So, what are the compound weight lifting exercises that you need to know how to do?
And which exercises do you need to have in your weight lifting program?
I want to stress that depending on the specific weight lifting program…
You might not have all of these compound weightlifting movements in your program.
But you definitely should have some of them. Beginners especially need to focus on the BIG compound weightlifting exercises. If you're a beginner, you've got to focus your efforts on learning the exercises I'm going to tell you about today.
If you're not a beginner and think you might have some issues with proper form and technique, spend the next few months learning exactly how to do these exercises.
Trust me… it's time well spent.
Your results will skyrocket without a doubt.
Why Do You Need Compound Weight Training Exercises?
These compound exercises work your entire body at once. Your entire body must work as a unit to complete these exercises.
Why would you waste your time on isolation exercises? Your body was made to work as a single unit.
You can lift the most amount of weight with weight lifting compound movements. Lifting the heaviest weight possible should be one of your goals.
HEAVY weight does something special to your body. When you lift heavy, your body really responds to that stimulus by building muscle and strength.
If you want to make REAL progress in weight training, you've got to push yourself to lift heavier weights.
- Heavier Wieght Lifted = More Muscle Worked
- More Muscle Worked = More Strength
- More Strength = More Muscle Built
- More Muscle Built = Less Body Fat
I guarantee that compound weightlifting exercises will get you to your goals quicker than any other weight lifting exercises.
Let me ask you a quick question before I tell you what exercises are so important…
What do you think is going to build more muscle in your legs?
1. Squats with 300 pounds for 10 reps
OR
2. Leg Extensions with 100 pounds for 10 reps
If you answered number 2, please take a second to slap yourself in the back of the head. Or please get the closest person to you to slap you in the back of the head.
Now don't hurt yourself but just do it hard enough to wake yourself up. Come on!!! Let's try another one…
What do you think is going to build more muscle in your chest?
1. Dumbell Flyes with 30 pounds for 10 reps
OR
2. Incline Bench Press with 275 pounds for 10 reps
I'm not even going to answer that one. You get the picture. This concept should be crystal clear to you now.
Along with a bigger chest from the bench press, you will have bigger shoulders, bigger arms, and a bigger body overall in less time with the Incline Bench Press versus the Flyes.
The Compound Weight Lifting Exercises
Here are THE best compound weight lifting exercises in existence. Take the next few months and REALLY learn how to do these exercises.
Squats
Works the entire body with emphasis on the legs! Really torches your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Squats should be in everyone's weightlifting program.
Stiff Legged Deadlift / Romanian Deadlift
Works the entire body with emphasis on your hamstrings and back. This is the best hamstring exercise out there by far. A tough set of these will leave you breathless. You'll know you've worked your entire body after this compound movement.
Bench Press
Any bench press variation works the entire upper body with great emphasis on your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The bench press is the most known weight lifting compound movement. The bench press is a good exercise, but not as good as the number of people who worship this exercise.
It's definitely a great upper body exercise and it does work the lower body some if you're doing the movement properly.
Deadlift
Deadlifts from the floor with a barbell or trap bar are one of the best exercises you could possibly do. You can lift more weight with this exercise than any other! This exercise works the entire body with emphasis on everything! The legs and back will really be stressed here.
Overhead Press
Nothing beats Standing Overhead Press for your entire shoulder region. Your entire body must support all of the weight overhead. The real name of this exercise is the Press, but too many people fell in love with the bench press to recognize this exercise as the press. In my opinion, this is a much better compound weight lifting exercise than the bench press!
Rows
This exercise is one of the big compound weight lifting exercises for your back. Your back is a huge muscle and this exercise hits your back hard along with the rest of your body. Your biceps are really targeted in this exercise too. Rows should be included in your program.
Chin Ups
You want a big compound exercise for your entire upper body? This is one of the best upper body builders out there. Chin Ups are an awesome exercise and should be included. After a while, you will be able to add weight to your body for an even better exercise.
Dips
The upper body squat. Need I say more? This exercise puts a huge emphasis on your chest, shoulders, and triceps. I absolutely love this exercise and attribute most of my upper body muscle mass to this exercise alone.
Summary of Compound Weight Lifting Exercises
Squats and deadlifts, in my opinion, are the BIG TWO. If you get progressively stronger on these two lifts, you will build muscle on your entire body. Quality muscle. Guaranteed.
After squats and deadlifts, I really trust in the overhead press, bench press, rows, dips, and chin ups as the best upper body exercises. You need to include these compound exercises if you want to build a muscular upper body.
As far as other weight lifting compound movements for your lower body, I love heavy barbell lunges, old style barbell hack squats, and front squats. Any variation of squats proves to be a great weight lifting exercise. Even hip belt squats are an AWESOME exercise.
Any other variations of the compound exercises prove to be great exercises too. If you get progressively stronger on all of the compound lifts above, you will have all the muscle you need.
Whatever you do, make compound exercises a part of your program no matter what your goals are. You must build your program around these great exercises. You will not regret taking this advice.
If you pay attention to strength gains and strive for them, you will always notice muscle gains when your strength goes up in these exercises. Compound exercises are the muscle builders.
Within the WLC System, we'll tell you a lot more about weight lifting and how to get started out on the right foot.
If you stick with us, we'll make sure you are ALWAYS making optimal progress towards your goals.
Jeff Brown says
atI turn 50 this summer…have always had a lean, athletic frame for my age. Played soccer until I was 40. Now I notice it is harder to lift heavy weights….leads to shoulder and lower back pain. Knees also can get inflamed easily with running or squats. Is your program too aggressive for my age? I am 5-11 and 180 pounds carrying 15-20% body fat. I would like to build some more muscle but more interested in being lean and cut. I have been hesitant to increase weights too much due to fear of injuring something.
Joshua says
atHey Jeff,
There are many things you can do as you grow older in terms of making weight lifting easier on your body.
You can choose weight lifting exercises that are easier on your body. If squats really hurt you, then you can try a different type of squat movement or another good substitute like trap bar deadlifts.
The WLC System strategy works well because you start out with light weights and higher reps and increase the weight over the next few months. So you’re using much heavier weight for a shorter period of time but still making huge weight increases over the course of the program.
If you want, you can even go with higher rep ranges and end with rep ranges that are higher than suggested in the WLC System. For example, instead of starting at 15 reps and ending at 4 reps… you could start with 20 reps and end with 8 reps to keep the rep ranges higher. Higher rep ranges will help you as you grow older.
You can also adjust many other factors such as volume of workouts and frequency of workouts. You can workout less often and decrease the frequency if your body requires more recovery time. Or you can choose only one big compound weight lifting exercise per workout and workout a little more often.
There are so many factors you can adjust as you grow older. Because your body does change and recovery could take a little longer than it has in the past.
Please ask more questions if you have any specific issues you need help with… I am here to help so just let me know. And good luck!