We talked (or, well, I did) a couple weeks ago about why resistance training is awesome. You’ve probably heard that “compound movements” like the squat, bench press, deadlift and pull-up are a great way to train, but…what are they? And why are they so awesome? For the purposes of this week’s newsletter, we’re gonna focus on free weights and calisthenics in particular (but don’t worry, I have some machine-related content planned for the near future).
And I promise the reason isn’t just so you can swan around telling anyone within shouting distance about your deadlift PRs, though…ngl that’s probably my favourite side effect. (YES THAT’S RIGHT MY LOVELIES, MAMA’S GOT A NEW PR.)
What makes a movement a compound lift? A simple way to look at it is to separate exercises into single-joint (SJ) vs multi-joint (MJ) exercises. If you compare a pull-up to a bicep curl: the bicep curl only involves the flexion and extension of one joint (the elbow), and (mostly) isolates the biceps. A pull-up, on the other hand, involves flexion and extension of both the elbow and shoulder joints, and targets a much larger number of muscle groups particularly the biceps and latissimus dorsi, as well as a bunch of other mid-back, grip-related and core muscles (such as your trapezius, rhomboideus & teres major and minor, posterior deltoids, spinal erectors and obliques, to name a few).
I can betcha Bruce Lee didn’t grow these lats doing bicep curls!
As such, the biggest and most obvious benefit to training with compound movements is simply how efficient and effective it is. Regardless of the repetition ranges, set styles or rest times that you employ, you will be able to get more work done (and similar or greater results) in the same amount of time using a movement that hits up multiple joints and muscle groups at once.
When it comes to free weights or bodyweight exercises, and particularly with MJ over SJ exercises, i.e. a barbell/dumbbell bench press or push-up vs machine chest presses, another great benefit is that the lack of a specific track that the weights will follow means all those tiny little stabilisation muscles are gonna have to pull their weight too. The main muscle groups worked in the ‘push’ exercises mentioned above are the chest and triceps, but there’s a whole host of smaller muscles in your shoulders that will be working hard to make sure your arms move along a certain path, and that, when performed with good form, will help to keep the entire joint strong and healthy too. If you’ve ever done a push-up, you’ll probably also have noticed that as you tire, one of the first mistakes you’ll start to make is that your butt either starts to sag down or pike up, because holding your entire body in a straight line with your core braced means that even if the exercise isn’t directly targeting your core in the way that it might target your pecs, triceps, or rotator cuff, your core’s still made to work hard, and therefore getting stronger too.
My favourite benefit to compound movements though is the way your strength gains transfer into the real world and ‘functional’ strength. (As an aside, I don’t mean ‘functional’ in the sense that I can balance on a BOSU ball while doing a single legged squat, because I don’t live on a tightrope IRL and that is most definitely not functional to my everyday life.) Consider how your dad or colleague or sister (or you!) last threw their back out: it was probably while picking up a heavy box or shifting the TV cabinet during their last spring clean, not so much when they were curling a beer stein to their face at Oktoberfest, right? Now, if you train a movements like the deadlift, squat, pull-ups or rows, and bench or overhead presses, you’re gonna be a lot more likely to:
have the strength to pick up a box of books when your next Amazon impulse purchase shipment arrives,
hoist overstuffed cabin baggage into the overhead compartment and not risk cabin crew forcing you to check it in when they realise how much it weighs,
know how to do so safely, without risking your lower back health,
get abs (assuming your nutrition is in check to support your body compositional goals), and
be able to do weird things like deadlift a friend (unless you’re stronger than the average bull and/or have friends small enough to bicep curl), or less weird things like win the Coolest Adult Award when a small human such as your daughter or nephew has taken up residence on your shoulders and you need to stand up while bearing that extra load.
“Butbutbut…Rachel! Look at those bodybuilders! Their biceps have such gorgeous peaks because they isolate their biceps in training! You said yourself that you got your arms jacked by doing a bajillion curls! Surely this means that SJ movements must have a benefit over MJ ones?”
And it’s true, there is definitely a place and time for isolation (which I’ll deal with in a later issue), and by no means am I saying that SJ exercises are worthless (they’re not: they can 100% provide comparable results to MJ training), but it’s very rare that SJ exercises work better, on the whole, than MJ exercises do. In fact, this study (which was reviewed in MASS) actually did a volume equated study on the benefits of SJ vs MJ movements, and showed (with some caveats) that strength, body composition, and cardiorespiratory fitness all showed significantly greater improvements in the MJ group over the SJ group.
To sum up: compared with SJ movements, MJ movements —
are significantly more effective at increasing strength
are significantly more effective at improving body composition
have loads of benefits that are transferrable to real life
bring bonus points for strengthening your core and keeping your back strong and healthy when when you don’t directly train your core
and do all those things in less time.
So why wouldn’t you want to train in this style? Well, I’ve gotta keep you lot interested and coming back for more, so…