Originally published on South Coast Today.

I can remember watching the last presidential election and taking notice of then-candidate Donald Trump advocating isolationism and thinking: This guy knows nothing about functional exercise.

I was on a mission to write an op-ed piece warning the electorate about the shortcomings of muscle isolation as an approach to exercise. I was disheartened by the lack of interest in my rebuttal to such a seemingly flawed platform. My despair turned to embarrassment when I later learned that he was talking about the Joseph Kennedy brand of isolationism, not the ill-fated gym movement of the 1980s.

Muscles are good for a lot more than looking good at the beach. During physical activity our muscles can play several different roles. Muscles are most commonly associated with the job of generating an intended movement. Muscles can be the star of the show or sometimes be a behind-the-scenes player helping out other muscles. The help might be a direct boost or it may offer some assistance in more indirect ways as well. Here are some less obvious ways our muscles are called upon:

• to stabilize a body part to better allow for a principal muscle to carry out its action.

• to restrict a movement that would be counterproductive to the deliberate movement.

• to oppose another muscle’s action for the purpose of joint stability and …

• to act as a decelerator during high-speed limb movements to protect joint structures from potential harm.

The bottom line is that our muscles play a lot of different roles.

The biceps might be used as an elbow flexor to bend the elbow when drinking a beer or it might be used as a forearm supinator to outwardly rotate the forearm to a palms-up position when begging for beer money.

Our muscles are suited to perform hulking actions like a heavy clean and jerk and delicate precision actions like an artist’s brushstrokes, as well as simple movements such as blinking an eye and complex movements such as swinging a golf club.

Coordinated movement and purposeful non-movement should not be taken for granted. The most seemingly basic of physical tasks, such as sitting upright, involves an immense network of physiological processes in action. Imagine what is taking place in the body during complex movements like a gymnast’s Olympic performance. Kudos to God for the engineering.

Back to isolationism. Body-part-isolation types of exercises have enjoyed a fair amount of popularity through the years. I can see why. It’s a pretty easy sell. We live in a culture where influencer marketers push us toward self-critical obsession based on the message that we’re unappealing. So when we’re self-conscious about a particular part of our body and there’s an exercise that targets that very area, it would seem like a good idea to try it.

An exercise that delivers a burning sensation smack dab in the shameful region that taunts you from the mirror feels right. But localized muscular fatigue does not correct our troubling and often misperceived flaws. It’s very easy to target a specific muscle, but muscular adaptations don’t usually address misshapen body compartments, rolls, creases or any of the things we love about ourselves.

Muscle isolation does have its place, particularly in rehab situations, and it certainly makes sense for spot building and the body sculpting side of things. But muscle isolation is fundamentally nonfunctional. Body-part-isolation exercises do not mimic how we use our bodies in athletic conditions or in our daily lives. We rarely isolate our muscles. The more common occurrence is the use of many muscles in concert with one another to produce movement.

Carrying a load of laundry up the stairs, unlocking a door while holding your kid, and serving a tennis ball are very complex undertakings that draw upon plenty of muscles.

It’s no accident that cross-country skiers are known for having huge aerobic capacities and burning a ton of calories. The activity is weight bearing. There’s a lot of large-muscle-mass involvement of the legs and a lot of arm use to go along with all that lower-body grind. In other words, cross-country skiers are using a lot of different muscles at the same time.

I’m often reminded of an anecdote from the old gym where one of the rebel weightlifters went to a chichi gym and did some power cleans well before they became mainstream. A curious onlooker asked: “What muscle are you working?” He glibly responded: “All of them.” Perfectly stated!

Functional exercise is where it’s at. It strives to prepare the body for how it’s being put to use during other areas of physical execution. Whether looking at work, play or everyday activities, there are similarities in how our bodies are being called upon.

Exercise prescription should replicate these conditions and deliver practical needs. If you’re good in a gym but can’t carry bundles, what’s the use? We most likely want our workouts to translate to the playing field and our honey-do lists.

Try to include some structural, multi-joint exercises in your workouts.

Cleans, snatches, squats, dead lifts, bench presses and the like offer a lot of bang for your buck. They’re good for strength, muscle stabilization, skill and coordination, and osteogenic loading (for bone health), among other things.

The more muscles you bring to the party, the better. They’re so brilliantly designed to collaborate with each other, we should be encouraging this practice, not coming up with ways to neglect it.

Isolation may be good for hermits and dangerous criminals, but not for general fitness.