The Big 6 Massively Effective Compound Exercises

Are you interested in creating a strong healthy functional body?
Then these 6 massively effective compound exercises are for you!

These exercises encourage you to burn fat, build muscle and functionally strengthen your body for everyday tasks.

Compound exercises use more than one joint and multiple muscle groups to perform an exercise as opposed to isolation exercises that focus on a specific muscle.

Compound movements are effective and efficient at producing better results – the more muscles you involve in exercises, the more muscle you are going to produce and increase your endurance and strength.

These exercises are commonly performed using a barbell, however these can also be performed with some dumbbells or other pieces of exercise equipment e.g. kettlebells.

Benefits of compound exercises include:

1. Efficiency – save time by working out more muscle groups at once.
2. Burn more calories – as you are using more muscles, you burn more overall calories. Stimulating multiple muscle groups encourages your body to burn fat faster and increases your metabolism.
3. Lift heavier loads -engaging more muscle groups distributes heavier loads and helps strengthen your body.
4. Build core strength – As most compound exercises engage and strengthen your core, your balance and posture are improved and a healthy back is maintained as pressure is taken of the spine.

When exercising, a good rule of thumb in order to maximize efficiency in your workouts is to spend 80% of your focus and time on compound exercises and then spend the remaining 20% on isolation exercises. Spend the first 80% of your workout and energy on completing these compound exercises.

In addition to this, spend 80% of your home gym workout mastering the same exercises and 20% left over on variation.

What are the big 6 massively effective compound exercises?

Squat
Dead lift
Bench press
Overhead press
Bent-over Row
Chin up

What primary body parts are targeted with each exercise?

Squat – glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, lower back and core.

Deadlift – glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, adductor muscles, lower, mid & upper back, biceps and traps.

Bench Press – pecs, triceps, delts, traps and back.

Overhead Press – delts, chest, triceps, biceps, upper traps and lats.

Bent Over Row -lats, rhomboids, rear delts, traps and biceps.

Chin-up – lats, upper back and biceps.

The Squat

The squat is a full body movement that engages almost every muscle in the body. It is a powerlifting competition exercise, and for good reason. Squats are great for building muscle, strength and increasing mobility. As well as being an effective compound leg exercise, they are also a very practical and functional exercise – as you squat in your everyday life picking things up.

The Deadlift

The deadlift is an essential tool for creating strength and is a classic benchmark of overall strength. The barbell deadlift is also a powerlifting competition lift which primarily targets your mid and upper back, hamstrings, quads, glutes and core, but also your lats, traps, biceps and forearms. It builds core strength and stability and is very beneficial even with light to moderate weights. It develops overall strength and size in the posterior chain. Deadlifts help you build muscle and burn fat as well as increase strength and are always useful for everyday functionality like bending and picking things up.

There are many types of deadlifts however the two most popular are:

Conventional deadlift – hands are on the outsides of your legs, targets your lower back (spinal erectors) and hips more.

Sumo deadlift – hands are on the insides of your legs, targets your quads more.

The Bench Press

The bench press is probably the most famous gym exercise. Another powerlifting exercise, it develops your chest and gives you extraordinary pushing strength and power. It primarily uses your chest / pec muscles, triceps, interior delts (shoulders), traps and back.

It can be an intimidating exercise for a female so in order to ease in to it, push-ups or kneeling push ups can be a way to progress towards them. But as they are so effective at developing your chest, shoulders and triceps as well as burning fat and increasing muscle they are a great exercise to do.

When performing the bench press and you do not have a spotter or safety arms on the bench you are using it is best to not use barbell collars. This is so if you happen to get stuck you could slide the weights off each end. It is best to perform the bench press with a good quality squat rack like the Rogue HR-2 half rack and use spotter arms. Just like any other gym exercise, the bench press should be performed in a stable and controlled manner so the weights should not be sliding on the barbell anyway. If they are then you are probably lifting more weight than you can safety balance.

The Overhead Press

Also referred to as a shoulder press – this great upper-body strength conditioning exercise increases strength in your shoulders triceps, chest, upper traps and lats making it a popular compound shoulder exercise.

It is a great exercise for everyday movements such as reaching for things, e.g. putting objects in cupboards above your head.

When doing overhead presses, make sure you start with light weights and progress and as a beginner to not overload on weights in order to protect yourself from shoulder injury.

The Bent-over Row

This is a great pulling exercise which strengthens your lats, improves posture and builds a bigger stronger back. This exercise targets your mid back, latissimus dorsi, traps, biceps as well as your core, hips and arms. This exercise is a great alternative to the wide grip lat pull-down machine you see in most commercial gyms.

With the bent-over row it is extra important that you make sure that you have good form in order to avoid injury.

The Chin Up

The Chin Up is a great compound body weight exercise which you can also add weight to with a weight belt. It prioritizes bicep recruitment so it is great for increasing muscle in your biceps and for sculpting your arms and upper body. It is also a great exercise for stabilizing your back and core.

An alternative to the chin up exercise is the pull up in which your grip faces away from you in an overhand position as opposed to towards you in an underhand grip. This exercise is also a great alternative to “wide grip lat pull-down”. It is great to mix both chin ups and pull ups into your exercise routine.

If you are struggling to do a chin up as a beginner, here are some tips to help you perform this exercise:

• In a commercial gym, you can use the assisted pull-up machine which has a platform to add weight so you can lower the resistance. This will make it easier for you to perform the exercise and you can lower the added weight as you progress;

• Use a resistance band to lower the resistance using a normal chin up bar;

• Put an object like a bench underneath your legs that you can use to rest your legs on;

• Perform easier strength building exercises such as the horizontal pull up or half pull ups
  

Other great effective compound exercises

• Pull ups
• Push ups
• Walking lunges
• Farmers walk
  

Conclusion

To maximize your workouts, consider how many specialization and isolation exercises you are doing, and instead focus on proven effective compound exercises which will bring you further along in your muscle gain and/or weight loss goals.

Master your chosen exercises and avoid too much adaptation. Focus on becoming really good at your chosen exercises. Spend 80% of your time here to see results faster.

The most efficient way to build strength is to perform these effective compound exercises as part of a weekly exercise routine.