“What am I missing out on?” you think to yourself. Well the answer, my friend, is compound exercises. These hard-hitting, full body exercises were once the staple of body builders all over the world. Sadly, for reasons unknown, they became less popular over the years as people began to resort to fancy gym equipments to get fit. However, all those isolation exercises are not a patch on compound exercises. If you want serious muscle gains, you will have to huff, pant, bear the pain, and go one-on-one with the barbell.
What are compound exercises? Compound exercises are exercises that work several different muscles and joints at the same time. Perhaps the best example of a compound exercise is the barbell squat. This exercise works the muscles of your calves, thighs, abdominals, back and shoulders. In contrast, isolation exercises focus on isolating your muscles, i.e., they target one muscle at a time. One of the best examples of isolation exercises is the bicep curl.
What are the benefits of compound exercises? Compound exercises engage the largest and strongest muscles of the body. They are performed with heavy weights. Due to this, they also provide the largest muscle gains and stimulate the release of testosterone and growth hormones. Compound exercises are not easy. They require proper technique and a lot of stamina and endurance. However, the muscle gains from performing compound exercises far outweigh the muscle gains from performing isolation exercises alone.
An ideal workout should include all the basic compound exercises followed by some isolation exercises for optimum muscle gains. The compound exercises given below should form an integral part of the workout of every bodybuilding enthusiast who is looking for serious muscle gains.
Barbell Squat. The barbell squat is perhaps the most important compound exercise. It works out all the major muscles of the
