If it doesn’t work multiple muscles, it doesn’t make the cut. These compound exercises are your 6-move shortcut to full-body growth.

Instead of doing 100 exercises, with just these 6 compound exercises, you can grow every single muscle.

Why should you believe me? Because I got the answers from the brightest head in the world, Mr. Mike.

There are 8 muscle groups in the human body. We have 6 exercises. I'm looking for compound exercises, so, fundamentally, these are the ones that take care of multiple muscle groups at the same time.

The Only 6 Compound Exercises You Need

#1: Close-Grip Incline Bench

Why Is It In Our List Of Compound Exercises?

The close-grip incline helps you hit your pecs, front delts, and triceps in the same ratio.

So we're getting some good back work, front-end work, and tricep work.

Set Up

Typically, you set this up on a regular incline bench, which most gyms have.

You'll notice something real quick. This is a very high incline. You don't have to go up a high incline. Instead, it can be average like 45 degrees.

It could be 30 degrees. Anything in between. It's really just the dealer's choice at that point.

Here's a big, big detail. Close grip is super individual. If you're a gigantic, close grip for you would be all the way out there, but if you're teeny tiny, then it's way close here.

The only way to know if you're doing it right is to see if you can get the bar to touch your upper chest at the bottom.

Form Cues

Usually my shoulders are back, my chest is up, my elbows are tucked in. Gently touch every time. Press up and back.

You want to resist the temptation to press forward because that's going to tip over and feel weird. So you start at your clavicles and end up over your eyes, or just your upper part of your forehead, because that's where you're going to auto-stabilize.

If you want to press as much as possible, be as strong as you can, and use your chest a ton, then wrists over elbows is a very good cue for close gripping. 

A lot of the time, your wrists are going to be inside your elbows, and that's not a problem.

That's actually how you generate a lever arm for the triceps and involve them.

#2: Underhand Pull-Up

Next on our list of compound exercises is our upper-body move: the underhand pull-up.

Why Is It In Our List Of Compound Exercises?

Any kind of pull-up is great, but remember, we have 6 compound exercises and a whole lot more muscle groups. 

So we need to get the pull-up to involve the biceps a bit more than normal, which is where the underhand pull-up really shines. Underhand position, you want a full stretch with a dead hang, bringing your chin to the bar, or just a little bit over to hang, and then come back down. It's going to hit almost the entire back.

Definitely the lats and all the muscles that pull vertically, it's going to hit the rear delts. It's going to hit the biceps. That's 3 muscle groups checked off. That's a big deal, and why this belongs on our list of compound exercises.

Form Cues

First things first, don't rush anything.

And another thing that I definitely noticed made a difference with my back a little? It's that dead hang position. Letting your shoulders actually, like, shrug up towards your ears, getting the full stretch in your lats, but reversing that, on the way up. Like, literally shrugging down like that.

Struggling to get your first pull-up? Here's a guide that may help.

Okay, so that's 2 out of 6 compound exercises down.

#3: Cambered Bar Bench Press

Yes. What do we have next on our list of compound exercises? A cambered bar bench press.

Why Is It In Our List Of Compound Exercises?

The reason I have the cambered bar bench press here on our list of compound exercises is because it's been shown time and again that deep stretch really just does grow more muscle.

Form Cues

As the bar descends, you want to lift your chest to meet the bar for a deep stretch. One second pause at the bottom and then up.

Otherwise, if you don't do that, you're just going to compromise, usually just with your shoulders. They'll start rounding forward. And that's no good for your chest. And I think the same applies even to, like, a regular bench press.

Don't Have Access To The Cambered Bar?

Can you replicate this with dumbbells, for example? Yeah.

When you do dumbbells, you want to reach around your chest. You don't just touch the dumbbells to your nipples. You want to go out a bit and get an extra-deep stretch.

Here's probably how you can think of your alternatives if you don't have access to the cambered bar:

1. Straight bar
2. Dumbbells
3. Machine
4. Put some pads on the floor and do deficit push ups

And if you're looking to get really strong on the barbell bench press, check this article out.

#4: Barbell Bent Over Row + Stiff-Legged Deadlift Combo

Why Is It In Our List Of Compound Exercises?

Exercise number 4 on our list of compound exercises. Here, we still have to hit hamstrings somehow like glutes.

Another one is quads, adductors, and stuff. And then the third one is side delts. Because you know what we've done? Pushing — front delts. And pulling — rear delts. But like, what is your physique if you have a small side delt?

So this next exercise, number 4 of our compound exercises, addresses 2 of those problems right up front. This is a common movement that includes rowing and a stiff-legged deadlift.

At the same time, it's kind of cheating. We are going to take a traditional overhand grip on a barbell. We are combining the barbell bent-over row and the stiff-legged deadlift.

Form Cues

We're going to keep a nice, tight lower back. I'm going to lower down like this all the way, my tummy out, knees back, so that we have hamstring tension. 

So at the very bottom here, I'm totally loosening my upper back. I'm totally tight in my hamstrings. Totally tight. My lower back, I'm basically bent over. And then here I'm getting a hamstring stimulus, a glute stimulus, and a lower back stimulus.

And then as I come back up, I also row to my tummy, come down stiff like a deadlift row, stiff legged deadlift row. 

And then row.

And as you notice, as I come up, it gets easier. It's a leverage advantage. So the weight that we use for stuff like a deadlift can still be something we can row for enough reps to really benefit.

Yes, but spend a long time getting into that low position and go real deep.

Boom. Two cues for you. One is chest up and the other is knees back. And are you aiming for like the belly button? Yep. Area whatever's natural, whatever fits. Keep your chest up at all times, including at the bottom. Yeah. And keep those knees back to get nasty hamstring tension. 

You'll also want to pay attention to your choice of hand placement too.

Going overhand a little bit wider helps hit a little more of the rear delts and the mid upper back, compared to the underhand chin-ups we did.

So it's like very complimentary.

Don't Have Access To A Barbell?

Let's say I don't have access to a barbell or it's a busy gym.

You only have dumbbells. Is this possible dumbbells as well? Yes. And as a matter of fact, let me actually demo it for you really quick. What we want to do is change the cueing just a little bit and take the dumbbells.

And we're going to kind of tuck them into our hips at the top. So same as normal. Bend all the way, deep, knees back, chest up, tension on the hams. And when you come up, put the dumbbells in your pocket. Stretch the dumbbells out in front of you. Real hamstring pain. Bring the dumbbells back in. Gives you a leverage advantage.

Makes it easier for your back. Tougher for your hamstrings. Your hamstrings are stronger than your back, so that's good. What's missing? Nobody cares about legs. We're done. No wasting my chest. Yeah. Come on. So we need something that hits the glutes a little bit more. The stiff-legged deadlift is so good for the hamstrings; we just don't need any more hamstrings.

#5: High Bar Squat

Why Is It In Our List Of Compound Exercises?

So we need more quads and adductors.

We need to take care of the front side of the leg. And we're going to do the high bar squat. This is my favorite leg exercise of all time. It hits quads, adductors, glutes, even lower back, and a little mid-back for stability. It does target your abs at a heavier load substantially. This is an exercise.

It's going to check a ton of boxes for us and leave. It's just one exercise away from a real, whole-body routine.

High-bar squats let you stay more upright with your torso. They really hit the quads a lot more. If you want low-bar, you can lift more. It's more intense for your back, more intense for your glutes.

But we kind of already got that with a stiff-legged deadlift row combo. So this is going to be a really good thing for us.

Form Cues

So shoulder blades back, perfect high bar position.

You're going to want your toes at roughly shoulder width, pointed out a little bit. So that you can really sit down in a natural way. The first thing you're going to do is push your butt back as if there's something fun back there.

You're going to keep your chest up the entire time, though, so you don't want to lean over at all. You want to sit completely upright, so butt back, but chest up, and then bend your knees and let your knees do the rest all the way, way over your toes with the knees full. Stop at the bottom and come back up. 

Beautiful big chest the whole time.

Look forward and then knees go way over your toes.

So we are 5 exercises deep into our list of compound exercises. We're on to the last one. I'm not gonna lie, I'm getting a little concerned because there's one muscle group that we have yet to hit, and I'm not even sure if you're going to address it. 

#6: Dumbbell Upright Row

Why Is It In Our List Of Compound Exercises?

The side delts have been rated by scientists as the single most sexually attractive muscle in the male physique.

Side delts are these guys right here, and the bigger they get, the more manly you can look. I actually did a study on, like, the shoulder to waist ratio, the ideal ratio. And they surveyed a bunch of females from different countries.

The number apparently is 1.6. And that just gets girls like crazy. If you throw this out, those are important. They are ultra important. If I were a hot girl, I'd be walking around with a tape measure. Oh. What's up? You seem cool a hold on. Yeah. And, ooh, you know, this is like a lunch coffee date. Dinner date would be, like, a little bit wider.

We could do some laterals. Those are great. And they're great.

However, we haven't had a chance to do biceps. We've got some rowing, we've got some underhand. But how can we involve more of the forearm flexor muscles while hitting the side delts and upper traps?

The answer is the dumbbell upright row.

We've got something special because if we just do this, it's the side delts, and it's also going to be your traps, which is cool. But by doing the dumbbell upright row, bring it up nice and high, and slowly control. What we're going to be able to do is do some forearm flexor work as well as your side.

Again, we're getting 3 muscle groups here, which is awesome because we only have 6 compound exercises.

Form Cues

A big tip on this, which I'll coach you through in a second, is to imagine that the only purpose of the exercise is to get your elbows as sky high as humanly possible.

That's your cue number one. So all the way up, big elbows, and then all the way back down. And you kind of want to hold a little bit at the top. Connect with the shoulders. And then all the way back down this right here, this little guy this elbow I want it right here. That's it. And the same for that side.

If you want more involvement of the forearm flexors, the biceps, etc, keep it closer to your body. Try to get the dumbbells to almost drag up your chest.

And as soon as you get up to the top, control the descent. Because your body's going to want to tear that down. You're going to want to control it.

And the control comes from the side muscle.

For some people, this can be uncomfortable on the shoulders, joints, and traps. So feel free to switch these out for normal lateral raises instead. So we have the 6 compound exercises.

TL;DR

1. Close-grip incline bench — Hits upper chest, front delts, triceps. Form tip: Keep wrists stacked over elbows and press “up and back” so the bar moves from clavicles to above the eyes.
2. Underhand pull-up — Trains lats, biceps, rear delts. Form tip: Start from a true dead hang, then “shrug down” (depress scapula) before pulling to get a full lat stretch and stronger drive.
3. Deep-stretch horizontal press (cambered/straight bar or dumbbells) — Chest emphasis with front delts and triceps supporting. Form tip: Lift your chest to meet the bar, pause 1s at the bottom, then drive up — controlled deep stretch is the growth driver in these compound exercises.
4. RDL + row combo — Hamstrings, glutes, lower back on the hinge; upper back/rear delts on the row. Form tip: “Chest up, knees back” for nasty hamstring tension; row to the belly button without losing your hinge position.
5. High-bar squat — Quads, adductors, glutes, core (plus mid-back stability). Form tip: Bar high on traps, torso tall; sit hips back, then let knees travel forward—pause a beat at depth, drive up through mid-foot.
6. Dumbbell upright row (or lateral raise if needed) — Side delts with traps and forearm flexors. Form tip: Lead with elbows “sky high” and keep bells close (drag up the torso); control the eccentric. If shoulders gripe, swap to laterals.

How To Program These Compound Exercises Into Your Routine

Let's say somebody can commit to two, maybe three full-body workouts per week. 

How would you go about programming these exercises into their routine? I would have one of two options. Day one is all of these six exercises. But in the 5 to 10 rep range, pretty heavy. Day two. Halfway through the week, same exercises, but sets of 10 to 15 lighter higher reps.

A little bit of variation. Not as bad for like tendons and stuff like that.

Injury probability goes down. The novelty psychologically goes up because the same pounding ass weights all the time. That's not fun. Lower reps, higher ups is awesome.

Now, I've also made PDFs of the full-body workouts that you can download completely free here.

Grab your free PDFs of the full body workouts:

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Want to learn more stuff from Mr. Mike? He has a YouTube channel, @RenaissancePeriodization.

To quote him:

"You'll see my giant face on it. Click on things and don't watch around children because the jokes here are very restrained compared to what we say on the channel."

By the way, here’s the article summed up into a YouTube video: