Compound Movements

What Are Compound Movements?

Compound movements are exercises that work multiple joints and muscle groups at the same time. Unlike isolation exercises such as bicep curls or leg extensions, compound lifts recruit large amounts of muscle in a single movement. This makes them incredibly efficient and effective for building strength, muscle, and functional fitness.

If you have been training for a while and want to take your results to the next level, mastering these lifts is essential.

The Big Compound Lifts

The Squat

The squat is often called the king of all exercises, and for good reason. It targets your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and core all at once. Whether you perform back squats, front squats, or goblet squats, this movement pattern is fundamental to human movement.

Key coaching points: keep your chest up, push your knees out in line with your toes, aim to hit at least parallel depth, and drive through the whole foot on the way up.

The Deadlift

The deadlift is the ultimate test of full-body strength. It works your entire posterior chain — hamstrings, glutes, lower back, upper back, and grip. Learning to deadlift well teaches you how to lift heavy objects safely, which has enormous real-world carry-over.

Key coaching points: maintain a neutral spine throughout the lift, engage your lats to keep the bar close to your body, push the floor away with your legs, and lock out with your hips at the top.

The Bench Press

The bench press is the primary horizontal pushing movement. It works your chest, shoulders, and triceps. While it has a reputation as a pure ego lift, a well-performed bench press is a highly effective upper-body builder.

Key coaching points: retract your shoulder blades and press them into the bench, maintain a slight arch in your lower back, lower the bar to your mid-chest, and press it back up in a slight arc.

The Barbell Row

Rows balance out all the pressing you do and are critical for posture, shoulder health, and back development. The bent-over barbell row targets your lats, rhomboids, rear delts, and biceps.

Key coaching points: hinge at the hips with a slight knee bend, keep your back flat, pull the bar towards your lower ribcage, and squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top.

The Overhead Press

Pressing a weight overhead builds strong shoulders, triceps, and core stability. It is a demanding lift that many people neglect, but it is one of the best indicators of true upper-body strength.

Key coaching points: start with the bar at your collarbone, brace your core hard, press straight up, and push your head through once the bar passes your forehead.

Programming Compound Movements

For intermediate lifters, I typically programme compound lifts for three to five sets of four to eight repetitions with heavier loads, or three sets of eight to twelve for hypertrophy-focused blocks. The key is to prioritise these lifts at the start of your session when you are freshest, then follow up with accessory work.

These movements form the backbone of every programme I write. Master them, and everything else falls into place.