Want to add more than 10 pounds of muscle to your frame?
Then you need to stop wasting your time with isolation exercises and base your weight training program around compound exercises.
What is a compound exercise?
A compound exercise is one that targets more than one muscle group.
Take the deadlift for example. This mass gaining exercise is wrongly thought of a back exercise. It’s not. Yes your back muscles are put under immense strain and are probably the major muscle group used, but the deadlift requires a herculean effort on your ENTIRE posterior chain. Your calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, lats, deltoids, traps and core are all responsible for heaving that weight off the floor.
Compare that with a traditional isolation exercise such as the bicep curl. The bicep curl is an effective exercise, there’s no denying that. You can get some serious lactic acid burn going in your guns with 10 reps of these bad boys. But it only works one muscle – your biceps. A tiny amount of work when compared to the full body workout you get from the deadlift.
Imagine a straight line with the label ‘Isolation’ at the far left and ‘Compound’ at the far right. All exercises fall along this scale. The more muscle groups used in the exercise, the further it is to the right along the line.
A bicep curl would be at the far left – purely isolation. The deadlift would be pretty much at the far right – one of the best compound exercise you can do. A dumbbell row, which is mainly a back exercise but also works the bicep would probably fall somewhere near the middle.
You should be doing compound exercises if…
Isolation exercises will probably get you to your goal quicker if you:
- Are a competitive body builder
- Are taking steroids
- Are a competitive athlete and need to work on one aspect of your game.
- Already have as much muscle mass as you want but need to speed up development and fine tune a lagging body part.
However, I suspect you do not fall into any of the above categories and you still have over 10 pounds of muscle to gain, and/or have a body fat percentage higher than 10% and are trying to lose fat and lean out. If that’s true then compound exercises should make up the majority of your training program.
What makes compound exercises so effective?
1. More muscle damage
Compound exercises stimulate more muscle fibres than isolation exercises. In a 30 minute workout you can stress many more muscles than with 30 minutes of isolation work – and more damaged muscle fibres means more growth potential when your body repairs them.
2. Strength building
You can lift more weight in a compound exercise. More weight means more strengh. And you want to be big AND strong, don’t you?
3. Stimulate growth hormone
Putting immense stress on your body by recruiting many motor neurons to lift heavy weights forces your body to adapt. Your body releases HGH (human growth hormone) into your bloodstream, which is responsible for…well, growth. Not only will this make the muscles your working bigger, but the ones you don’t work too. Hence the famous quote “If you want big biceps, you have to squat”.
4. Burn more calories
One rep of a compound exercise uses more energy than an isolation exercise (due to larger forces involved). This is perfect if you want to lose fat because we all know getting lean is about creating a daily calorie deficit. Performing compound exercises mean you won’t have to go for a run or sit on a bike like a cardio junkie to get a six pack.
5. Reflect real life
How often do you do a bicep curl outside the gym? Very rarely I’m guessing. But how often do you have to pick something up off the floor, or climb stairs, or lift a heavy object onto a shelf? Those are all examples of compound exercises in the real world. Building FUNCTIONAL strength in the gym will not only make you look like you were an extra in the movie ‘300’ but is also USEFUL in the real world.
6. Future proof yourself
Compound exercises use the little muscles you wouldn’t normally train in isolation. They build strong core and stabiliser muscles that will keep you healthy and active into old age. No knee pain, no back ache, even when your peers start suffering.
7. Train you energy systems
Compound exercises develop your anaerobic and ATP-PC (phospohgen) energy systems. These are the two energy systems designed to provide you with energy when no oxygen is present – or more precisely – when you body cannot produce energy quickly enough due to lack of oxygen. That’s why you reach failure after just a few reps when using heavy weight. As a by product of using these energy systems during weight training, you increase your VO2 max. When you go play sports or even do low intensity activity that uses your aerobic energy system, you’ll perform better.
Caveats of compound exercise training
Like everything, you must do things in moderation. Be careful of over training when you are doing multiple full or half body workouts that consist of compound exercises. Your body takes longer to recover between workouts. Limit them to 3 per week, giving yourself 48 hours to recover.
Also, keep the number of exercises you do low. Three compound exercises per workout is enough to grow big and strong. Obviously you must get the training volume correct by playing with set and rep schemes – but that’s a whole other article.
It’s OK to throw in a few isolation exercises here and there – just make the MAJORITY of your exercises choices are compound.
I highly recommend that you start out with a training program designed by a professional. Chad Waterbury has never failed me in the past and I really respect his work. His programs are designed around compound exercises and you’ll get great results if you follow them. You can find a list of all Chad Waterbury programs here.
Get started today with your exercise and diet regimen and watch your body transformation happen. You won’t regret it.
About Ryan
Hi my name is Matt, Ive lost 25 lbs through cardio and eating better the last few months and I want to lose thirty more pounds and also lose my belly and the extra fat I have but heard that cardio alone wont do it and that I need to do compound strength training excercises. Do you need weights for effective compound exercises? Is there any other ways to do an effective fat burning compound exercise without weights?
And also I was told that I need to eat 1600 to 1700 calories a day and that eating fewer calories will slow down my metabolism and I will burn muscle through cardio but I was also told that I need to eat more calories to raise my metabolism so I could burn fat and build muscle. I’m also hearing that you must eat fewer calories than you burn in order to experience fat burning effects. This leaves me confused am I suppose to eat 1600 to 1700 calories, eat less than that or eat more? I do want to build muscle but I’m more concerned about getting rid of body fat and I’m hearing that I have to build muscle in order to lose that body fat.
I’m 23 years old 5’7 and 174 lbs, body fat unknown. My email is stubmind88 @yahoo.com
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
Hey Matt,
First up, well done on the 25lb loss – fantastic work.
To answer your question, cardio alone is not the most effective way to lose weight. The main reasons are that the body quickly adapts to it, it doesn’t burn many calories, and it doesn’t release all the good hormones like growth hormone and testosterone etc. that will really help you transform your body. In other words – too much cardio and nothing else makes you a smaller version of yourself, but you stay the same shape.
So you are spot on that adding some resistance training is the way forward. In fact, weight training should make up the MAJORITY of your training, followed by some high intensity workouts. Only then add in some moderate intensity cardio.
I aim for 3 hours of weights, 1 hour of HIIT and 1 hour or cardio.
Now when I say weights, you don’t actually need a gym (although you won’t get as good results). But if you really don’t have access to them you can do bodyweight exercises outside in a playground or even your bedroom.
Now on to calories. Here’s the thing – it’s too easy to get obsessed with counting calories. What I suggest you do is this.
1. Pick a goal. Do you want to lose fat or gain muscle. Don’t try and do both. Focus on one.
2. Eat a certain amount of good food (ensuring you follow the basic rules outlined on this site) for two weeks.
3. After two weeks, check yourself. Look in the mirror. Did you gain or lose fat? Did you gain or lose muscle. Weigh yourself. Did you gain or lose weight.
4. If your goal is to lose fat and you look fatter in the mirror or look no different, increase your weekly exercise by an hour and repeat steps 1-3. If after another two weeks you still see no difference, eat a little less (-250 calories per day). If you lost fat then keep eating the same amount of food. If your goal was to gain muscle and you didn’t, then increase your calories by 250 (it doesn’t have to be exact. Don’t weight or measure. Just eat a bit more each day).
5. After another two weeks assess yourself again. Repeat this process until you reach your ideal physique.
Bottom line – don’t worry about counting calories. Judge your progress by real results. Eat enough food to fuel your workouts and not feel too tired (ie don’t undereat or starve yourself). Eat until 80% full every meal.
Hope that’s helped.
Ryan