Myth: Compound exercises are for building mass and simple exercises are for “shaping” muscles.
Truth: All exercises – both compound and simple – do the same thing; they stimulate muscles to grow larger and stronger. While it is possible to alter your overall body shape by focusing on building certain muscle groups more than others it is not possible to alter the general shape of a muscle or muscle group, only its size.
It is often claimed that compound exercises are more effective mass builders because they allow you to lift more weight relative to simple exercises targeting the same muscle groups. However, the amount of weight you lift during an exercise is irrelevant, what matters is the resistance each of the involved muscles work against and the tension you are able to create in them. You are able to lift more weight during compound exercises because the work is shared by multiple muscle groups and the leverages are often more favorable, but you are not working those muscle groups harder than you would during simple exercises.
You can actually work the individual muscle groups harder with simple exercises because it is possible to perform them in a way that maintains more consistent tension on them over the full range of the exercise. Also, some muscle groups like those in the neck and forearms and the calves can only be effectively trained with simple exercises.
Another popular claim is that compound exercises are more effective mass builders because they stimulate greater increases in testosterone and growth hormone. This is not true either, though. Numerous studies show post-exercise increases in anabolic hormones do not have a significant effect on muscular strength and size.
While compound exercises are not more effective than simple exercises for increasing muscle mass the ability to effectively work multiple muscle groups simultaneously does provide several advantages. Workouts built around compound exercises are more time efficient making them a better choice for busy people who want to get in and out of the gym as quickly as possible. Compound exercises are more systemically demanding making them more effective for stimulating improvements in cardiovascular fitness. Most compound exercises are easier to learn and master than most simple exercises, making them better choices for beginners.
While simple exercises can not change the shape of a muscle they also provide several advantages. They are an effective way to target specific muscle groups to balance out your physique. With the right equipment some simple exercises can also be used to work around injuries that prevent you from safely performing compound exercises. Simple exercises.
Whether your goal is to develop an aesthetically well-balanced physique or just become as big and strong as possible you can do it with both compound and simple exercises.
References:
Gentil, P., Soares, S., & Bottaro, M. (2015). Single vs. Multi-Joint Resistance Exercises: Effects on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy. Asian Journal Of Sports Medicine, 6(1). doi:10.5812/asjsm.24057
Morton, R., Oikawa, S., Wavell, C., Mazara, N., McGlory, C., & Quadrilatero, J. et al. (2016). Neither load nor systemic hormones determine resistance training-mediated hypertrophy or strength gains in resistance-trained young men. Journal Of Applied Physiology, 121(1), 129-138. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00154.2016
West, D., Burd, N., Tang, J., Moore, D., Staples, A., & Holwerda, A. et al. (2009). Elevations in ostensibly anabolic hormones with resistance exercise enhance neither training-induced muscle hypertrophy nor strength of the elbow flexors. Journal Of Applied Physiology, 108(1), 60-67. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01147.2009
West, D., Kujbida, G., Moore, D., Atherton, P., Burd, N., & Padzik, J. et al. (2009). Resistance exercise-induced increases in putative anabolic hormones do not enhance muscle protein synthesis or intracellular signalling in young men. The Journal Of Physiology, 587(21), 5239-5247. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2009.177220
Yarasheski, K., Zachweija, J., Angelopoulos, T., & Bier, D. (1993). Short-term growth hormone treatment does not increase muscle protein synthesis in experienced weight lifters. Journal Of Applied Physiology, 74(6), 3073-3076.
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All:
I have trained for years with BOTH compound and isolation exercises using AJ HIT protocols and in July of this year, I purchased 6 compound Nautilus ONE machines and have been training on them exclusively since and will never go back to doing isolation exercises!…HERE’S WHY:
1.) The Nautilus ONE machines are what I like to call “compilation” exercises, meaning that because the movement arms articulate, you get some of the benefit of the isolation exercise while doing the compound movement ie; chest press arms converge toward the mid line as you press out.
2.) Doing only 4 movements (Leg Press, Calf Press, either rows or pull downs/either chest Press or Shoulder Press), 3 times each week, one can effectively take each one to absolute failure benefiting all of the muscle groups (as well as the indirect effect of stimulating the entire body’s growth mechanism).
3.) Training a single muscle after going to failure on a compound exercise working the same muscle is redundant at best, ineffective at worst because you have already fatigued that muscle on the compound exercise (if you did it right), so your effort on the isolation exercise is never a “fresh” effort for the isolated muscle group anyway, therefore in my opinion, a waste of time.
My biggest surprise was that my arms grew like they did as soon as I stopped doing curls and extensions, probably put 1/2″ on an already decent sized arm in just a few months at 51 years old!…convincing me that all of this time I’ve been “watering down” my efforts by doing isolation movements. Same has been true with delts, traps, etc. All of the exercises I was so afraid to ditch for so many years are gone and I;m growing bigger, leaner as a result.
All exercise machine movement arms, compound and simple, articulate. This just means to move around the axis or axes. The additional axes on some Nautilus compound exercise machines like the pulldown and mid row do not make them more like simple exercises; they are there to make the machine move more congruently with the way the body should move during these exercises. This would be no different than using a machine designed for congruence without requiring the additional articulation (like the MedX pulldown and compound row). Converging movement arms are nice on exercises like the chest press, but this is still much different than performing a simple exercise.
While performing only a few compound exercises may be enough for someone who is only interested in some of the general health benefits of exercise and keeping their workouts extremely brief more variety of movement is necessary for optimal overall muscular development, including direct exercises for the neck.
Some research shows there is little benefit to performing simple exercises when one has already performed a compound exercise, including doing pre-exhaustion or post-exhaustion. I’ve seen plenty of people make significant improvements in upper arm size without direct arm work to know it isn’t necessary. However, there are situations where simple exercises can be beneficial depending on the overall workout and program. I won’t go into detail here, but I have been experimenting with this with some clients and will write about it later when I’ve gathered more information.
Drew I had the opposite result to Steven. I have always trained to absolute failure on rows and lat pull downs and felt that direct bicep work wasn’t really necessary. Some years ago I finally decided to add 2 sets of low rep bicep work (including static holds/fails) and gained an inch on my arms in 6 months. If you were a newbie this additional work would most likely be superfluous.
Like most things, if and how simple exercises should be included depends on the individual, their goals, what else they are doing and how they’re doing it. I have people do specialization workouts including simple exercises for the targeted muscle groups when I think they’ll benefit from it.
Isn’t that overtraining 3X/week?
Whether a particular volume and frequency causes overtraining depends on the individual’s genetics, how intensely they train, their diet, rest, and other factors. Some people recover and adapt quickly enough to benefit from training this frequently, some need a week or longer to recover between workouts, most are somewhere in between.
Drew, isn’t that true to a point though? It was my assumption that as one gets stronger more recovery is needed. I guess Mentzer may have been all wrong about it then.
Recovery isn’t quite that simple. I believe a lot of people assumed more recovery was needed because they failed to appreciate how much progress slows as you approach the limits of your genetic potential. This is something I plan to cover in detail in a future book.
Not when each workout takes only about 6 minutes and is comprised of 4 sets!
The optimum volume and frequency varies considerably between individuals and there certainly are people who would need longer to recover even with this little volume.
After reading Arthur Jones articles on what he termed S and G responses I immediately came to the conclusion that ” indirect effect ” was a false premise. I asked Arthur about this a few weeks later , July of 1996 , and he concurred. Both of us came to realize that ” indirect effect ” was in fact a myth. I suggest that you read these articles on S and G response and see if you can understand why indirect effect doesn’t exist to any significant degree or in fact not at all.
Bill Sekerak is right about this and it is one of the things Arthur changed his mind about. Please read The Indirect Effect for more on this.
Nice article Drew. I have always had the best results overall by using a blend of both.
This is gold, as always.
Great article and long overdue. I believe the bias favoring compound over direct exercises in order for max muscle hypertrophy reeks of the same dogma that from the school of thought that one set to failure training was ineffective.
Let’s say a person only does isolation exercises and another person does only compound exercises.
Who do you think will have more muscle after a year or two?
The answer is obvious.
Assuming these people are identical and have the same potential for growth, follow the same diet, get the same amount of rest, and do the same amount of work for each muscle group, they would gain about the same amount of muscle. The person doing simple exercises would just have to spend a little more time in the gym to do it.
This is so hard to believe.
DB Fly vs heavy weighted dips
You’re saying fly could be as effective in building the chest as dips?
Yes, absolutely. It is about resistance, not weight.
If Drew opens a Patreon account, I’d be the first to join. Coming from someone who won’t pay for content.
I may do that some day. Thank you.
Precisely Drew. I don’t think the above commenter read your article and understood the gist of it.
Just out of curiosity.
Is it ok to do two exercises for one muscle group in the same workout (if we’re training to failure)?
For example, press and fly for chest, rows and pullups for back, shoulder press and lateral raise for shoulders.
Each muscle group (chest, back, shoulder) gets two exercises to failure. Is this overkill? Is it better to do only one exercise per muscle group, for example, EITHER rows or pullups but not BOTH rows and pullups?
Waiting for your insights on this, Drew. The reason I am asking is, if not training to failure we can do two exercises per muscle group. But if training to failure, is it better to limit it to just one exercise? All this assuming ONLY ONE SET per exercise.
For most people, yes. I cover this in High Intensity Workouts.