Compound Exercises–Mix and Match!

If you’re looking to spice up your workout routine, or if you’re on a tight schedule and want the most bang for your buck, try some compound exercises. A compound exercise is simply two resistance exercises, usually an upper-body and lower-body exercise, put together and performed at the same time. The spice is how you can combine them together in new and creative ways to give your body a little extra challenge.

Remember children’s Mix-and-Match books, where you could give the characters different combinations of outfits and looks? Compound exercises are kindof like that, which makes them fun to play with. Let’s apply this “Mix-and-Match” concept to create different compound exercises from these lists:

Lower Body Exercises	Upper Body Exercises
Squat	Overhead Press
Forward or Reverse Lunge	Dumbbell Curl
Step Up	Dumbbell Scaption or Lateral Raise
Lateral Lunge	MedBall Press Out
Single Leg Deadlift	Resistance Band pull across chest

This table shows some popular lower and upper-body resistance exercises, but you may think of others that pair well together. Using this table as a guide, let’s examine a few combos, along with implements you could use for each:

• Squat to Overhead Press (MedBall, Dumbbell, or Barbell)
• Step Up to Dumbbell Curl
• Reverse Lunge to Dumbbell Scaption
• Lateral Lunge to MedBall Press Out
• Single Leg Deadlift to Dumbbell Curl
• Squat to Resistance Band Pull
• Step Up to Dumbbell Overhead Press
• Forward Lunge to MedBall Press Out

As you can see there are many combinations to be used, and getting creative may inspire you to come up with your own. I almost never do dumbbell curls as a standalone exercise. It’s more efficient if I pair it with a lower body exercise, and it creates a higher metabolic demand because I’m using more muscle groups at once. It’s really a win-win because I’m doing more work in less time.

If you’re unfamiliar with some of these exercises, check out the Exercise Library found on this site! You can also take a deeper dive into resistance exercises by taking a course with our new Wellness Lab. Currently I’m finishing up a course on Medicine Balls which will feature many of these combos–so look for that new course coming soon!

Be Well!

Neal