Squats, Bench Press, Deadlift, Snatch, Pull Ups all have something in common. They are compound exercises. A compound exercise is any movement that requires the recruitment of muscles across multiple joints. Why is this important and useful? Let us take a look at the benefits and how they might impact your goals.
Benefits
What you might notice first when performing any compound exercise is they are very taxing on the body. Whether you are doing light weight and high repetitions (e.g. 8-15), low weight at a fast velocity, or heavy weight and low repetitions (e.g. 1-3), these movements will make you fatigue quickly. It makes sense why a Squat would be so energy consuming; it requires all of the leg and hip muscles to move the weight, the core to stabilize the body, and the upper body to hold the weight. The Squat is a full body exercise. That is very exhausting compared to an exercise such as Leg Extensions, which only target the quadricep muscles. Why is this concept helpful? The squat, and other compound exercises, are extremely time efficient.
With a tight time budget, compound exercises are key to getting a great work out in a short amount of time. You might have to deal with work, a family, and maintaining a social life. Incorporating Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Presses and Rows in your program might be your best choices for time management. Spending most of your time doing isolation exercises might not be the wisest use of time. Exercise selection matters when you want to reach your goals as quickly as possible.
Strength is medicine. It helps slow down the aging process, revamp your metabolism, progress balance, regulate hormones, and improve sleep. Learning to use your entire body to move relatively heavy weight is what compound exercises teach you to do. Going heavy on a Deadlift will strengthen all of your back and core muscles, hamstrings, and glutes. These are all the same muscles responsible for balance, posture, and walking. By being strong, your aging process slows down. If you can squat your body weight on a barbell, you probably won’t need a walker or cane to get around. Strength grants you the freedom to move however and whenever you please without help.
To be strong, you need to develop your muscles. Building muscle (hypertrophy) can be achieved through high repetition compound exercises. This will have astounding effects on multiple muscle groups. Let’s evaluate the Dumbbell Bench Press. If you do 4 sets of 12 repetitions, you will recruit the pecs (pectoralis major), shoulders (anterior deltoids), and triceps; all of which will grow. By increasing your muscle mass, you decrease the risk of heart issues down the line. Having more muscle helps you stay balanced when walking, carrying groceries, walking up and down stairs. This is crucial as we age.
Example
Now that we have a better understanding of what compound exercises are and why they are important, it’s time to understand how much should be done. If you are new to training and want to learn the basics, start with high volume (high accumulation of total weight). This will allow you to get lots of practice while building size and strength. Personally, I have beginners do 4-5 sets of 8-12 repetitions of a given exercise. Let’s imagine we have Susan and she just learned how to do Goblet Squats at a starting weight of 30lbs for 5 sets of 10 reps. Her training volume would be (30x5x10) 1,500lbs.
If you are a little more seasoned in the gym, you can go heavier to emphasize strength. For people who have a solid technical foundation, I typically start them with 5×5. As they progress, the sets and reps decrease as the weight ascends. A 5×5 program will get significant strength and hypertrophy benefits. Once we get down to 3×3 or 3×2, the objective shifts to strength endurance with very heavy weight. The volume would be much lower but the intensity will be high. Imagine Susan has been training for a few months and can do Barbell Squats 120lbs for 3 sets of 2 reps. Her total volume would be 720lbs.
Depending on the goal, Susan can either stay with the high volume training or the high weight training. For general health, the best option would fall in between, and a 5×5 or 4×7 kind of regimen might be best for her.
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There are tons of exercises to choose from and knowing which ones are right for you at different stages can be tricky. Don’t be afraid to seek the help of a coach. Their mission is to learn how you move and prescribe the right exercises for you to help you be stronger and improve movement. We can help you with a plethora of different exercises that will help you reach your goal.
By understanding what categories different exercises fall in and how they can help, you can make more informed decisions in creating a routine. Dedicate some time each week to the gym, and watch your goals become reality.
