Compound exercises

A compound exercise is an exercise where you preform an a movement that uses 2 or more joints like a squat which uses your hips and knees  as opposed to isolation exercises which focus on one joint movement.

Irene doing her first bb squat

Being an ectomorph, tall and fast metabolic rate, I only do compound exercises but everyone should be dong them! With the more muscles the bigger the weight you can lift and the more your lift the bigger the gains due to your body releasing more growth hormone! So forget the curls as the back bone of your workout, you will get better results and a more muscularly balanced body , If you really can't help but curl one out stick them at the end of your workouts to cause your muscle to fatigue even more!

Squats, a favourite of all those big booty celebrities you love so much and with it hitting your core, back, quads, hamstrings and glutes it's easy to see why! Do your squats at the start of your workout to take advantage of the testosterone boost they give you.

Dead lifts, the king of all exercises! You should be instructed on how to dead lift quickly so you can learn to safely pick up weights without straining your lower back. Dead lifts will also help you with every other exercise you do by helping to stabilise your upper body ensure you will lift even more!
Properly preformed dead lifts will work your quads, glutes, hamstrings, back and core and with the weight being in front of you rather than on your back like during a barbell squat or over your face like during a bench press, can go heavier without the aid of a spotter.
Many people hurt their backs dead lifting with poor technique,like any exercise if you are unsure ask a member of staff at your gym to help and avoid listening to that wannabe PT who gives advise to anyone who will listen whether he was asked or not! If you are finding your grip is failing when dead lifting then check out my get a grip post on ways to help improve your grip and start dead lifting the same weight as a ford focus.
With the dead lift working more muscles than any other single move exercise it really is the king!

Pull ups, even without adding weight these are one of the hardest exercises as you are pulling your entire body weight plus gravity and if you have long arms like me then it's even harder! Pull ups will work your back, biceps, core and your lats, which tend to be described as wings on your back. Your choice of grip will effect how much work each muscles does with an under hand grip using your biceps more and a wide over hand grip making those lats really work hard!

Bench press, bet you're glad to see this on here with it being a firm favourite with the brutes that do all chest and arms and neglect the rest of their body! The bench press uses your chest, triceps and shoulders and if you dig your heels in your lats will also help you press even heavier weight! The bench press is potentially easier than a press up, if you think about how much you weigh and what you can bench do they match up?

With all these exercises ensure you complete a warm up focusing on the joints you are going to be using in the exercise, these are by no means all the compound exercises out there but they are the big 4 in my eyes and I am looking to do a future post on more compound exercises so be sure to look out for that!