Great-Workout Blog

If you’re like most people I know, you’re so busy, that you struggle to find the time to hit the gym. You might have good intentions, but you probably also have what feels like a hundred other conflicting priorities (i.e. work, study, family etc).

If this sounds like you, compound exercises could be just the thing you need.

By using compound exercises, you’ll make much faster progress than you would if you use isolation exercises. In fact, you should always include compound exercises in your workout routine anyway. But this becomes even more important when you’re pushed for time.

What are Compound Exercises?

Compound exercises are exercises that move the body through more than one joint. By contrast, isolation exercises require only one joint.

Because compound exercises use more than one joint, they use more muscles. Compound exercises generally require you to use your largest muscle groups too - like your leg and back muscles.

Benefits of Compound Exercises

Because compound movements exercise multiple muscle groups in one go, this is where you can save precious time. By exercising more muscles with one exercise, you won’t need to do so many different exercises. Therefore, you won’t need to stay in the gym for so long.

Also, you’ll find that you can lift much more weight when you perform compound exercises. This is partly due to the fact that more muscles are being used, but it also has to do with the fact that most compound exercises force you to use your large muscle groups.

“The Big Three”

Here are three compound exercises that are commonly known as “The Big Three”. These three movements are so effective, that most power lifters only use these three exercises when they train. They are:

• Dead lift (Mainly for your back muscles, but great overall body exercise. Your legs will love this exercise!)
• Squat (Hits mainly the legs, but works the whole body to some degree.)
• Bench press (Mainly for chest muscles, but your shoulders and triceps will get a great workout too.)

If you were to include only 3 exercises in your workout routine, make it these three. By performing these three movements, you’ll work your whole body.

More Compound Movements

Here are some more compound exercises:

• Leg Press (Legs)
• Lunge (Legs)
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press (Shoulders, triceps)
• Upright Row (Shoulders, biceps, forearms)
• Dumbbell Row (Back, biceps)
• Chin Up (Back, biceps)
• Parallel Bar Dip (Chest, triceps. Also shoulders to some degree)

So, if you’re struggling to find time for your workouts, try eliminating all/most of your isolation exercises and concentrate mainly on compound exercises. By doing this, you’ll spend less time in the gym, while getting equal or even better results.

There is no doubt that a smart fitness plan includes time set aside each week for exercise. By ensuring that you have a window of time where you concentrate on only working out, you not only get into the habit of exercise, but you ensure that you will be able to make the most progress towards your fitness goals. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t also work to include a bit of exercise into the other parts of your life. Even by getting in a little more walking into parts of your day, you actually help burn off a surprisingly large number of calories if you do it often enough.

Here are a few easy ways to get more walking into your everyday life.

Wear a Step-Counting Device

A pedometer is just a small device that you can strap onto your belt and informs you of how much you walk during the day. It works by actually measuring bumps. Every time there is a jostle or a shake, it assumes that you have taken one step. Believe it or not, studies show that people who wear a pedometer on average do a whole lot more walking than people who don’t. It seems that when you actually have something telling you how much you are walking, you are generally inclined to do a whole lot more of it.

What’s great about pedometers is that there is actually a huge range of them to suit your needs. Sometimes banks even give away cheap pedometers as part of customer appreciation or a promotion.

Walk More at the Grocery Store

When most people go to the grocery store or the mall, they usually try to park and close as they can to the entrance to avoid having to walk a long distance from the store to the car. However, it can be much easier to simply park further away and use going to the store as an opportunity to get more walking in. And really, trying to get spot up close usually doesn’t save you any time anyway because you typically have to wait until someone else leaves their spot. By parking further away, you don’t spend any more time at the grocery store than you usually do, but you are able to burn more calories.

Find Social Activities that Involve Walking

Socializing with friends doesn’t always have to mean sitting around at a restaurant or watching a movie. You could go for a walk in the park or even at the mall. Going to the mall is an especially attractive option if you ever discover that the weather is too nasty for a nice outdoor stroll. If you are worried that being around so much stuff that you can buy might tempt you into running up your credit card, you might consider just keeping your wallet in your car.

It is important to remember not to separate fitness from your everyday life. How fit you become is determined by the decisions you make, whether inside the gym or out.

Christopher William McCombs is a personal trainer in Signal Hill California. Chris teaches a radically different approach to losing fat to local OC residents and he makes the workouts fun. Chris is also a Fitness Trainer Marketing expert and helps fitness trainers all over the globe to triple their income while cutting their work hours in half.

The U.S. President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports has recently introduced an adult fitness test. The test, which is for adults over the age of 18, allows U.S. residents to measure their fitness against other adults of the same age.

The fitness test includes exercises from three main components: aerobic fitness, muscular strength and flexibility exercises.

Aerobic fitness is tested by either a 1-mile walk or a 1.5 mile run. The strength test is achieved with push-ups and half sit-ups. Flexibility is measured using the sit-and-reach exercise.

Here’s what the Adult Fitness Test website says about the three main components:

On aerobic fitness:

…relates to the heart, blood vessels, and lungs working together to deliver oxygen-rich blood to the muscles during exercise. A high level of aerobic fitness is associated with lower risks of several diseases, including high blood pressure and coronary heart disease

On Strength:

…critical to both your health and ability to carry out daily activities, such as performing household tasks (yard work, carrying groceries) or job-related tasks (lifting or moving heavy objects)

On Flexibility:

Being able to move all of your joints through their full range of motion is important for good joint function as well as being able to walk, lift, and step normally. For example, if your knees cannot extend all the way, walking with bent knees puts extra stress on the hip and low back…

The adult fitness test can be completed online. You simply enter in your scores from the above components, as well as entering some basic details such as age, gender, height, and weight.

As well as giving you a comparison against other adults, the results of the fitness test can provide you with a baseline for improvement. This could come in handy when planning and measuring the results of your own workout sessions.

To complete the adult fitness test, go to www.adultfitnesstest.org.