As a Scottsdale personal trainer, I love to incorporate compound movements in to my routines to work as many muscles as possible per exercise. A compound movement is simply an exercise that requires two or more joints to be active; therefore forcing many muscles to become involved. The more the merrier!

Check out the video on the next page of one my clients performing a highly compound movement .

CIMG0168 Click on link to watch video

Even a squat, which uses your hips, knees and ankles, is considered a compound movement. Squats are much more affective for your legs than an isolated exercise like the quad extension machine, which requires only one muscle group and one joint. Boooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg. As a Scottsdale personal trainer, you will RARELY see me using machines in the gym. There are so many better, more effective and fun options.

Another example of a compound movement would be a bench press. The wrist, elbow, and shoulder joint are working as your deltoids, chest, and triceps pump the weight up.

As a Scottsdale personal trainer, lunges are my very favorite compound movement because they fire up your glutes, hamstrings, quads, hips, and adductors(inner thighs) all at once. Now that is one loaded exercise.

As a Scottsdale personal trainer, I use compound movements because of how time and body effective they are. In addition, they are extremely functional. Compound movements will also keep you interested because they require a lot of focus and intention. Get more bang for your buck out of your workout sessions and ditch the isolated movements and machines.

This Scottsdale personal trainer is Down with the Compound!