Why Compound Movements are the Best Way to Build Muscle and Gain Strength
If you are a beginner lifter, you might be wondering what kind of exercises you should do to build muscle and strength. You might have heard of terms like compound movements and isolation movements, but what do they mean and how do they affect your muscle growth?
Compound movements are exercises that involve more than one joint and muscle group, such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, pull-ups, and dips. Isolation movements are exercises that target a single joint and muscle group, such as bicep curls, leg extensions, lateral raises, and tricep pushdowns.
What's wrong with isolation movements?
You might think that isolation movements are better for building muscle, since they allow you to focus on a specific muscle and make it work harder. However, this is not the case. Compound movements are actually superior for building muscle and strength, and here are some reasons why:
- Compound movements engage multiple muscle groups through full range of motion, which means they have much higher overloading capacity. Overloading is the principle of progressively increasing the stress on your muscles to stimulate adaptation and growth. By using more weight, more reps, or more sets, you can overload your muscles more effectively with compound movements than with isolation movements.
- Compound movements force synergistic muscle activation, which means they make your muscles work together as a unit, rather than in isolation. This is how your muscles are supposed to work in real life, and it improves your coordination, balance, stability, and functionality. It also prevents muscle imbalances and injuries that can result from overusing or neglecting certain muscles.
- Compound movements stimulate higher central nervous system (CNS) activation, which means they make your brain and spinal cord work harder to coordinate your movements and recruit more muscle fibers. This enhances your neural efficiency, which is the ability of your nervous system to activate your muscles. The more efficient your nervous system is, the more strength and power you can generate.
- Compound movements cause much higher hormonal secretion and elevation, which means they increase the levels of anabolic hormones in your body, such as testosterone and growth hormone. These hormones are responsible for stimulating protein synthesis, which is the process of repairing and building new muscle tissue. The more protein synthesis you have, the more muscle you can gain.
Conclusion
As you can see, compound movements have many benefits for building muscle and strength, and they should be the foundation of your training program. Building strength through basic compound movements will result in the highest possible hypertrophy response. Simply put; get stronger and you’ll gain muscle!
Of course, this does not mean that you should completely avoid isolation movements. They can still have a place in your program, especially if you want to target a specific muscle or work on a weak point. However, you should prioritize compound movements and use isolation movements as a supplement, not as a substitute.
What next?
If you are looking for a simple and effective program that focuses on compound movements, you can check out my coaching services here, follow me on social media, or contact me if you have any questions, to give you the best chance at achieving your goals.
Whatever you decide, just remember, compound movements are the best way to build muscle and strength, so make sure you include them in your training. You will be amazed by the results you can achieve with these simple and powerful exercises. Happy lifting!
