This Workout Builds a More Harmonized Body, Powerful Heart, and Strong Muscles in Just 10 Minutes
Compound movements are highly beneficial for working both your strength and cardiovascular system.
- Andrea Somer, personal trainer
- Kat Atienza, trainer and co-owner of Session in Brooklyn
"Compound movements improve how all the muscles in the body work together to produce and control force and stability,” Andrea Somer, a former trainer at Equinox in West Hollywood, previously told Well+Good. “You'll get your heart rate up since these exercises require the heart to pump more blood to keep the muscles fueled and active.”
Building a more harmonized body, a powerful heart, and strong muscles? Compound movements sound good to us! And they make up the majority of this 10-minute workout.
For example, the fourth move in a series of five, 30-second exercises (that you’ll do twice over), works your whole body. You’ll start in a high plank position, then lower yourself into a forearm plank, then twist open to a side plank. Reverse back up to the high plank, and do it all again on the other side. Shoulders? Back? Abs? Check, check, and check. Plus you’ll also be squeezing your glutes and legs to keep your body stable.
Even in one exercise that seems like it’s a single move—kneeling tricep raises—Atienza stresses how the entire body is working together.
“Your core is strong and working with you here, trying not to flare open in the rib cage every time we lower, push, and extend the arms,” Atienza says. At the same time, she emphasizes the importance of keeping the glutes involved. “I know we’re working our core, our back, our arms, but we’ve really gotta make sure our glutes are really engaged here to support us in this position so we can isolate in our triceps.”
So much for it just being an arm workout! Grab some dumbbells and give that body the all-for-one and one-for-all treatment it deserves.
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