfo signed his sponsorship contract, you can meet all three of them, as well as David "Lambo" Lamb, Raymond Querido and Ian Lauer, fellow Myotropics Physique Athlete's at the company booth at the USA Championships in LA, on the coming weekend. So, if you are in the area, don't hesitate to drop by and say hello, shake hands and maybe get one or another product sample or workout tip - sounds good?

I don't know if you know those gut feelings, those days when you sense that a certain oftentimes unpleasant thing is going to happen? Well, exactly that happened to me earlier today. I opened my email inbox this morning and found... no email from Adelfo! Actually nothing out of the ordinary, as when I crawl out of the bed over here in Germany, Adelfo is usually just sitting in front of his laptop working on his Thursday blogpost, but in view of the fact that he had emailed me only a couple of days before that he had "almost forgotten" that he has an upcoming photo shoot and what I would think would be the best "last minute measures" to take to get shoot-ready, something in the back of my head kept telling me that there was the remote possibility that he could have forgotten about his blogpost, as well. So, I decided to write a brief email, suggesting that in the almost unthinkable circumstance that he had forgotten about his weekly blogpost, I would suggest that he wrote about the revelation he had had earlier this week and the way he decided to "prep" for the shoot. It cannot have been more than 30 seconds, after I had hit the "send"-button that I heard that notorious *ring* and an email from Adelfo landed in my inbox - attached to the mail, you guessed it, his weekly write-up! And as you will see, he had picked the exact same topic I had been thinking about...

Vegas Bound + Quick Bulk Update

It's usually not my nature to apologize in advance, but I got to try to make this a pretty brief update today, since I have a long day of traveling right ahead "Traveling? I thought the Wheelchair Championships were Adelfo's last competition for this year?" (click here to read about my prep for the WC'12), is probably what you are thinking now and I got to say, you are right!

The Championships were my last competition for 2013, but there is more than rolling around on stage to being a professional bodybuilder (even when you don't have your procard yet); and for me that means I will be traveling to Las Vegas tomorrow to represent my Sponsor, Myotropics Physique Nutrition, at teh USA's and to support my fellow Myotropics Physique Athletes Tommy Reynolds, Francine Sablan, Ian Lauer, Raymond Querido and David Lamb, all of whom are about to try to win their IFBB pro cards this weekend... and let me tell you this: I truly believe that each one of them has an incredible shot of earning this small piece of paper - so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised at all is all five of them earned their well-deserved credentials this weekend.

Caught red-handed... well, sort of ;-)

Image 2: Although I did avoid the post-contest binges and consequent weight and more importantly fat rebound after the Wheelchair Championships the impeding photoshoot cought me red-handed and I had to resort to a very strict Gironda-esque protein + fat + veggie only regimen to get shoot-ready in time. No crazy tricks and last minute extreme tactics with which you never know what you will get out of them

For me personally, the show really came as a surprise. I was just getting confident with the idea of not having a 100% cut six-pack, when I suddenly realized that I have a photo shoot this coming Sunday… it did, figuratively speaking, catch me red-handed (or should I say chocolate-mouthed - not what you are thinking, though!), while I was indulging my post-workout cake *lol*

Anyway, I put my bulk phase at a halt this week, and tried to attack the few days I had left as a "mini-cut". It stands to reason that I was not going to be losing a couple pounds within this short timespan, but by just flushing out as much water as possible you can already go a long way towards looking shoot-ready - even within 7 days!

Looking back at the week before I was even more greatful that the intermittent fasting and the satiating effects of Physique 2.0, Thermicarb and a whole lot of protein-laden real-foods meals had allowed me to control my post-contest binge cravings, so that I didn’t blow up as much as I did on previous post-contest eating-sprees. Still, the plan of attack for this week, is pretty strict: Low carb, high protein, and lots of water!

I know what you are probably asking yourselves now: "No secret supplements or intricate meal timing? No sodium laoding or depletion? No water pills or sweating in the Sauna?" And the answer to this is, believe it or not: "No, none of these tactics!" 

I have learned from past mistakes, including those I made in the days before the Wheelchair Championships which may well have cost me my pro-card: If you don't work with your body, it won't work for you and instead of taking the chance to squeeze out the last 1% that I may be missing to look the best I can on Sunday with this tried and proven, yet certainly not very exciting protocol, I'll rather stick with 99%, this time.

The USA's and what else?

Image 3: Whatever you feel is most impressive about Cutler's back, I bet it ain't his "wings", right?

Apropos 99%, I have as of late really become addicted to trying to improve my back. Back in the day (pun intended ;-), I didn't really care - probably like most trainees because the improvements as well as the weaknesses in your back are not so visible to you as those in the muscle you see, whenever you stand in front of a mirror. Accordingly, the obligatory lat pulls were basically the only exercise I did - and to be honest, my main reason to do them was, because they are said to help you grow those "wings"; but let's be honest, if you take a look at Jay Cutler's back in the photo on the right, you will have to admit that those "wings" are at least in my mind the least impressive parts of his enormously muscled posterior view; and that's probably part of the reason he has defended his title time and again before the small mishap in the days or weeks leading up to the 2011 Olympia.

From the picture below you can see that I still have a long way to go, but with my newfound enthusiasm for backtraining, which has become my favorite training day in the course of the past weeks (that has always been shoulders & chest, before) I am pretty confident that the results will show...

Image 4: Not yet as muscular and no longer as ripped as I want to be on my next contest, but I guess you got to live with a couple of weeks of being "in between" if you want to make serous progress.

...if I can manage to gain some muscle while keeping the fat gains at bay during the mass gain phase I have just begun. Up to now, I feel everything is working quite fine. Yeah, I am holding some water in my lower abdomen area, but I am used to that... it's funny how this it as always the first to come and often the last to go, but I have never had a problem to rid myself of those mini lovehandles when I was approaching the next contest and given the fact that the first weeks after a show is usually the time, when you are really blowing up, I am still fairly lean. I can still see the outlines of my rib cage, obliques and abdominals and most importantly (and probably also as a result of an increase in muscularity), my back is not just holding its definition, but also looking a lot thicker.

Call me crazy or biased, but I feel that the combination of intermittent fasting and my current supplement regimen, most prominently the Physique 2.0 + Thermicarb combo is actually helping with that - it's not that I was losing fat on a bulk; I mean, come on, you cannot really expect that, but the way it kept the cravings at bay was phenomenal.

We want YOU! At our booth ;-)

"Phenomenal", is by the way also the right word to describe what I expect the upcoming weekend at the USA's in Vegas to be... well, as long as my hotel room doesn't get robbed this time around! *lol* (click here to read the whole story about how I got robbed in Vegas last year) Ah, and before I forget about it: All of you, my dear SuppVersity readers who are going to be in the Vegas area this weekend, make sure you stop by and say hi to me and the rest of the Myotropics Crew at our booth at the 2013 USA Bodybuilding Championships.

I guess I'll see you in Vegas, then! And in the unfortunate case that you cannot make it to our booth, there will of course be the next installment of my weekly SuppVersity with more info on Mr. C. my new client whose "Rookie Workout" I outlined in the last installment.

Adelfo Cerame - R2WC: My Pre-Contest Supplement & Diet Regimen. Plus: Dr. Andro @ Quantum Physiques Radio

Image 1: That's what I call a Quantum Physique ;-)

I want to use Adelfo's blogpost today for a brief announcement, which is not exactly related to our common friend and soon to be pro wheelchair bodybuilder. Some of you will probably already have seen the link on the SuppVersity facebook page, the rest of you can just click here if you are not already fed up reading my stuff and believe you can handle another dose of "Dr. Andro" in podcast format ;-) I have been on Brian Cunningham's Quantum Physiques Radio show and despite the fact that this is no typo (the name of the show is Quantum Physiques), we have actually covered everything from Adam and Eve (=Paleo) to Einstein and his unwillingness to accept the strange behavior of quantum objects... I had a lot of fun and I guess at least some of you will enjoy listening to the show, as well!

Ah... I almost forgot: Don't take all the flattering things Brian says too literally. If anyone here deserves praise it's Adelfo, who is - judged by the latest pics I saw - right on his way to his pro-card; and with that I successfully got myself out of the limelight and pass the bar to someone who has his "Quantum Physique", already ;-)

My dear friends and followers, here at the SuppVersity!

It’s less than 10 days left, until your (hopefully) favorite wheelchair bodybuilder *lol* will be off to another competition! Time for me to look back and time for you to get some valuable insights into my diet and supplement regimen. I will try to make it as concise as possible and provide you with a brief rundown of what I have been doing for the past six weeks, which, as you will soon see was not much different from what I have found works best for me in the course of the past months already. And other than minor tweaks and adjustments, which can oftentimes really make a huge difference, you certainly won't start fixing something that ain't broken in the first place. Right? So let's see what we've got then:

Shameless plug! Just in case anyone of you is interested in joining me as a Myotropics Physique Nutrition sponsored athlete and/or fitness model, I suggest you head over to our Facebook site, like us and join the Myotropics Physique Nutrition Photo Contest.

The grand prize (male & female winners!) is a trip to Vegas + professional photo shoot and of course the opportunity to represent the company in the future. For the unlikely case that you don't have enough friends and family to vote for you, there are a lot of other things that make it well worth to participate in the contest!

Contest prep supplement staples:

1. Thermogenic/ fat burner:
   
   Dosing: 1 serving upon waking during my fasting hours
   
   Notes: I don’t use fat burners all throughout my prep; I incorporate them, when I’m about 4-6 weeks out to help pick things up. Don't expect them to actively burn fat, though. It is more a means to keep your overall energy levels and metabolism up, as well as to shift your metabolism further into the "fat burning" zone in order to preserve precious muscle and liver glycogen.
    
2. DAA/ D-aspartic acid
   
   Dosing: Mid-morning during my fasting hours - 1 serving 3g
   
   Notes: Those of you who have been following my posts here at the SuppVersity from the very beginning will remember that I did a test run for Purus Labs’ D-Pol in the course of my last prep, and really liked this supp; I am not sure if it's just in my head, but I felt that it did help me to maintain and slightly increase my strength even while dieting, so I figured "why not use it again" - and until now I did not regret that decision.
    
3. VPX Friction + baking soda + taurine
   
   Dosing: I take these pre-workout - 1 serving of Friction, 1tsp. baking soda and 5g of taurine
   
   Notes: I usually don’t take pre-workout supplements during the off-season, because I feel like I get enough energy from my foods, when I am dieting, though, I enjoy the little extra boost they give me and the taurine and baking soda help me endure and recover from longer workouts
    
4. BCAA’s + Creatine monohydrate
   
   Dosing: Intra-workout - 25g BCAA (bulk powder), 5g creatine monohydrate (bulk powder)
   
   Notes: This is a supplement combination that I do year round, and sometimes I’ll add baking soda to it if I feel like or have the taste for it. The reason I take the creatine intra-workout at the moment is that my current preworkout already contains creatine, by spacing it out somewhat I try to maximize absorption (if the idea of not taking all your creatine at once is news to you, check out Adel's post "The Pharmacology of Creatine")
    
5. Melatonin (regular, not time released)
   
   Dosing: 30mg before bed, when I notice that my sleep gets worse or I am having trouble falling asleep
    
6. Protein shake
   
   Dosing: 40g = 1 serving of Physique 2.0
   
   Notes: Before being sponsored by Myotropics, I used just supplement with a regular fast digesting whey, in view of the more sustained protein influx from the total milk proteins, I did yet switch to a full serving of Physique 2.0, which has the added bonus of  having 15g of ThermiCarb (a patented form of WM HDP) per serving (I also have a prototype of our new product, which is just the carbohydrate fraction of Physique 2.0, I use post-workout, see detailed plan below). I  add in another tbsp. of raw honey for some faster carbs and am good to go.

I guess, some of you may now be disappointed, as I suppose you expected to see a much longer list full of exotic items you could waste your money on, but let's be honest, we all know that supplements ain't game changers and if you revise my plan you will see that sticking to the tried and proven trio of creatine, protein and some free form amino acids, complemented by one or two things you personally like (in my case these were a pre-workout product and the DAA), is all it really takes, when you got your exercise and nutrition regimen dialed in to the T.

Bodybuilding nutrition made simple: A Food-based meal planning template

This takes us right to the next and - at least in my humble opinion - way more important part of contest dieting: The diet itself! Or rather the foods and macronutrient ratios you are aiming for. I obviously eat other foods, as well, but the following selection represents the cornerstones of my contest prep diet, you can pick an puzzle them together as you like or introduce your own favorite foods; having a "stock" of items to turn to does make planning your diet much easier and less stressful - keep that in mind before you discard the notion of having "standard foods" you combine in different ways for whatever reason

• Protein sources:
  
  

  

  Image 2: This is what a typical rest day protein and fat meal would look like ;-)

  Pork loin: center cut/ tenderloin/ sirloin I’ve ditched the chicken breast and switched over to lean pork cuts. If you choose the right cuts and quality of pork, the macronutrient profile of a lean cut of pork is just the same as a piece of chicken breast. Lean pork cuts are also a lot tastier in my  opinion and less pricy.
  
  Game Meats: Elk/ antelope/ dear/ bison/ wild boar At my local farmers market they sell frozen packaged game meats – I like wild gamey meats, because they have a distinctive taste to them that I enjoy, plus they’re grass- fed, and the fat content is a lot lower, and, again, almost as close to chicken breast in macronutrient content.
  
  Whole cage free eggs: Whole eggs are one of my favorite protein sources to choose from for my non-training day/rest day meals; on these days my fat intake is a bit higher, conversely the carbohydrate intake is reduced and the yolks provide me with all the healthy fats and fat soluble nutrients I need.
  
  Tilapia/ canned tuna These are foods I incorporate into my regimen towards the end of my prep; for some reason I’ve always done it this way. I just find these two foods convenient and efficient for me to prepare and they fit nicely into the macronutrient ratios I am aiming for in the final 2-3 weeks of my prep.

• Carbohydrate sources:
  
  

  

  Image 3: Yeah, folks! That's Pineapple on the plate in the background ! And no, I am not afraid that there is fructose in it!

  Starches - Tubers such as, sweet potatoes/ yams/ organic russets/ colored potatoes
  I like tubers as my main source for starchy carbs because I can eat more of it and it fills and satisfies me; basically I can have larger servings from tubers with my given macronutrient numbers for carbohydrates compared to other carbohydrate sources, such as rice, which I do yet eat on occasion
  
  Vegetables - cucumbers/ zucchini/ carrots/ kale/ sweet mini peppers Not only do they taste good raw and by themselves, but they’re cheap, and you can buy a weeks worth for around $10
  
  Fruits: Pineapples/ papayas / bananas (earlier in the prep) Other than their awesome health benefits, these fruits satisfy my sweet tooth. 
  
  Honey (raw)  Another carbohydrate dense food that I like to use after my workouts to speed up glycogen replenishment

• Fat sources:
  
  Virgin coconut oil I take a tbsp. with almost every meal
  
  Sour cream/ heavy whipping cream/ real cheeses I use these 3 fat sources to add to or if I have any more room for my fat macros.

Putting it all together - no blueprint, just an example

To finally give you a general idea of what all that looks like in practice, I have compiled the following overview of my nutrition and supplementation regimen on an exemplary day in my life during contest prep:  

5-6am: I wake and take my fat burner  - I’m trying OxyElite Pro this prep, and it’s just as good as meltdown, the product I used during my last prep 7-8am: Cardio - 15-20 minute HIIT cardio/ 20 minute swim, or  45-60 minute of low intensity cardio (walking the dog) 9 or 10am: D-aspartic acid one serving (3g) 3pm: Breaking fast w/  pre-workout meal - 2 tilapia fillets/ or 2 cans of tuna - cucumbers & carrots - 1 tbsp.  RAW coconut oil 3:45pm: Pre-workout supplements - VPX Friction - 1 tsp baking soda - 5g taurine

4:30-6:30pm: Training + Intra-workout  - 25g BCAA’s - 5g creatine monohydrate Immediately post-workout:   - Physique 2.0 - 1 serving - ThermiCarb - 1 serving - 1 tbsp. RAW honey 7:30-8:00pm: PWO meal - 2 tilapia fillets - sweet potato - fruits & veggies 10:30pm: Last meal  - Pork tenderloin - veggies - 1 tbsp. coconut oil 11pm: 30mg melatonin (if I feel, I need it)

Modifications on non-training days: On my non-training days, I’m not on any supplements other than my fat burner; my meals on my rest days consists of whole eggs, wild game meats, fruits and vegetables and 1 tbsp. of coconut oil with every meal.Meal#1 ground antelope + fruits + veggies + coconut oil… I guess you get the notion ;-)

Adelfo Cerame RtWC12: Shoulder Your Weaker Body Parts! Bring Up Those Lagging Delts - Exercises, Splits, Routines

Image 1: After his 2nd place at the Nationals, Adelfo wanted to bring up his rear delts and although the lighting does not really do him justice, he made use of the weeks between the Nationals (right) and the USA (left) and filled up considerably.

It is more than 3 months ago that Adelfo and I have been talking about ways to bring up his somewhat lagging delts (if you could even say that there is something "lagging" about Adelfo's physique), yet still, it seems as if it had been yesterday that I told him that he would not have to wonder that those delts were not growing, when he was working them almost exclusively with compound movements for stronger body parts, which wouldn't allow the side and, more importantly, the rear delts to reach that highly productive, growth triggering point of just too much load to handle, but still not so much load that adaptation could not make up for it. And judged by his latest progress pics, Adelfo did not just take that comment to the heart, but was also able to make the appropriate changes to his routine. Good for you that he is no magician who would never betray any of his illusionist tricks, but gives away practical advice every week ;-)

Boulder shoulder tweaks

After my Florida show, I felt that my shoulders (front, side & rear) were an area in my physique that could use some improvement. It was not a clearcut weakness of mine, but when the initial disappointment subsided and I took another look at the comparison shots, I felt that Adel (aka Dr. Andro) had been right, when he said "If anything, you lost on one maybe two of the backshots, where Neil looked somewhat more massive - his rear-delts in particular." And yeah, he had been right, those rear delts did not really keep up with the rest of my back development, which - as you may probably remember - had been one of my priorities (aside from coming in as shredded as possible) during the prep for my first competition of the year. I knew I would not make the same mistake twice, and decided to level out those imbalances in the weeks to come.

Image 2:  The left hand side is a current image of me 4 weeks out from the USA’s, and the right hand image was me 4 days out from Nationals.

And allegedly, the results, now 14 weeks later, may not be earth-shattering, but the changes are unquestionably visible and that despite the fact that the "mini-bulk" I had originally planned for in-between the shows turned out to be more of an ameliorated diet ;-)

Make changes to see changes

While I guess that it should actually not be necessary for me to point out that continuing along a way that has lead you astray is a pretty stupid undertaking, I still see people do just that day by day - and not just in the gym, but also in their private and professional lives! Often ridden by the fear to make a change for the worse they'd rather continue along a known path that won't produce the desired results than to try something new that would at least hold the chance of improvement.

My old path consisted of training my shoulders once a week, following my basic training principle to use heavy compounds wherever possible and simply rely on the fact that those would provide an intense enough stimulus to both, the primary, as well as the auxiliary muscles that are involved in the respective exercises.

According to the aforementioned primacy not to follow a path which has lead you astray before another time, I increased the training frequency a bit and made a  couple of additional adjustments with respect to the exercise selection (see table on the right) and the grouping of the bodyparts, with auxiliary shoulder work on chest day.

Barbell jammers, bent over reverse cable fly’s and lat pulls behind the neck are 3 exercises that I have added into my training. Out of the three, I really enjoyed were those jammers - I felt they really targeted all areas of my delts, plus they are less stressing on the shoulders joints, because you're pushing in a forward/upward motion rather than right over the head. What was particularly surprising, though was how effective those three rear delt exercises actually were - I have never really paid much attention to it, let alone trained them in in isolation, but the way they felt during and after each workout told me that it may have been a mistake not to do DB rows (which are certainly more difficult for me to do than for an able person), lat pulls behind the neck and bent over reverse cable flys, before.

Training shoulders twice in a bi-weekly hybrid routine cycle

Image 3: Planned changes deliver results

Consequently, all three (DB rows, lat pulls behind the neck and bent over reverse cable fly’s) have turned into staples of my routine - irrespective of whether I am training at a higher or lower training volume on my new bi-weekly alternating hybrid routine

• EDT/5x5 = 2 week phase
• Overkill/5x5 = 2 week phase
• Hypertrophy/5x5 = 2 week phase

While cycling through these basic templates, I incorporated the aforementioned additional shoulder work into my existing split on "chest-" and "back-days" which allowed me to train my shoulders - just as my chest and back - twice a week.

The following example routine (which is not intended to be copied without adaptations) goes to show you how you can reconcile all that in one routine, where you would split your shoulder workout up into front and side delts on "chest-" and rear delts on "back days" (click to enlarge):

Workout routine: No blueprint, just an example - Overkill (left), 5x5 (middle), EDT (right) hybrid

As I said before, both the volume and the intensity of these workouts are pretty insane and I am not suggesting that any beginner should simply copy this workout. The idea, however, to incorporate front and side delts on your "chest-" and the rear delts on your "back-day" is yet something that will have merit regardless of your training status or overall conditioning. So pick your favorite exercises from table one, align them into a routine with a total volume and intensity that suits your need, eat well, train heavy and get enough rest and you will see your shoulders will grow ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to Wheelchair Championships: What Sitting in a Chair Teaches You About Isolation Exercises

Image 1: "Hey Dude! Those arms come from rolling around in the chair, right?

The time is flying by, it's almost June (just a few couple of hours left in May) and for Adelfo his next big day is approaching fast. After last weeks brief panic attack (see "Don't Let Red Flags and Banana Skins Stop You!), he is back on track this week and that despite the fact that he has a hell lot of work to do that is not related to working out or dieting... or writing his weekly blogposts on the SuppVersity, of course. Usually you would think that sitting in a wheelchair does make all that more complicated and troublesome, but as you will see in this week's installment of Adelfo Cerame's Road to the Wheelchair Championships, sitting in a wheelchair can also have certain advantages, even when it comes to building a better physique!

The overlooked advantages of training in a wheelchair

I don’t get approached much, but when I do, the majority speculates that I have attained and maintain my physique from pushing my wheelchair around. I assume many people will think that I would expend more energy than the average able body person, and get my fair share of low intensity cardio on a daily basis, due to being and moving in a chair throughout the day, but I am neither sure that this is actually the case (assuming that the aforementioned person is not the average obese couch-potato), nor do I believe that the actual act of moving around in the chair has much of anything to do with my ability to achieve and maintain the physique I have.

In a wheelchair or not, it takes dedication, consistency and balance to be able to achieve the physique you want. I’m no exception to the rule; I still have to diet and train just like everyone else. There’s no magic pill or in my case magic wheelchair, that will get you your results.

With that being said; it was brought to my attention the other day by one of my training partners, that I must really get a good isolation when I do my exercises, just for the fact that I cannot use my legs as a leverage.  I paused and thought about it... and yeah, being in a wheelchair does have some training advantages. At least, as far as upper body development and strength are concerned. I think some of the more or less involuntary, since obligatory isolation movements, I do for certain body parts did and still do contribute to my size and strength gains; and what's more, I believe able persons, like you probably are, could benefit from some of them, as well!.

Image 2: Let's face it guys, THIS can't be the result from rolling around in a wheelchair all day, right?

Due to being paralyzed from the waist down, the isolation may come more "naturally" (whatever that may mean in this context), but there is nothing that would hinder you from emulating it and grasping similar benefits from

• not planting your feet/ legs on the floor and thusly having less leverage and a less solid base, when doing exercises like bench presses
• not curling or pushing (down) from your legs, when you do biceps curls or triceps push-downs
• not being able to bend over like crazy and compensate with your legs, when you did actually sit down to counter exactly those compensatory movements that will hinder you to isolate a certain muscle group as for example during single-arm DB side laterals

Don't get me wrong I am not even accusing you of "cheating", it is totally normal for your body to try to make it as easy as possible for you - or in this case, the "target muscle" - to lift the weight. When an object is too heavy to lift with your lats alone, that little extra kick with your legs will help you the inertia and allow you to complete the rest of the lift.

The unstable bench is probably not ideal for maximal leverage, but a means to isolate the pecs

Simlarly, on a bench press, people will start arching their backs like crazy (something that obviously will require leg involvement), whenever the load gets to heavy to be lifted properly. In some cases this may be the conscious application of a lifting technique, for 99% of the average gymrats, however, it is simply an instinctive reaction of your body to a load it feels your chest, front delts and triceps (the major muscle groups the flat bench press should activate) won't be able to lift, without a little help from your legs that would put them in a favorable position.

Image 3: This is how I feel every time I get under a flat press bench *lol* As you can see, able people must lift their legs, so they can isolate the chest, and when you isolate a muscle, you stimulate and target the area much more efficiently - at least on a pound per rep base.

Now, it goes without saying that, in my case, this mechanism, or rather its practical realization are no longer operating, since most of the connection between my brain and legs is out of whack. When I do a flat bench exercise – it’s not that my chest, my delts and my tris are unable to make things easier for themselves by signaling my brain to use the legs to position my body differently, I will also have to accommodate for the lack of stability (to the left and right) able people derive from planing their legs firmly on the ground. If you still don't get where this is headed to, check out the image 3.

To isolate or not to isolate? Is that a question, at all?

Image 4: For your isolation movements, you want to pick muscles that are lagging and exercises that work for you. For me a lagging body part are my rear delts and the rear delt cable fly is the exercise, of which I feel that I get the best contraction in this part of my body.

While some people will tell you that "isolation does not even exist" and that all your efforts to train a certain muscle group in isolation were futile, my take on it is slightly different. Allegedly, when you do compound exercises, heavy pulling and pushing, this will always involve a whole host of muscles / muscle groups. Take my EDT training split for example; there’s not a single of those "fancy isolation exercises", as critics like to refer to them, involved - just basic compound movements: Hard, heavy and intense!

Still, there are benefits in some isolation movements, in my opinion and I think Dr. Andro would have to agree on the fact that the addition of a couple of well-chosen isolation exercises (keep in mind, well-chosen implies that you pick those exercises that work for you, not for Adelfo Cerame, Dr. Andro, or Jay Cutler), when executed with proper form and intensity can provide advanced trainees with the additional accentuated training stimuli neither a "compounds only"- nor the average muscle mag "do every biceps isolation exercise known to man in one single session and repeat that ten times"-workout. 

Muscle groups and exercises for isolation

As I have already stated before, your exercise choice will be based mainly on on your personal preferences and goals - with the latter having priority before the former: You would, for example not do tons of hammer DB hammer curls on a preacher bench, if your brachialis was already bigger than your biceps. On the other hand, you would maybe chose standing calf raises on one of those funky machines over doing them freely, if you feel that you are getting a better contraction on the machine.

Video 1 (click to watch): Here’s a clip of me training rear delts. I don’t really do much for my rear delts, since they are constantly getting hit when I do chins, DB rows, and seated back rows (Adelfo Cerame. 2013).

As a rule of thumb, the smaller muscle groups usually benefit most from isolation work. For me, those are the side and rear delts, so so much my front, though; for one, my front delts are already in pretty decent shape and for two, they get hammered with almost every pressing movement you do. It would therefore not make sense for me to do additional isolation work for them. For the side and the rear delts this is, as I said, differently, and with the usual trial & error (no, you cannot avoid that completely ;-), I have found that for me also due to being in my chair, two exercises work particularly well:

1. DB side laterals – Gripping one side of my chair, I lean towards the other, so that I can balance the weight of the dumbbell in my hand, then I grip the wheel and do the raises, probably similar to the way you do them. While you could possibly use other muscles than your delts to help yourself out and cheat the DB up, though, the rest of my body is pretty much occupied with keeping me stable so that I get a very decent contraction in my delts - and only in my delts ;-)
2. Bent over reverse cable fly’s – I've been through basically every rear delt exercise you can possibly do, I believe, and it was by no means easy to find one that works for me. Either I cannot do them at all, or they don't really isolate the muscle, the way I want them to. What I did find works pretty well, though are the bent over reverse cable fly's (see video 1). And again, not being able to rock to the left or to the side from the legs, must not necessarily be a disadvantage here.

Now, as you can see, this are two, I repeat, TWO, isolation movements for muscles you can actually isolate. Many of the intitially mentioned guys who speculate that it must be my wheelchair due to which I build those "great arms", on the other hand, will be "hitting" their chest, their biceps and some also their triceps "from every angle" in hope for "full development" - I am using quotationmarks here, because I've heard that time and again and usually the laughable results speak for themselves... in other words, isolate where it makes sense, but stick to one exercise per muscle and max. two exercises per muscle group; do only a couple of sets and focus on form and contraction - everything else is just a waste of time.