Best Compound Exercises to Build Strength and Muscles

Compound exercises are important to build strength and muscle. They work on more than one muscle group and help activate a bigger number of muscle fibers.

There’s a list of compound exercises that you can try to improve your strength and muscles, but you need to understand what compound exercises are before beginning to add them to the workout routine.

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What are compound exercises?

Compound movements (Photo via Unsplash/Alora Griffiths)

As mentioned earlier, these exercises work on more than one muscle group at a time. That means the movements work on multiple joints. Meanwhile, isolation exercises work on only one muscle group.

You should have a combination of both compound and isolation exercises, but if you had to choose only one, it should be compound movements.

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Best compound exercises for different muscle groups

The following are some of the compound exercises you can try for various muscle groups:

1. Squats target the hamstrings, quadriceps, and glutes.
2. Deadlifts focus on the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings
3. Bench press targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps
4. Barbell press targets the shoulders and triceps
5. Barbell rows targets the biceps and lats
6. Pull-ups target the lats, rear delts and biceps

More often than not, compound movements target the bigger muscle groups and smaller muscle groups are the secondary targets. However, if you feel that your smaller muscle groups are taking over, it’s important to ensure that the primary muscle is engaged at all times.

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Benefits of compound movements

Squats (Photo via Unsplash/Sam Moghadam Khamseh)

If you’re not convinced about compound exercises, here are some of the benefits of such movements that can help you make the decision:

Increase muscle mass

The more compound exercises you add to your routine, the better it is for multiple muscle groups. The more you work with multiple muscle groups, the better it is for your muscle mass.

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Accelerates calorie burning

Compound exercises require an immense amount of effort and strength. That means the body has to generate excess energy by burning stored calories.

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Improves athletic performance

Most of the compound movements are in a pattern that's widely used in various sports. So, you will be able to improve your athletic performance by focusing on compound movements.

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Improve fitness level

Compound movements ensure that your functional fitness improves by mimicking movements that are used daily.

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Saves time

Bench press (Photo via Unsplash/Michael DeMoya)

If you don’t have a lot of time to spend at the gym, one of the best ways to address that is by having a compound movement-heavy exercise routine. You will work on more than one muscle group and be able to save time.

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Compound exercises are as important as it can get in the fitness industry. You will be able to achieve whatever goal you have in mind by adding compound movements to your workout routine.

It’s good for adding muscle, and it’s good for burning calories. Ideally, you should be able to follow a routine that has both compound and isolation exercises, but as mentioned earlier, use compound movements if you can pick only one type.

To achieve the physique of your desire, only compound movements aren't enough. You should couple your workout routine with a proper diet that allows you to hit your daily macros. It’s important to find your maintenance calories and figure out how much surplus or deficit you should be in to build the physique you want.

Additionally, hydration and rest are extremely important too. You cannot become stronger if you don’t allow your muscle fibers to recover. The rest and recovery period is when the fibers use the building blocks by breaking down the nutrients and making the fibers thicker and stronger.

Last but not the least, you should focus on progressive overload. That means you should keep pushing your muscles with extra sets, reps, and heavier weights as you become stronger. If you keep using the same weight and same number of reps & sets, your muscles will get used to the movement and weight, and your progress will stagnate. Hence, it’s important to constantly push your muscles to keep growing stronger.