SportsShoes Blog

I was asked today exactly what “compound exercises” are when weightlifting as i talk about their importance quite alot with fellow colleagues at work.

A Compound exercise works several muscle groups at once, and includes movements around two or more joints at the same time. For example a bench press is a compound exercise because when you are performing the exercise you are primarily using your chest but it uses secondary muscles to stabilize it, such as the triceps and shoulders.

Same theory behind deadlifts. These are ”compound exercises” because you are primarily using your lower back but also pulls in muscles from your legs and forearms.

I use compound exercises a lot as i feel i get a much better workout than doing all isolation exercises. Ultimately you build muscle depending on how much testosterone is created and doing “compound exercises” creates a lot more testosterone than performing isolation moves…hence, building muscle faster.

Also, i want to strip fat from my weight training sessions as well as put on muscle and when I am doing exercises such as deadlifts the sweat just pours off me and i feel great!  

If you are unsure a quick checklist of compound exercises are:

Bench press, Deadlift, Barbell Squat, Deadlift, Lunges, Row, Push-Up, Dips, Bench Press, Military Press, Hang Clean and Press.

The simple rule is that you use compound exercises as the core of your workout and isolation exercises to “fine tune”.

I found this video on how to perform a correct bench press … one of my favourite compound exercises!

Enjoy!