@coregurlz Does your animation feature IK? If so have you already 'mapped' out your empty target points?
If the answer to both is yes I would avoid using propogate.
As a general rule I prefer to manually manipulate the keyframes within the Dope Sheet, it allows me greater control of the timings and movements. Personally I us Shift D whilst having the key frames of the bones I want to remain static in the animation selected in the dope sheet, then I move duplicates along the timeline.
I hope that makes sense.