Compound movements. The most bang for your buck

In this day and age of work, family and play, there is little time left to take care of your physical and mental health. That said, if you are a gym goer, you probably want to maximize the physical and mental benefits you get from working out with a minimal time commitment.?Let’s be honest, most don’t walk into the gym with the intent of breaking world records. But that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from the movements that elite athletes use in their everyday training.

Below are 4 things you can do to maximize the benefit from the time you do put in.

You will see lots of articles that will list off the benefits of weigh training. Very few of them ever focus on how to do it correctly and safely. Many people walk into the gym with little knowledge of proper lifting technique, and how they would go about improving their own body composition and overall muscle mass. They end up spinning their wheels, and wonder why they never make any real progress.

Take a look around the next time you are there. You see lots of people using machines, the bench press, cardio equipment, even those doing shoulder press and bicep curls with dumbbells. ?

Use Compound movements

What you rarely see in a commercial gym, is anyone in the squat rack or on the deadlift platform (if there even is one).

Why?

Those two compound movements are hard, and over the years have gained an unfair reputation of being dangerous. It seems everyone you talk to has a story about bad knees or a bad back as the reason they don’t squat or deadlift.

Yes, the movements can be dangerous….but so can driving your car if you don’t follow the rules of the road. It’s the same with squatting and deadlifting. To be performed safely, they require technical proficiency and strength in specific muscles that the average person does not possess (hips, glutes, hamstrings, back, abdominals and yes, even the calf muscles.

Put another way, bicep curls only work the biceps. The squat works just about every muscle in your body. The deadlift recruits even more muscle motor units than the squat does.

Most only work the muscles that they can see in the mirror. The problem with this is that muscle imbalances are created. These imbalances make the individual more susceptible to injury.

The knee joint is a great example. Most people are quad dominant and have underdeveloped and tight hamstrings. This is especially true for office people, as they spend a lot of their time sitting.

This imbalance puts tremendous strain on the knee joint. These same people are usually the ones with recurring knee pain / injuries.

Knee pain?results from a complex series of biomechanical interactions. The hamstring, helps support the knee. This supporting role makes these muscles a key factor in knee-injury protection and knee-pain prevention.?Malfunctioning hamstrings create faulty movement patterns, which affect the alignment and health of the knees.

?Exercise the posterior and the anterior chains

Its all about balance. As already mentioned, most only work the muscles they see in the mirror. This is why you often see poor posture, back problems and knee problems. These imbalances causes misalignment of your joints and vertebrae. The larger the imbalance, the higher the probability of discomfort and potential injury. Fix the imbalances, and over time the pain will disappear. How do you fix it? By working both the anterior and posterior muscles of your body. As you build the back, you also build the front.

Use a box

If you are new to squatting, you likely will not have the hamstring and hip strength to perform the movement correctly. Sitting back onto a wooden box or bench is a great way to build the posterior chain, and perform the squat biomechanically correct. It will allow you to sit back and properly load the hamstrings and glutes without falling.

But don’t take my word for it.

The box squat was made famous by Westside Barbell. ?If you are curious about the box squat, and what constitutes proper form, here is a great video from world renowned strength coach Matt Wenning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2igVzbbA6c

Never heard of Westside barbell? Check them out here https://westside-barbell.com

The box squat is the method I use to teach the squat to new lifters, as it forces them to perform the movement correctly. Over time it reinforces correct biomechanics. This way, the lifter is doing movement correctly from day one.

Deadlift from blocks

Like the squat, the deadlift requires mobility and specific cues to be performed safely. The challenge with the new lifter is they often do not have the required mobility to perform the movement from the floor with correct biomechanics.

The solution to this is to raise the height in which you deadlift from. Raise the bar to a height that you can get into the correct biomechanical start position. Over time, mobility will improve, allowing you to gradually move the bar closer to the floor.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, most want to stay in shape with a safe activity with as little work as possible. If you are one of those people, then compound movements might be for you.

Squatting and deadlifting are not bad for your knees/back. Having muscle imbalances, being sedentary, and lifting with bad form are.?