46. Mastering Compound Exercises: The Key to Efficient Workouts and Muscle Development

Hey there, dear friend! It's Mike again. Thank you for taking the time to read my last blog post, 'Mindfulness and Exercise: Enhancing Focus and Enjoyment in Your Workouts.' I'm excited to be back, and today I'll be sharing an exploration into 'Mastering Compound Exercises: The Key to Efficient Workouts and Muscle Development.' Your insights are always valued, so please share your favorite compound exercise!

There are a lot of exercises that you can implement during your workouts, one of the most famous categories is “Compound exercises”, and for some people, they are the basics to develop muscle and have an efficient workout, but only when you are doing well.

These kinds of exercises are the strongest when you are training for strength because they activate significant muscles during the performance. A general list of these is as follows:

• Deadlift
• Squat
• Bench press
• Military press
• Chin-up
• Barbell row

It depends on the author and sport that describe the basic compounds, so don’t take the only reference. The principal difference between isolated and compound exercises is the intensity during activation. For example, during a deadlift, you are not only training your hamstrings and glutes, but you will also be activating your back, shoulders, and core to maintain the tone in an isometric way. So, it will be “harder” on other zones in your body.

However, if you are training only with compound exercises, you won't have better results and gains. Isolation exercises involve a specific movement without the participation of other muscles, as in compounds. Another example is leg curls; during this movement, you will only train the hamstrings and reduce fatigue in other areas.

So, the key to having an efficient workout and muscle development is to select the correct exercises for your goal. Maybe if you only want hypertrophy, you would choose a greater variety of isolated movements because your goal involves stability and less intensity. But if your goal is to increase your strength and lift heavier weights, you could choose more compound exercises with more intensity but less volume.

In a general way, both have benefits in your system, and every person should train to develop a healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, there are athletes who must train as his/her sport requires, in different intensity and volume according to the macrocycle and planification. In a general way, you could include 1-3 compound exercises to achieve good results in each session and complement with isolation; remember it depends on your context.