Your bodybuilding program should revolve around compound movements if you want to gain muscle mass and build muscle fast. Compound lifts are multi-joint exercises that work 2 or more muscle groups at a time. Isolation exercises don’t involve multiple major muscle groups to a great extent. They are secondary lifts that should be used only if you have the compound weight lifting exercises in place as the main priority and staple of your program.
photo credit: jontunn
Compound exercises include the basic lift along with it’s many variations. You get more bang for the buck and save time when focusing solely on compound lifts to gain muscle mass. Few people have time to do dozens of different exercises for the entire body, especially if the goal is to build muscle or lose fat fast.
Here’s a list of the best compound movements and their corresponding muscles worked:
- Squats, front squats, hack squats, single legged squats/pistols: quads, hamstrings, core abs/lower back, traps
- Deadlift, stiff legged deadlift, hack deadlifts, rack deadlifts, one arm deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, dumbbell deadlifts, one-arm deadlifts with dumbbell or barbell: traps, entire back, core/abdominals, quads, hams, forearms, biceps
- Bench Press, dumbbell bench press )decline, flat, incline variations), floor presses, close grip bench press, bent presses: core abs/lower back, shoulders, grip forearms, triceps, chest
- dumbbell and barbell lunges: legs, hip, core/abs, calves
- Military press with barbell or dumbbells, arnold presses: shoulders, traps, chest, grip forearms, core
- Dips: triceps, chest, shoulders
- Chinups and pull-ups: back, biceps, traps, grip forearms
- Clean and Press with barbell or dumbbell: forearms, traps, back, shoulders, quads, hip
For a comprehensive list, descriptions, and illustrated guide of the best compound weight lifting exercises for gaining muscle mass and building muscle fast, I recommend picking up Stuart McRobert’s “Insider’s Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique: Illustrated Step-by-step Guide to Perfecting Your Exercise Form for Injury-free Maximum Gains.”
Bodybuilding.com also offers an exercise database of over 300 weight lifting exercises at its main site.
Bodybuilding.com Exercise Database
Now the reasons for prioritizing compound lifts are many:
1) The core strengthens with compound lifts resulting in a more productive and tougher body for gaining muscle mass.The muscles of the body don’t work individually. In fact, there are really no true isolation exercise because the muscles of the body are all interconnected when contracting and relaxing for a given movement.
For example, take a handball or barbell and squeeze your fist hard around it and look at your biceps. Your biceps are contracted while you’re working the grip and forearms. The body works as one unit rather than a collection of individual parts.
And once you have a decent base of strength, you’ll build and gain muscle mass fast.
2) Translates into real-life situations with increase in pulling and pushing strength to gain muscle mass.You push and pull a lot in daily life.Compound lifts are push and pull exercises with resistance.
3)Saves time if youre a busy professional while constrained of time.There is no need for isolation exercises to work each muscle group separately when you can work multiple muscles with just one exercise.In fact, deadlifts and squats are full body movements.You can get a good workout with just that two exercise alone every other day.For an example of a two exercise workout for strength and muscle, check out Pavel’s “Power to the People” book.
4)Burns more calories since multiple muscles are being worked at the same time. You expend more energy so this is also great for fat loss regimens along with a balanced diet( slight calorie deficit) and preserves muscle mass.Heavy, prolonged dieting may cause significant muscle loss.You’ll just be a smaller version of your former flabby self.
5)Stabilizer muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissues strengthened.Increase in bone density and improved posture.
6)Work out at home with little equipment. Compound movements don’t involve machines. You’re able to set up a home gym with just a basic barbell, weight plates, and a bench and/or rack.With just those bare essentials you can perform dozens of compound and isolation movements and have a full body workout.
Try a set of 20-reps squats and tell me it’s easier than a set of leg presses. strength training workouts with compound weight lifting exercises are highly productive at building muscle and strength. If you want to build muscle fast, throw in the compounds and don’t be lazy!
Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.
Feel free to contact me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments, or seeking additional advice. Good luck!
Related posts:
- The Four Best and Most Productive Weight-Lifting Exercises to Gain Muscle photo credit: mrflip The dozens of different variations of weight lifting exercises might get you confused as a beginning lifter new to strength training. When you look at most exercises they look effective especially if you’re given exercise illustrations and details on proper execution. They all look useful and effective to helping you achieve your body [...]...
- Weight Lifting to Increase Muscle Size: 4 Training Styles to Gain Muscle Mass Many people lift weights because they want to increase and gain muscle size and get stronger. Weight training is undoubtedly the best way to improve your appearance, especially if you’re after muscle growth. It’s a no-brainer. It’s also interesting to know what results in muscle growth or more importantly how you should train with weights to get [...]...
- Gain Muscle Mass with 10 X-Factors: Top Tips to Build Muscle Fast Maximize Your Muscle Gains with 10 X-Factors and Build Muscle Fast with a No Bullshit Approach To gain muscle mass, what do you think sets a good training program apart from a bad one? What bodybuilding workout routines provide the fastest way to build muscle? Why are some muscle-building programs more effective than [...]...
- What is the Best Way to Build Muscle Fast? Whatever your goals are, every one of us are able to lose fat, build muscle, and get a lot stronger by following the basic universal principles of exercise and fitness. And especially if you want to answer the question: what is the best way to build muscle fast? People who’ve done well [...]...
- How to Get Six Pack Abs Fast: Six Pack Exercises- Part 2 In the first part of this six pack series, we talked about performance and functional-based abs training using different exercises in a variety of positions. You’ll do just that with the 8 exercises in this article. And you’ll find many different variations with each of these 8 movements. Six Pack Exercise The 8 exercises are, weighted crunches dumbbell side [...]...
- How to Train Your Forearms: Build a Crushing Grip A strong grip with beefy forearms allows you use pull, lift, haul, and push heavier weights on all exercises. A weak grip is also often a limiting factor in pulling heavy weights, as seen in the case of deadlifting for many lifters. It’s quite common nowadays to see a lifter being stuck at a certain [...]...
- How to Build Bigger Back Muscles If you want to build bigger back muscles, then the best number one exercise you can do is the deadlift. Deadlifts rules. The basic deadlift has many variations (one arm, dimel, side to side, trap bar, over/undergrip) to boost your muscle building progress for the entire back. photo credit: Cronfeld Deadlifts should be the focus of your [...]...
- How to Build Muscle the Correct Way: Maximize Your Muscle Gains by Avoiding 3 Common Mistakes This question often comes up with beginning bodybuilders and those new to lifting wanting to gain muscle… What is the fastest way to build muscle? Well, the common answer to that is to tell you the rules to build muscle efficiently and how you can implement those rules with a well-rounded weightlifting program for [...]...
- KISS with Old School Lifting series- Part 2 In the previous article, we discussed what old school lifting is and te 2 main rules of dinosaur training. I pointed out training with heavy weights with weight progression will build a strong, lean, and muscular body. Take the basic rules and you can apply it to simple strength training programs using a variety of [...]...
- Build Bigger Chest Muscles Building a bigger chest seems to be a problem for a lot of people who have much stronger triceps or shoulders. Often the tris and shoulders overpower the chest muscles in compound pushing lifts like bench press and dumbbell press. If you’re tricep dominant, those muscles will tire out first before your chest muscles are [...]...