Compound exercises are all exercises that involve more than one major muscle group and more than one joint at a time. A compound exercise routine is probably the fastest way to progress in the gym. Many young bodybuilders are not aware of this, but compound exercises are the quickest route to building muscle mass. Not only that, but they increase strength the fastest. And why is this ?
Unlike isolation exercises where only one joint is activated (think preacher curls, leg extensions, dumbbell fly), compound exercises utilize multiple joints and major muscle groups with free weights. In other words, this means they recruit more muscle, they activate the nervous system way more than isolation exercises, and provide higher stimulus for growth.
Exercises such as the bench press, squat, deadlift allow you to move way more weight than isolation exercises do. Heavy weight taxes the muscles harder. This process makes the muscles stronger and bigger over time so they can handle the heavier loads.
On the other hand bigger muscles equal more fat burned, as bigger muscle mass require more calories to sustain itself.
Below you can find a sample split and a 3 day compound exercise routine. There are isolation exercises included in the routine, but the core of it are big compound movements which engage a large number of muscle fibers. The purpose of the isolation exercises is to “add the finishing touch” or pump some more blood into the muscle while providing nutrients and oxygen needed for recovery.
3 day compound exercise routine – The training split
Monday – Chest and triceps
Tuesday – light cardio or rest *
Wednesday – Back and biceps
Thursday – rest or light cardio *
Friday – Legs and shoulders
Saturday – rest or light cardio *
Sunday – rest
* Depending on your recovery ability you can do a light 30-40 min cardio session or you can take a day off from training.
The 3 day compound exercise routine
Day 1 – Chest and triceps
Incline dumbbell bench press – 3 x 10,8,6 (after the warm up, pyramid your way up to 5 reps to failure)
Barbell bench press – 3 x 10,8,6
Pec-deck fly or dumbbell fly – 3 x 15 (pick a weight that you can easily do 12-15 reps with)
Triceps dips – 3 x 6-8 reps
Triceps extension – 2 x 12-15 ( light weight )
Day 2 – Back and biceps
Deadlifts – 4 x 5 (after the warm up, do 4 sets of 5 reps with 80% of your 1RM)
Chin ups or pull ups – 4 x 8-10 reps
One arm dumbbell row or a chest supported row – 3 x 12 reps
Standing barbell curl – 3 x 8
concentrated curl – 2 x 10
Day 3 – Legs and shoulders
Squats – 3 x 8-10 reps (after the warm up, do 4 work sets as the last set should be to absolute failure – be sure to have a spotter)
Lunges – 3 x 10 reps
Leg press – 3 x 10-12 reps
Leg curl – 4 x 10 reps
Barbell or dumbbell shoulder press – 3 x 8-10
Seated lateral raises – 3 x 10-12
Bent over lateral raises or reverse pec-deck – 3 x 10
That’s it. Be sure to take a good rest between the weight lifting days, because the amount of volume you do on some days is a bit high for natural trainees. Also, make sure you get at least 1g of protein per lb of body weight.
What is a work set. Specifically 4 work sets on Squat.
It’s the sets you do after your warm up sets. They are the ones that work the muscle.
Hi, looks like a good routine, I’ve done 2 days so far, but I’m looking to lengthen it out a little bit, can I throw a few more exercises in and also make some super sets? I like to keep busy. Also what can I put in place of a lunge? My knee doesn’t take it too well, no cartilage or ligaments (squats etc are fine). I have around 50mins or so in the gym not including warm. Up..
Thanks
Tim
If you can handle it, you could add a bit more isolation work after the compounds. Also, you could do hack squats instead of lunges. It will not be the same though
if you want to do a longer period of exercise, and make sure you take more time off as you do more sets per exercise
meaning 15 seconds between first and second
30 between 2nd and third
and 1 minute between 3rd and 4th
supersetting is excellent but should only be used on an exercise maybe once every three weeks since it is an advanced trick and taxes your muscles more whenic is good but not every week
if you want to add more exercises, you can use other COMPOUND exercises and those shown are not all of them available.
\ you can look by google compound exercises and then hit images and see what you like and then click on the picture and be taken to the website right where it explains this exercise.
to replace lunges you can do exercises which hit the same compound groups so I thinjk front squats are good and also stiff leg dead lifts.
look them up on here or google them to see how to do them if not sure.
I am proud of YOU for putting in time and effort and as long as you have dedication to achieving success you are going to be happy with your results
For lunges, I recently heard stepping back into a lunge rather than forward would have similar effect for the exercise but take the strain on the knee of a forward lunge off the table. Might be worth a try, see how it feels.
1. a work set means you are using your muscle to a degree that causes fatigue.
a warm up set warmsup the mustcle, makes you get used to using it
therefore 4 sets, or 3 depending on what the author meant since the words are different means do the one warm up set and then tax your muscles by doing WORK SETS <– being the man.
when you say that if you can handle it
you can do more isolation sets
this is and I am not being mean when I say this ignorant.
the purpose of doing compound exercises is to GET STRONGER AND BIGGER
doing isolation exercises does NOT cause you to get stronger or bigger AS much as COMPOUND exercises.
isolation exercises, as mentioned, are used to top off the compound exerciss so don’t tell people to do more when the whoelPOINT IS TO DO LESS isolation.
just look at the big guys and see that they, many of them, don’t even work 9out bigeps or trices since they get hit during the compound exercises whre they use BIG MFING HEAVY WEIGHTS HELL YEAH.
Yes you are right. But some isolation exercises after the main lifts (again, if you can handle them) will increase the blood flow in the muscle and help with hypertrophy. If you can’t handle additional work then don’t do them cause they will have the opposite effect.
Im gonna give it a try
and why does F&P Admin
the author of the info above explaining what to do
comment with something contradicting what the article says.
I guess that is a question so forget the period and put a ?mark
If you can handle more volume, do it. That’s why I said IF you can handle it.
Most average Joes cannot tolerate higher volume very well, hence the recommendation not to go overboard in the article.
Should the Exercises be done with same weights or can the weight be increased Gradually..
They can be increased gradually. Also there is no warm up, only the work sets are shown. Do 2-3 warm up sets before the work sets
Just doing 3 Exercises would be Enough???
Thanks for the workout! Im a gym beginner (well, have gone in the past but its been a few years). I was looking for an efficient compound workout just because I cant spend a lot of time in the gym each morning. My only question is, can I adapt some of these to be done at a Planet Fitness gym? Obviously the equipment there is limited. Thanks!
So is this 3×10 8 6 (3 set of 10, then 3 set of 8 ect, or just 10 8 6 ?
Regards
Just 10,8,6 after the warm up sets (usually 2-3 warm ups x 10-12 reps)
Excellent!
so in the day 3 legs and shoulders you repeat the barbell chest press? I’m kinda confused
You do barbell or DB shoulder press