Masheen

Lifts and their short names

Compound lift

Also called compound exercise, multi-joint exercise, compound movement

A compound lift is an exercise that bends and straightens more than one joint at once, so several muscles share the work.

ChestShoulders (helps)Triceps (helps)FrontBack
The bench press moves the shoulder and elbow: the chest does most of the work, shoulders and triceps help.

In plain words

Researchers call it a multi-joint exercise. Its opposite is an isolation lift, or single-joint exercise, where one joint moves and one muscle does most of the work. A 2017 study by Paoli and colleagues names the bench press and squat as multi-joint exercises, and the dumbbell fly and knee extension as single-joint ones. The ACSM's 2009 position stand recommends doing multiple-joint exercises before single-joint ones in a session. One lift does not mean one muscle: a compound lift always shares the work.

An example

The bench press moves two joints, the shoulder and the elbow. The chest does most of the work; the shoulders and triceps help. A dumbbell fly moves only the shoulder, so for the chest it is an isolation lift. In Paoli's study, 36 physically active men trained three times a week for 8 weeks on one kind or the other, with total work matched. Both groups gained strength; the multi-joint group gained more: bench press one-rep max up 10.9% against 8.1%, squat up 13.8% against 8.3%.

Often confused with

Isolation lift An isolation lift moves one joint; a compound lift moves two or more.
Isolation lift An isolation lift is an exercise in which one joint moves and one muscle does most of the work.
Squat The squat is a lift in which you stand with a barbell across your upper back, bend your knees and hips to lower yourself, and stand back up.
Bench press The bench press is a lift done lying on a bench: you lower a barbell to your chest and press it back up until your arms are straight.
Deadlift The deadlift is a lift in which a barbell is picked up from the floor until you are standing straight.
Powerlifting total A powerlifting total is the sum of your best squat, best bench press and best deadlift, each a single rep.

Go deeper

Beginner strength programs compared Starting Strength, StrongLifts 5×5, GZCLP and 5/3/1 for Beginners in one table. Days, lifts, sets and reps, how the weight goes up, and what to do on a miss. Updated

Sources

  1. Paoli et al. 2017. Resistance training with single vs. multi-joint exercises at equal total load volume. Front Physiol 8:1105 Read
  2. ACSM 2009. Position stand: Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc 41(3):687–708 Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.