The Importance of Compound Exercises and Movements – Top 5 Benefits
Whether you’re an infrequent gym-goer or a high-performance athlete that trains most days, compound movements and exercises are a MUST in your training routine. When compound lifts are incorporated into a gym or workout routine, you can see an increase in strength and muscle thickness, whilst promoting fat loss.
In this guide, we will explain what compound exercises and movements are, a list of examples you can use in the gym, as well as the benefits of compound exercises and movements.
What are compound movements and exercises?
This question can often confuse those who are new to the world of fitness, but once you have understood the concept of compound movements, exercises and lifts, you’ll soon be on your way to your goals!
Simply put, compound movements and exercises are exercises that work several muscle groups at the same time.
An example of a compound exercise would be a Romanian Deadlift – this type of lift incorporates the use of your hamstrings, forearms, gluteus maximus (glutes) and erector spinae muscles (lower back). The isolation exercise that would be an alternative to this is the Lying Leg Curl – this movement will primarily work just the hamstrings.
List of compound movements and lifts to try at home or the gym
If you’re new to the gym or perhaps a PT looking for new ideas to incorporate into a client’s training programme, having a list of compound movements and exercises to hand is something at Bicester Gym we highly recommend.
Romanian Deadlift (RDL)
Equipment required: barbell, kettlebells or dumbbells (can also add plated weights to the barbell).
Muscles incorporated: hamstrings, forearms, gluteus maximus (glutes) and erector spinae muscles (lower back).
Step-by-step guide (with barbell):
- Stand with your feet hip-distance apart with a slight bend in your knees, a barbell, placed in front of you.
- Hinge forward at the hips, keeping your spine straight as your torso leans toward the floor. Take hold of the barbell with both hands at shoulder distance apart, bringing your shoulders back and down to secure your spine and brace your core. Look down and slightly forward to align your neck with the rest of your back and avoid hyperextension.
- Tighten your glutes, hamstrings and core and power your feet into the ground to stand up straight, lifting the barbell to roughly your upper thighs. Squeeze your glutes and lockout your hips at the top.
Bench Press
Equipment required: barbell, bench and rack (can also add plated weights to the barbell).
Muscles incorporated: pectoralis major (chest), triceps brachii, biceps brachii and anterior deltoid (shoulders).
Step-by-step guide:
- Lie flat on your back on the bench.
- Take hold of the barbell with your hands just wider than should-width apart, so that when you’re at the bottom of the movement your hands are directly above your elbows – this will generate the biggest amount of force.
- Unrack the barbell and bring the bar slowly towards your chest whilst breathing in.
- Once the barbell is just above your chest, push it directly up whilst focusing on a certain spot to ensure it goes up smoothly. Whilst pushing the barbell up, exhale in line with the movement.
- Rack the barbell back into its original position.
Walking Lunges
Equipment required (optional): barbell, kettlebells or dumbbells (can also add plated weights to the barbell).
Muscles incorporated: gluteus maximus (glutes), quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and abdominals.
Step-by-step guide (with dumbbells):
- Stand straight with your shoulders pinned back and core tight whilst holding a dumbbell in each hand.
- Keeping your arms by your side throughout the whole movement, step forward with your preferred leg putting your weight initially through the heel.
- As your heel hits the floor, bend your knee and lower it towards the floor into a lunging position. As your knee bends, move your toes flat so that your weight is stabilised through your foot.
- Once in a lunge position, power up through the lunging leg and repeat the movement with the opposite leg. Try not to overthink the movement and treat it as emphasised walking motion.
Top 5 benefits of compound exercises and movements
Now you know what a compound exercise is and a list of movements you can use at the gym or at home, you may be wondering “what’s the importance of compound movements?”. Whilst these multi-joint exercises can be quite difficult to execute, once mastered, you will soon be able to reap the rewards. Here are some benefits of compound exercises and movements:
1. Improve muscular balance
Although isolation exercises are great for building and targeting a specific muscle, they can sometimes lead to an imbalance. What we mean by this is that if you manage to perform more repetitions for a bicep curl with one arm and not the other, this will over time lead to a difference in size and strength for the other arm. Compound exercises recruit different muscles and as they tend to be bilateral movements, this should improve and fix the muscular imbalance.
2. Burn more calories (fat loss)
Since compound movements and exercises use multiple muscles at once, this causes the blood flow in your body to increase, as well as fast and slow-twitch fibres to engage across the stimulated muscle groups. Factors like these, generate a larger amount of calories being burnt. Why is this important? Well, the more calories you burn, the more likely it is you will lose weight (you need to ensure you are in a caloric deficit for this to work – burn more calories than you consume). To see other ways on how to burn more calories, why not check out 3 of the best ways to burn fat at the gym?
3. Time-efficient
Many gym-goers are restricted on the amount of time they can allocate to the gym, meaning you want to be using that precious time in the most efficient way possible. As compound exercises use different muscles at the same time, this can be a great way of getting the most ‘bang for your buck’ if you’re restricted to time. For example, performing 5 sets of 10 repetitions for squats will work your quadriceps just as hard as if you were to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions for seated leg extensions – and guess what, because a squat is a compound movement, you’ll be working your gluteus maximus and erector spinae at the same time.
4. Building muscle and strength
If you’re looking to get stronger and bigger, compound movements and exercises are absolutely the way to go. When you think of powerlifters and the type of exercises they perform, it’s more often than not going to be a compound one. Compound exercises are known across the fitness world for being the ‘bread and butter’ for gaining muscle mass (as well as being in a caloric surplus). According to recent research, you’re continually putting mechanical and metabolic damage to your muscle fibres, which release all sorts of responders in the brain and body – this is why you end up building more muscle through myofibrillar hypertrophy versus just doing isolation exercises. That’s not to say that isolation exercises aren’t good, as they are typically best for developing a specific muscle.
5. Promotes cardiovascular health and strength
Some regular gym attendees disregard the importance and training of their cardiovascular system, however, it shouldn’t be overlooked. Cardiovascular health is the function of both your heart and lungs and how well they perform. Not only is having a good cardiovascular system important for everyday life, but it can help you with your resistance training too. Think about it, when was the last time you performed a squat and didn’t feel somewhat out of breath? As squats use a large amount of muscle, the blood needs to be pumped at an accelerated rate in order to cope with the demands and having a strong heart will help this process, leading to a better performance in the gym.
Summary
Phew, that was a lot to take in but hopefully, this guide has helped you understand what a compound movement is and the importance of incorporating them into your training programme. If you need help putting a training programme together, why not speak to one of expert Personal Trainers?
For those who want a bitesize version of the top 5 benefits of compound movements, they are:
- Improves muscular balance
- Burn more calories (fat loss)
- Time-efficient
- Building muscle mass
- Promotes cardiovascular health and strength
We have a range of facilities at Bicester Gym to suit a variety of workout goals. Our facilities include our High Performance Gym or our Health Club which is excellent for beginners. If you would like to take a look at the range of facilities we have to offer at Bicester Health Club, then feel free to contact us today, and one of our friendly members can arrange to give you a full tour and discuss your goals and needs.
If you are looking for more ways to improve your health and wellbeing then why not consider Cold Water Swimming, our facilities include a 200m outdoor swimming lake, find out 5 Benefits of Cold Water Swimming here.
