If you only had 4 compound exercises to choose...

[deathdroprob]

well the obvious but you might want to pick from either OHP and Barbbell Rows. Thats a tricky one, probaby the rows though

 

[ExtraMile]

deads, squats, bench, Barbell rows.

 

[FunFun]

Easy.


Squats, deads, bench and BB rows.


They are really the only compound excercises there are (the rest are additions to these movements, or iterations of angles thereof.)

There are dozens of compound exercises. According to your theory, military presses would be an "iteration" of the bench press and pullups would be an "iteration" of BB rows.

In actual fact these are completely different compound movements that work the body in totally different ways.

 

[enigma4dub]

Bench, Squat, Deadlifts, and Shoulder Press

(add chins, rows, pullovers and powercleans and you can pretty much forget about doing anything else)

im almost always in agreement with you. but whats this with the pullovers? you still do these? i dropped them along time ago as my ideology of training morphed from training body parts to training exercises. do you do these purely for aesthetics or is there a carry over to something else?

 

[dabuffguy]

There are dozens of compound exercises. According to your theory, military presses would be an "iteration" of the bench press and pullups would be an "iteration" of BB rows.

In actual fact these are completely different compound movements that work the body in totally different ways.

Completely different?

They're not that different at all. They target different muscle groups more directly, but they are close to the same thing. Military focuses more on the delts(regular bench gets the front delts pretty damn good), but it's still the exact same press motion at a different angle.

A pull up is more different from a row than a mil press is from flat bench, but it is still similar. You use all your pulling muscles to perform the excercise. How much different is it?


"actual fact" is a redundancy BTW, lol.

 

[musketeer]

im almost always in agreement with you. but whats this with the pullovers? you still do these? i dropped them along time ago as my ideology of training morphed from training body parts to training exercises. do you do these purely for aesthetics or is there a carry over to something else?

Actually I don't really do pullovers any more! Probably better to replace with an ab exercise, either weighted incline situps or hanging leg raises.

Think I just included them in the top 8 because all of the the outdated hype surrounding them and the fact that they work the chest and back directly as a compund exercise, without really hitting the arms or shoulders. I used to do them really heavy - 140lb dumbell cross bench.

 

[GUARDIAN]

1) Squats
2) Deadlifts
3) Db Flat Bench
4) Standing Mp

 

[RobertFontaine]

A little late to the party but someone forgot PowerCleans.

Deads, Squats, PowerCleans, and some kind of Press

 

[NJL52]

Deads, squats, cleans, bench.

 

[Sue Me]

A little late to the party but someone forgot PowerCleans.

(1) Stiff Leg Deads
(2) Power Cleans
(3) Squats
(4) BTN Push Press

*Of course, if I could choose a 5th, Bench.