How many of you actually have the time to be in the gym for a couple of hours each day? Maybe an even better question is how many of you really want to be in the gym for a couple of hours each day? If you are like me you want to get maximum benefit in the shortest possible time span. This means developing strategies that work, but also save us time. One such thing is the use of compound movements.

What Is A Compound Movement?

Exercises can fall into two groups: compound and isolation. Both groups serve important purposes when training. I am not going to spend much, if any time discussing isolation movements in this article. Just be aware that they are also very helpful and have serve some important purposes in an exercise regimen.

A compound movement is any exercise that involves more than one major muscle group at a time.

What Are Some Typical Compound Movements?

Listed in the grid are some of the most common compound movements along with the primary and secondary muscle groups they each effect.

How Will Compound Movements Save Time?

As you can see, all compound movements work at least 2 muscle groups at a time. This means that instead of needing a dedicated arm day, you are going to hit your biceps and triceps through a compound movement for another muscle group. This is typically done in a full body workout, but you can easily adapt it to a body part split. Below is a suggested workout using this principal. It is a full body routine, but as I already said, you can easily adapt this to a body part split.

Barbell Bench Press
Dumbbell Military Press
Dips (no lean forward)
Chin ups
Deadlifts
Squats

This routine hits every major muscle group. It can be done quickly as there are 6 exercises total. If you push hard and make use of intensity you will find that this is a very effective workout that will save you a great deal of time. The formula is really simple.

Compound Movement Formula

Take that formula and start applying it at the gym to see some amazing results. These simple things get ignored, but they are powerful tools in your arsenal. Don't leave them out of your training.

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So many people ignore training their legs. I am going to suggest that they do so because to see real results you must really hit legs as hard as you can manage. I believe in making leg day as brutal as possible. Legs are my favorite body part to train and they are the only body part that training them has caused me to puke.

Today I am going to present a brutal leg workout that you can use on your next leg day. Beware: You are going to have trouble walking after this one!

Preparation for Workout

Please note: I have am listing the warm up sets as separate from the rest of the workout. I do this so that you won't skip them.

Rest time is 90 seconds between sets.

The Workout

** Use rest/pause technique where you do some reps and then pause for a count of 3 and then continue the set until you reach 20.

The Concept Explained

The concept of this workout is fairly simple. I have you hit exercises that will pump blood into the muscle before I have you hit the big exercises like Squats or Leg Press. I also use a progressively more difficult set scheme on the biggest exercises. I finish with the SLDL because it is yet another hinge movement (like the squat) and your hamstrings will already be fatigued, so this will destroy them. Growth happens outside the gym, but it is spurred on by what you do during your gym time. Give this workout a try and let me know what you think!

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Most people who weight train want to get bigger biceps. Some believe that if you simply do a million repetitions of barbell curls with each arm workout you must improve your biceps size. While that sounds wonderful if it worked, there are some tried and true methods for increasing your biceps size and I am going to share those with you today.

• Vary your grip width when doing barbell curls. A shoulder width grip uses the long and short head of the biceps evenly. As you go wider you emphasize the short head and as you go narrow you emphasize the long head. Both need to be hit hard to see the kind of growth most of us want. By varying your grip you will insure that this is accomplished.
• Use the seated version of barbell curls. This removes the bottom part of the movement and causes you to work the top part more. This enables most people to use much more weight during the exercise.
• Get a good stretch in the long head of the biceps. You can accomplish this by doing seated incline dumbbell curls. With the greater emphasis placed on the long head of the biceps you will see better looking biceps from the side.
• Incorporate hammer curls into your arm routine. Honestly, I have seen the most change in my biceps since incorporating hammer curls into my routine. Make sure to curl the weight across the front of your body slowly.
• Change the angle on dumbbell curls. Sometimes do them standing and other times seated. Sometimes do them at a 45 degree angle and other times at a 90 degree angle. Just continually change the angle and you will see some amazing results.

Biceps will grow if you focus on these 5 tips. I will bring others your way as time passes. Give these a try and leave me a comment about your experience.

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