Designing An Exercise Program (Part 1): Centralizing Compound Exercises

One goal that I really want to accomplish through this blog as a whole is to be helpful.

As fun as it is to showcase my progress in my attempts of living a healthy-lifestyle, what I really want to achieve is to help YOU on your own journey.

Since 2015 is just 16 days old, I thought this would be the perfect time to write a series on how to develop a solid training regime. This is solely based on the thought that you can't train properly if you don't know HOW to train.

With that being said, let's talk about one of the most important aspects of a good training program; the compound exercises are ALWAYS performed first.

Compound exercises are lifts that work multiple muscle groups at once. A common example would be barbell bench press which uses both the chest and triceps. These types of exercises should ALWAYS be done first during a session because of the fact that they use multiple muscle groups, and stimulate a greater amount of testosterone compared to isolated (exercises that only use one muscle group) lifts.

Here are some examples of compound exercises:

Chest: Flat/Incline Barbell Bench Press, Flat/Incline Dumbbell Bench Press, Push-Ups (All will work Chest, Triceps, and even shoulders to some extent)

Back: Bent Over Barbell Rows, T-Bar Rows, Pull-Ups/Chin-Ups, Lat-Pulldowns (All will work the back muscles and biceps)

Shoulders: Dumbbell Shoulder Press, Barbell Shoulder Press (AKA Military Press), Clean and Press (All will work shoulders, and some aspects of the arms)

Legs: Squat (Back or Front Squats), Leg Press, Deadlifts (Could also be considered a "Back" exercise) (All will multiple muscle groups (if not all of the muscles) found in the legs)

Biceps: Chin-Ups. By using an underhand grip, the biceps are emphasized in this movement that also works the back.

Triceps: Close-Grip Bench Press, Dips (With the Chest slightly forward) (Both of these exercises work the chest and triceps)

Make sure to do some type of compound exercise first in your workouts as these lifts work more than just one muscle group, and promote greater testosterone stimulation allowing you to GROW!

Sources:
 http://www.livestrong.com/article/477024-list-of-compound-exercises/
http://testosteroneboostingexercises.co.uk/compound-exercises-and-testosterone/