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Compound Exercises: How To, Benefits, Variations, & Common Mistakes

Want to get stronger, bust through plateaus, and take your workouts to the next level? Add compound exercises into your fitness routine.

In this article, we discuss how to do compound exercises, the benefits they offer, the variations you can do, and the common mistakes to avoid so you can stay safe while getting fit.

What Are Compound Exercises?

A compound exercise is one that requires your body to use two or more muscle groups (and, often, two or more joints) at the same time.

A prime example of a compound exercise is the squat.

This basic movement requires you to bend at the knees and hips (two joints), and activates multiple muscle groups in your lower body (the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and glutes). On top of that, it also engages your lower back and core muscles for support.

As you can see, compound exercises give a lot of bang for their buck for one movement.

In comparison, the opposite of a compound exercise is an isolation exercise, which only requires one muscle group or joint to perform the movement.

An example of an isolation exercise is the biceps curl. In this exercise, only one joint is moving (the elbow) and only one muscle group is active (the biceps).

How To Perform Basic Compound Exercises

The vast majority of the movements you’re likely to perform during a workout are variations of the four basic compound exercises: press, pull, squat, hinge.

These exercises activate, engage, and work a large number of muscles at the same time and are extremely effective at helping you lose weight, gain strength, build muscle, and generally maintain your overall fitness.

Of course, there are other movements you might include as well — calf raises, leg extensions, leg curls, cable chest flies, lateral raises, and more — but these isolation exercises aren’t as effective at producing overall fitness as compound exercises.

Isolation exercises are great as a supplement to target weak spots in your body, but they’re not a replacement for the big lifts (unless you’re recovering from an injury).

Here’s how to perform the basic compound exercises.

Press

The pressing movement involves extending your arms — up or perpendicular to your body — from your shoulders until your elbows are straight.

Pressing falls into two categories:

Horizontal presses (e.g., bench press and pushup)
Vertical presses (e.g., overhead or military press)

Horizontal presses are typically done lying down or in the prone position, while vertical presses are typically done standing up or seated on a bench.

Pull

Pulling compound exercises are the opposite of pressing exercises and involve contracting your arms — down toward your head or in toward your chest — until your elbows are fully bent.

Like the press, pulling falls into two categories:

Horizontal pulls (e.g., ring and barbell rows)
Vertical pulls (e.g., pullups and chinups)

Horizontal pulls are typically performed by bringing your arms in toward your body from out in front of your chest, while vertical pulls are done by bringing your arms down toward your shoulders from overhead.

Squat

To do a squat:

Set your feet about shoulder-width apart with your toes turned out slightly
Keep your feet flat on the floor
Push your hips back and lower them toward the floor (as if you’re sitting down in a chair)
Keep your chest up as you move down
Once your knees reach a 90-degree angle, push through your heels to stand back up

Keeping your body in the right position is crucial for avoiding injury (especially when you add weight), so be sure you’ve got your form down before varying the types of squats you’re doing. Correct form and safety should always come before adding weight.

Hinge

The hinge (or hip hinge) is a fundamental human movement that engages the posterior chain — the back side of your body — to drive flexion and extension (bending and straightening) of the hips.

One of the most basic hinge exercises is the deadlift, but other variations exist as well. We’ll discuss these in the Variations section of this article.

But first, let’s look at how to perform a traditional deadlift. To perform this compound exercise, stand with your feet hip-width apart, bend your knees slightly, and push your hips back like you’re trying to close a car door.

Hinge forward, keeping your knees bent until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings and glutes. Then squeeze your glutes to bring your hips forward to return to a standing position.

Many variations of the hip hinge also require you to bend your knees to lower your hips down while your hips are traveling back (i.e. the deadlift starting position).