compound workout - taylor-made fitness

compound workout
A compound workout uses complex, layered moves to create powerful, effective exercises
which can be adapted to suit you.
In a nutshell, you will start with a basic movement (eg. a squat) and then layer in extra
movements (eg. a calf raise and shoulder press) to increase the load on your body. By
working-out in this way, you will increase your heart- & breathing-rate and add extra work
to your muscles and bones, whilst decreasing the amount of time you need to exercise for.
If you are time-poor, this style of workout is ideal for you!
The other great advantage of a compound workout is that because there are layers added-
on, you can easily adapt it by taking away (or replacing) anything which doesn͛t feel right for
you, without having to miss out on a whole exercise.
For example, in the case of squat, calf raise & shoulder press:
if you had an issue with your shoulder, you could continue with squats & calf raises
but leave out the shoulder press; or you could substitute a biceps curl in place of the
shoulder press
if your feet were not comfortable with calf raises, you could do just a squat &
shoulder press; or you could do a squat, shoulder press & triceps extension
The key to layering in movements is to find ones which flow together fairly easily so that the
workout doesn͛t feel awkward to do, but other than that, the only rule is to listen to your
body and change anything that doesn͛t feel right for you. And don͛t feel that every exercise
has to be a compound one - mix in a few simple exercises too for more variety.
I͛ǀe put together a simple compound workout to get you started and I have filmed all the
exercises, to go with the notes below, so that you can see how they look. Once you͛ǀe
watched the video, and got the basic idea, you can follow the notes for subsequent
workouts and dream up your own combinations too!
Watch me doing all of the moves in the video here - and I added some afterthoughts on
push-ups here.
As always:
spend some time mobilising and warming-up your body before you begin your
workout
pay attention to your body and change anything which does not feel useful for you
either use a timer for each exercise or count repetitions - whichever you prefer