In gyms you often hear the same recommendation: anyone who wants to build muscle should definitely train with compound exercises like squats, deadlifts or the bench press. These exercises are often considered particularly effective and are sometimes even presented as indispensable for building muscle.
But is that really true? Or is the importance of compound exercises for building muscle partly overrated?
A closer look at training physiology shows: compound exercises can be useful, but they are not necessarily required.
What compound exercises actually are
Compound exercises are strength exercises in which several joints are involved at the same time. That is why they are also called multi-joint exercises.
A classic example is the squat. During this movement, the hip joint and the knee joint work at the same time. As a result, several muscle groups are engaged simultaneously, including the thigh muscles, the glutes as well as stabilizing muscles in the trunk.
Other well-known compound exercises are, for example:
- the deadlift
- the bench press
- pull-ups
- the overhead or shoulder press
- rowing exercises
They differ from so-called single-joint exercises, in which the movement takes place mainly around a single joint, such as the biceps curl or the leg extension.
Multi-joint exercises and single-joint exercises compared
In multi-joint exercises, several muscles work together at the same time to perform a movement. As a result, force production is distributed across different structures.
An additional effect of such exercises is often described as the cross-education effect. The cross-education effect refers, on the one hand, to the fact that training one side of the body (e.g. the left arm) leads to strength gains on the other (right) side and, on the other hand, to the fact that when training large muscle groups the surrounding muscles often also become stronger indirectly, even if they are not directly the focus of the exercise.
Nevertheless, multi-joint exercises also have a special feature: since several muscles are involved at the same time, they often show different force curves. During a movement, the resistance on the individual muscles therefore changes to varying degrees.
In isolated single-joint exercises, on the other hand, the resistance is transferred more directly to the target muscle, because fewer muscles are involved in the movement.
This does not mean that one variant is fundamentally better than the other – they simply set different training priorities.
The myth of hormone release
A common argument in favor of compound exercises is the supposedly stronger hormone release during training. Especially with exercises like squats, it is often pointed out that they increase the production of anabolic hormones such as testosterone or growth hormone.
In fact, intense full-body exercises can trigger short-term hormonal changes. For building muscle, however, this effect appears to be less decisive than is often assumed.
Muscle growth – also called muscle hypertrophy – is primarily a local process. This means that the muscle responds above all to the mechanical training stimulus that the specific muscle experiences directly. As long as hormone levels remain within the normal physiological range, the short-term hormonal response after training is said to play no decisive role in building a particular muscle.
So whether you train, for example, the chest muscle in isolation or simultaneously load large muscle groups like the legs or back only slightly changes the growth stimulus in the chest muscle.
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What really matters for building muscle
The actual goal of muscle training is to transfer the training resistance to the target muscle as effectively as possible.
In some sports – such as weightlifting or powerlifting – the aim is to move as heavy a load as possible. To do this, the force is deliberately distributed across as many muscles as possible and not onto one specific muscle.
When building muscle, however, the goal is somewhat different: here the aim is to fatigue the target muscle as much as possible. The more a muscle works under tension and fatigues, the stronger the adaptation stimulus turns out to be.
This fatigue can be achieved both through compound exercises and through isolated strength exercises.
So are compound exercises necessary?
The short answer is: no – compound exercises are not strictly necessary for building muscle.
They can be an effective training tool, above all because they engage several muscle groups at the same time and are therefore very time-efficient. Nevertheless, comparable growth stimuli can also be produced with single-joint strength exercises.
What is ultimately decisive for building muscle is not the exercise itself or the type of exercise, but the quality of the training stimulus – that is, how strongly the target muscle is loaded and fatigued.
Nevertheless, compound exercises can be an important tool, especially for advanced trainees, to give the target muscle new training stimuli. Through the involvement of many muscle groups and the ability to move heavier loads, an overall load often arises that is harder to achieve with isolating exercises. This is, however, not yet relevant for less experienced trainees.
In addition, the assessment of whether compound exercises are necessary or not depends heavily on the goal of the training. If it is primarily about building muscle for aesthetic reasons, isolating exercises can be sufficient. But if building muscle or strength training is in the context of health and movement competence, adaptations of the nervous system as well as of the bones, ligaments and tendons should also be taken into account, which are not possible with all single-joint exercises. In this context, compound exercises can be regarded as the foundation of training, while isolating exercises rather take on a supplementary function.
What you should pay particular attention to during muscle training
For building muscle, some fundamental training principles are considerably more important than the question of whether an exercise is multi- or single-joint.
Pay particular attention to the following points:
- Clean movement execution A controlled technique ensures that the target muscle is loaded effectively.
- Slow and controlled movement tempo If the resistance is moved without momentum, the muscle stays under tension longer. A rhythm of about ten seconds per repetition can be useful here.
- Full range of motion If an exercise is performed through the entire possible range of motion (ROM), the muscle works over its full length.
- Training to muscle fatigue The muscle should be loaded until it can barely move the resistance anymore, or come close to this point.
- Sufficient time under tension A load duration of about 60 to 120 seconds per exercise (in one set or spread over several), during which muscle exhaustion occurs, is considered useful for building muscle.
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Nutrition plays a role too
Alongside training, nutrition also influences building muscle. A sufficient protein intake is particularly important, because proteins provide the building blocks from which new muscle tissue is built.
How much protein is sensible, however, always also depends on individual body composition, body weight, training load and personal energy needs. Blanket quantity figures should therefore only be understood as a rough guide.
In practice, it can be useful to regularly incorporate high-quality protein sources into the diet, spread throughout the day. These include, for example, foods such as eggs, fish, meat, dairy products or also plant-based protein sources with good amino acid quality.
More important than a rigid number of grams is that the body is regularly supplied with enough high-quality amino acids so that repair and adaptation processes in the musculature can proceed optimally.
Conclusion – compound exercises are useful for building muscle, but not essential
Compound exercises like squats, deadlifts or the bench press are effective strength exercises and can be an important part of a training plan. They engage many muscles at the same time and are often very efficient.
For building muscle, however, they are not strictly required. What matters more is that the target muscle is sufficiently loaded and fatigued. This can be achieved both with multi-joint exercises and with isolated exercises.
Anyone who understands these training principles and applies them consistently can achieve muscle growth – regardless of whether compound exercises are included in the training plan or not.
