To be able to understand the merits of compound movements in exercise, it is important to first understand isolated exercise. An isolation exercise obviously targets one muscle group and one alone. The machines all over your gym may look complicated but are actually a system of levers, pulleys, and weights to ensure that each machine will work only so that one muscle group works while the others are resting. So shoulder presses or bicep curls with dumbbells or on the gym machine work just one muscle group at a time but if you do a lunge with a curl or a squat with a press, the whole movement places more effort on your spine and core along with your arms and legs, and teaches the body coordination and balance as well. It is like having lots of friends over for a party in one evening, if you are looking for some fun compared to having one friend over every evening. Sounds like a drag, doesn’t it!

So in a given time and place, it makes perfect sense to do a movement that uses more than one muscle set so that you can strengthen more muscles and burn more calories instead of just a few. This is where free weights come in the picture. You can use dumbbells, barbell or kettle bells, whichever takes your fancy.

Since compound exercise trains more than one muscle group at a time, most lifting work that is done with a barbell is a compound exercise. You not only train the primary muscle group which does the main work but also the secondary muscle groups that support the primary muscles.

Make the most of your time when working out

An example would be a squat with barbell or dumbbells. This is the most powerful exercise to tone and build muscle and to burn calories. Here the primary muscle would be the quads, and the secondary muscles working would be the hamstrings, glutes, abs and lower back. You could use a squat rack in the gym and if you are at home, you could use a barbell. Other examples includes deadlifts, lunges, pull ups, rows, bench press, dips, overhead press and pull ups.

Compound exercises should be the core work of our workouts because not only they have more benefits but also because they are closer to functional movements in real life. The fact that they are time efficient makes them popular. Squats and deadlifts make the whole body work systematically which results in a total body effect. If you still don’t see the magic, look at it as a construction project in your house. In order to get it completed fast would you not want the carpenter to use five hammers instead of one? That is the kind of work compound movements put in when many muscles work together. Or wouldn’t you rather have the desert being prepared in the same time and effort that you are putting in for the main course?

Try and incorporate compound movements in your workouts. There are loads of compound workouts on the net and on fitness websites.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 29th, 2015