Compound/Multi-joint Exercises and 6 Reasons Why You Want to Do Them
Compound/Multi-joint Exercises and 6 Reasons Why You Want to Do Them
What are Compound Exercises?
Compound exercises, or multi-joint movements, involve more than one joint and muscle group at a time, as opposed to an isolation exercise, or single-joint movement, which only works one muscle/joint at a time. Compound exercises are an important part of any exercise routine for several reasons. In this post we’ll explore how these simple exercises can benefit you, and we’ve included a short instructional video to get you started!
Benefits of Compound/Multi-joint Exercises
1. Functional. Compound exercises help strengthen your body the way it actually works in real life. These exercises simulate daily multi-joint tasks such as picking up your child, shoveling snow, vacuuming, and going up and down stairs.
2. High Intensity and Effective. Compound exercises are intense, because of multiple muscles and joints that are being used. This intensity makes the exercises more effective as well, at gaining strength and lean muscle mass, losing body fat and weight loss, and overall health.
3. Efficient. Challenging multi-joint exercises do not require a lot of time to be effective. Done at a high intensity, these exercises can take your health and fitness to a new level, even with 5-10 minutes a day!
4. Burn more calories. According to The American Council on Exercise, “the body expends 5 calories of energy to consumer 1 liter of oxygen. Exercises that involve more muscle tissue require more oxygen, which helps the body increase its net energy expenditure.” In other words, coupons exercises burn a lot of calories, fast.
5. Improve heart health. Single-joint exercises such as
biceps curls use only a limited amount of muscle tissue; In contrast, compound exercises that involve large amounts of muscle tissue, challenge the heart to pump thus increasing cardiovascular strength.
6. Dynamic Flexibility. Yes, compound exercises can actually make you flexible! When paired with a few yoga postures following each workout, multi-joint exercises can help alleviate muscle tightness and misalignment. The American Council on Exercise says “exercise that involves an active range of motion can be considered a form of dynamic stretching, which involves moving a joint through a range of motion to lengthen the surrounding tissue…Over the course of a number of repetitions, the contractions and activity in the involved muscles elevate the temperature and inhibit activity, which reduces tension and improves length.”
Some examples of compound exercises include
-squats
-push press
-thrusters
-kettle bell swings
-burpees
-lunges
Here is a quick video of Japheth demonstrating a 5min workout to get you started.
As with any workout regimen, it’s important that you get proper training by a certified professional. Contact Water and Rock Studio today to help take your health/fitness to a whole new level with compound exercises!