Compound Lifts, Explained
Sixteen movements that carry 80% of the strength and performance adaptations you care about — with the muscles they train, the reason they matter, and how they fit into a lifter’s toolkit.
Squat
3Back Squat
The undisputed king of lower-body strength
Barbell across the upper back, sit down between the hips — the movement that builds legs, glutes, and full-body coordination like nothing else.
Front Squat
Upright torso, quad-dominant, unforgiving on posture
The bar rests on the front deltoids, forcing a vertical torso — a brutally honest quad and core builder that catches every lazy rep.
Bulgarian Split Squat
One leg at a time — the gap-closer for asymmetry and glute strength
Rear foot elevated, front leg does the work. Low spinal load, huge stimulus per side, and no left–right imbalance can hide.
Hinge
3Conventional Deadlift
Pull the world off the floor — the truest full-body strength test
Bar in front, hips back, drive the ground away. There is no lift more honest, more full-body, or more central to strength training.
Romanian Deadlift (RDL)
The #1 posterior-chain accessory in the game
Barely bend the knees, hinge at the hips, let the hamstrings load like a stretched bow — and reap the rewards on every heavy squat and pull.
Hip Thrust
The most glute-biased movement ever engineered
Upper back on a bench, drive the hips through — near-maximal glute activation with minimal spinal load. Nothing else isolates the glutes so cleanly.
Push
3Barbell Bench Press
The classic upper-body strength benchmark
Flat back on the bench, lower to the chest, drive the bar up — the most-tested pressing lift, and the one most people should learn first.
Standing Overhead Press
Press bodyweight overhead — full-body pressing, done right
Feet planted, bar from shoulders to lockout above the head. Punishes weak abs and unstable hips, rewards patient shoulder development.
Weighted Dip
Bodyweight-first chest and tricep mass
Between two bars, lower to chest-height, drive back up. Deep stretch on the chest, heavy tricep involvement — cheap gear, big payoff.
Pull
3Pull-up / Chin-up
The gold-standard bodyweight pull
Hang from a bar, pull chin over. Lat mass, biceps, grip, and stubborn upper-back weakness — no bench-press-proud lifter escapes.
Barbell Row
The horizontal-pull complement to every press
Bent at the hips, drive elbows past ribs, pull the bar to the abdomen. The mid-back mass and postural balance the bench press can never provide.
Face Pull
The shoulder-health movement everyone should do more of
Cable at forehead height, pull the rope apart toward your face. Rear delts, mid-traps, external rotators — the tiny lift that pays huge dividends over years.
Carry & Core Stability
4Farmer's Carry
Pick up something heavy and walk — the most functional lift there is
A heavy dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand, walk tall for distance or time. Grip, traps, core, and gait stability all trained at once — strength you use every single day.
Suitcase Carry
One-sided load, full-body fight against lateral collapse
Carry a single heavy weight on one side and refuse to lean. The obliques and QL work overtime to keep you upright — the purest anti-lateral-flexion exercise in the gym.
Pallof Press
The anti-rotation press that teaches your core its real job
Cable at chest height, press straight out and resist the twist. No movement happens — and that is the point. Rotary stability that transfers to every heavy lift and every sport.
Side Plank
The lateral-core foundation with decades of spine research behind it
On one forearm, hips stacked and lifted, body in a straight line. Obliques, QL, and glute medius trained isometrically — a McGill "big three" staple for a bulletproof trunk.