Compound Exercises Workout

Try this routine the next time you train.

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Why You Should Incorporate Compound Exercises in Your Workout

If you're looking to burn more calories during your workouts, compound exercises are for you! These exercises incorporate multiple muscle groups into a single movement for a greater calorie burn and better time efficiency. When you engage more muscles in any one exercise, your body requires more energy to complete the movement. This makes compound strength exercises ideal for those looking to lose fat while gaining strength. 

Compound exercises also improve your stability and balance. Your body, and specifically your core, has to work harder to maintain balance when you're recruiting multiple muscle groups and completing several exercises in rapid succession. 

Compound movements also more closely mimic the way we use our body and strength in real life, making them important for conditioning your body for everyday tasks - carrying your groceries in from the car, lifting and carrying your kids, vacuuming the home, pushing a stroller, climbing stairs, or squatting to pick something heavy up off the floor.

If you want to move through everyday life well and without injury, these exercises are a fabulous addition to your strength routine! 

Equipment

• Dumbbells
• Exercise Mat (or other soft surface to do floor work)

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Exercise Instructions

Bear Plank with Alternating Row to Tricep Kickback

1. Start on your hands and knees on the mat with a dumbbell laying on the mat between your hands.

2. Point your toes into the floor, and lift your knees 1 inch off the floor.

3. Keep your shoulders directly over top of your hands, hips over knees, and abdominals tight.

4. Hold this position for the duration of the movement.

5. Grab the dumbbell with your right hand and raise your elbow up into a row.

6. Keeping the upper arm as still as possible, raise your forearm up until it's level with your upper arm and your arm is fully extended. (Do not allow your torso to rotate as you're doing so. You want to use your core to maintain balance with one arm in the air.)

7. Slowly lower the forearm until the dumbbell is back under your elbow.

8. Return the dumbbell to the starting position and return your right hand to its position directly under your right shoulder.

9. Repeat on the other side.

10. That's one rep.

Alternating Reverse Lunge to Hammer Press

1. Stand with dumbbells in both hands resting on top of your shoulders. Elbows should be tucked and palms should be facing each other.

2. Extend one leg back and lower your body on the other leg until your knee of the rear leg is almost in contact with floor.

3. Drive through the heel of the front leg to push yourself back up while simultaneously bringing the back leg forward to the starting position.

4. Perform a hammer press. Raise the dumbbells into the air above your head until your arms are fully extended. Do not lock out the elbows.

5. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to your shoulders, keeping elbows tucked in front of your body and palms facing each other.

6. Repeat the lunge on the other side followed by the hammer press.

Chest Press to Pullover

1. Lie with your back flat on a mat, knees bent, and feet out in front of you.

2. Hold a dumbbell at both ends between your hands.

3. With elbows tucked at 45-75 degrees relative to your torso, push the dumbbell up over your body until arms are fully extended (with just a slight bend at the elbows.)

4. Without changing the bend in your elbows, move at the shoulder joint to slowly bring the dumbbell in an arc down and behind your head.

5. Bring the dumbbell back up and in front of your body until it's directly above your chest again.

6. Slowly lower the dumbbell back down to the starting position.

Goblet Squat Low to 3/4 Up

1. Ensure that your feet are set shoulder-width apart.

2. Hold one end of a dumbbell between both hands underneath your chin.

3. As you descend into the squat, make sure your toes, knees, and hips stay lined up with each other.

4. Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Keep your chest up throughout the movement.

5. Drive through your heels to come back up 3/4 of the way and then squat back down to keep constant tension on the glutes and quads. You won't fully return to the starting position (legs fully extended) until the end of the set.

Kneeling Bicep Curl

1. Take a tall kneeling position on a flat surface or a mat.

2. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with an underhand grip (palms facing forward.)

3. Engage your core to protect your back and help you stabilize.

4. While keeping your upper arms as still as possible, lift the dumbbells up to your shoulders.

5. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.

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