Didn't want to re-edit my post so a quick follow-up. A kind soul on this board pointed out that some substandard writing on my part left a gaping hole in my fact pattern, as such I will supplement as follows:
Regarding my third paragraph, my intention was to say that incremental progress has been made to introduce new exercises that go BEYOND traditional compound exercises squats, lunges, deadlifts, pull ups, pushups, etc. Just as the use of compound exercises are far superior to isolation (/machine-based) exercises, my contention is that "muscle confusion" techniques, when done in collaboration with compound exercises, take it to the next step.
Re-reading my post, I realize I must have brain-farted and skipped a part criticizing isolation exercises, and thereby inaccurately confused compound with isolation in my writing.
Mea culpa.
