Compound Movements: Stop Doing Bicep Curls. You’re Forty Now.

Compound movements (squats, deadlifts, presses, pulls, loaded carries) are the single most effective tool men over 40 have for fighting age-related testosterone decline, because multi-joint heavy lifts trigger a systemic hormonal response that isolation exercises can’t match.

What Are Compound Movements (and Why You Should Care at 40+)

Most of you guys reading this already know this uncomfortable truth about being a man over 40: your testosterone is declining. It started somewhere around 30, and it’s been sliding roughly one to two percent per year ever since. That’s not a scare tactic. That’s endocrinology. And no amount of denial, supplements, or cold plunges is going to fully reverse it.

But here’s the thing — you’re not helpless. Not even close.

The single most powerful, drug-free, clinically validated thing you can do to fight this decline is also the most brutally simple: pick up heavy things using your entire body. Not a cable machine. Not the pec deck. Not the seated bicep curl station where you scroll Instagram between sets of twelve.

Compound movements. That’s it. That’s the answer.

Somewhere along the way, the fitness industry convinced men that training meant isolating individual muscles like you’re debugging lines of code. Chest day. Back day. Arm day. It’s an approach designed for 23-year-old bodybuilders drowning in natural testosterone who can recover from anything.

You are not that guy anymore. And pretending you are is how you end up injured, frustrated, and still looking the same as you did six months ago.

Compound movements — squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, rows, pull-ups — recruit multiple muscle groups across multiple joints simultaneously. This distinction matters enormously, and not just for efficiency. When you load your body this way, you create a systemic hormonal response that isolation exercises simply cannot trigger.

The research is clear: multi-joint exercises involving large muscle groups produce significantly greater acute elevations in testosterone and growth hormone compared to single-joint movements. A set of heavy squats doesn’t just work your quads. It sends a chemical signal to your entire endocrine system that says, “We need to build. We need to repair. We need to adapt.” A leg extension does not do this. Sorry.

The Testosterone Trigger You’re Ignoring

Let’s talk about what’s actually happening under the hood.

When you perform a heavy deadlift, you’re engaging your glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, lats, traps, forearms, and core — all in a single rep. That massive recruitment of muscle fiber, particularly the Type II fast-twitch fibers, drives a cascade of neuroendocrine responses. Your hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis gets a wake-up call. Luteinizing hormone pulses. Testosterone output increases. Growth hormone spikes.

This isn’t marginal. Studies have shown that protocols involving compound movements at moderate to high intensity (think 70–85% of your one-rep max) with moderate rest periods (60–90 seconds) can produce testosterone elevations of 15–30% acutely post-exercise. Over time, consistent training with these movement patterns helps maintain a higher baseline of free testosterone and improves androgen receptor density — meaning your body becomes more sensitive to the testosterone you do produce.

Compare this to the guy doing three sets of concentration curls. His biceps are getting a pump. His hormones don’t care.

And there’s another mechanism at play that most people miss: bone density. After 40, you’re losing roughly 1% of bone mass per year. Axial loading — putting weight through your spine and hips via squats and deadlifts — stimulates osteoblast activity. This is how you actually fight osteoporosis. Not with calcium supplements. With a barbell.

The Big Five (and Why You Need All of Them)

If you’re over 40 and you do nothing else in the gym, do these five movement patterns:

The Squat. Front squat, back squat, goblet squat — pick your variation. This is the king of lower body compound movements. It loads the quads, glutes, hamstrings, core, and spinal erectors. If your knees or hips are cranky, a box squat or a belt squat works. The movement pattern is non-negotiable; the specific variation is.

The Hip Hinge. Deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, kettlebell swings. This pattern trains the entire posterior chain — the muscles most men over 40 are catastrophically weak in. A strong hip hinge protects your low back, improves posture, and generates the kind of full-body muscular tension that drives hormonal response.

The Press. Bench press, overhead press, dumbbell press. Horizontal and vertical pushing. These movements load the chest, shoulders, and triceps while demanding core stability. The overhead press in particular is humbling and useful — two qualities most men over 40 need more of in their training.

The Pull. Pull-ups, chin-ups, barbell rows, cable rows. If you can’t do a pull-up, that’s information, not a death sentence. Use assisted variations or lat pulldowns until you can. Pulling movements balance out all the pressing, protect your shoulders, and build the back musculature that keeps you upright instead of hunched over a laptop like a human question mark.

The Loaded Carry. Farmer’s walks, suitcase carries, overhead carries. Peter Attia calls these the most functional exercises that exist, and he’s right. Pick up something heavy. Walk with it. Your grip, core, shoulders, hips, and cardiovascular system all get trained simultaneously. Nothing exposes weakness like carrying heavy things for distance.

The Complete Compound Exercise List (By Movement Pattern)

Here’s every major compound movement worth your time, organised by movement pattern. The 40+ Friendly rating reflects joint stress, technique complexity, and injury risk for older lifters — three stars means you can do this safely for decades.

Squat Patterns

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Goblet Squat	Quads, Glutes, Core	Hips, Knees, Ankles	★★★
Back Squat	Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Spinal Erectors	Hips, Knees, Ankles	★★☆
Front Squat	Quads, Glutes, Core, Upper Back	Hips, Knees, Ankles, Wrists	★★☆
Bulgarian Split Squat	Quads, Glutes, Adductors	Hips, Knees	★★★
Box Squat	Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings	Hips, Knees	★★★
Leg Press	Quads, Glutes	Hips, Knees	★★★

Hinge Patterns

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Trap Bar Deadlift	Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads, Traps, Core	Hips, Knees	★★★
Romanian Deadlift	Hamstrings, Glutes, Spinal Erectors	Hips	★★★
Conventional Deadlift	Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads, Lats, Erectors, Traps, Forearms	Hips, Knees	★★☆
Kettlebell Swing	Glutes, Hamstrings, Core, Shoulders	Hips, Shoulders	★★★
Good Morning	Hamstrings, Glutes, Spinal Erectors	Hips	★★☆

Horizontal Push

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Floor Press	Chest, Triceps, Shoulders	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★
Dumbbell Bench Press	Chest, Triceps, Shoulders	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★
Barbell Bench Press	Chest, Triceps, Shoulders	Shoulders, Elbows	★★☆
Push-Up Variations	Chest, Triceps, Shoulders, Core	Shoulders, Elbows, Wrists	★★★
Dips	Chest, Triceps, Shoulders	Shoulders, Elbows	★☆☆

Note on dips: They’re a fantastic chest and tricep builder, but they put significant stress on the shoulder joint in the bottom position. If you have any history of shoulder issues — and many men over 40 do — the floor press or dumbbell press gives you a better risk-to-reward ratio.

Horizontal Pull

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Cable Row	Lats, Rhomboids, Biceps, Rear Delts	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★
Dumbbell Row	Lats, Rhomboids, Biceps, Core	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★
Barbell Row	Lats, Rhomboids, Biceps, Spinal Erectors	Shoulders, Elbows, Hips	★★☆
Inverted Row	Lats, Rhomboids, Biceps, Core	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★

If you’re a desk-bound man over 40 — and statistically, most of you are — you’re almost certainly pull-deficient. Your anterior chain is tight and overdeveloped relative to your posterior chain. For every set of pressing you do, you should be doing at least 1.5 sets of pulling. Your posture, your shoulders, and your spine will thank you.

Vertical Push

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Landmine Press	Shoulders, Triceps, Core, Serratus	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★
Dumbbell Overhead Press	Shoulders, Triceps, Core	Shoulders, Elbows	★★☆
Barbell Overhead Press	Shoulders, Triceps, Core, Upper Chest	Shoulders, Elbows	★★☆
Push Press	Shoulders, Triceps, Quads, Core	Shoulders, Elbows, Hips, Knees	★☆☆

The landmine press deserves special attention for the over-40 crowd. It trains a pressing pattern at an angle that’s far more forgiving on the shoulder joint than a straight overhead press. If you’ve got any impingement history, this is your go-to vertical push.

Vertical Pull

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Chin-Up	Lats, Biceps, Core	Shoulders, Elbows	★★☆
Pull-Up	Lats, Rear Delts, Biceps, Core	Shoulders, Elbows	★★☆
Lat Pulldown	Lats, Biceps, Rear Delts	Shoulders, Elbows	★★★

Honest take: if you can’t do a pull-up at 40, that’s the first thing to fix. Start with lat pulldowns and dead hangs. Progress to band-assisted pull-ups. A man who can do 10 clean pull-ups at 45 is stronger than 95% of the population. It’s a goal worth chasing.

Loaded Carries

Exercise	Primary Muscles	Joints	40+ Rating
Farmer’s Walk	Grip, Core, Traps, Shoulders, Hips	Full body	★★★
Suitcase Carry	Obliques, Core, Grip, Shoulders	Full body	★★★
Overhead Carry	Shoulders, Core, Traps	Shoulders, Core	★★☆

Loaded carries are the most underrated category in any gym. They train your grip (which declines faster than almost any other physical attribute after 40), your core stability, your cardiovascular system, and your ability to do the things that actually matter in life — carrying heavy bags, moving furniture, picking up your kids or grandkids. If you only have time for one finisher, this is it.

Compound vs Isolation: The Real Trade-Off

Let me be clear about something: I’m not saying isolation exercises are useless. That’s a lazy take and it’s wrong.

What I am saying is this: if you have three to four hours per week to train — and most men over 40 do — then 80% of that time should be compound movements. The remaining 20% is isolation work for weak points, rehab, or vanity. And there’s nothing wrong with any of those reasons.

Here’s how they actually stack up:

Factor	Compound	Isolation
Muscles worked per exercise	Multiple (3–7+)	Single (1 muscle group)
Hormonal response	Significant (T + GH elevation)	Minimal
Time efficiency	Excellent	Poor
Joint stress distribution	Spread across multiple joints	Concentrated on one joint
Functional carryover	High (mirrors real-world movement)	Low
Caloric burn	High	Low
Rehab / prehab utility	Limited	Excellent
Targeting specific weak points	Poor	Excellent

If someone tells you compound movements are all you need, they’re mostly right. If someone tells you isolation is useless, they haven’t rehabbed a torn rotator cuff.

I’ve been on both sides of that equation. My shoulder injury back in 2015 taught me that isolation work — specifically external rotation exercises and face pulls — has a real place in a smart program. It’s just not the foundation. Compound movements are the foundation. Isolation is the finishing work.

How to Program This Without Destroying Yourself

Here’s where most men over 40 screw up: they read an article like this, get fired up, go to the gym, load up the barbell like it’s 2006, and blow out their back by Thursday.

Don’t be that guy.

The principles are straightforward. Train compound movements three to four days per week. Use a weight that’s challenging but allows you to maintain solid form — RPE 7–8 for most sets, meaning you could do two or three more reps if someone held a gun to your head, but you stop before that. Keep your working sets in the 3–6 rep range for strength and the 6–12 range for hypertrophy. Do both.

Rest 90 seconds to two minutes between heavy compound sets. Longer if you need it. Recovery is not laziness; it’s strategy. Your tendons and ligaments don’t recover as fast as they used to, and they never will again. Accepting this and training accordingly isn’t weakness — it’s the smartest thing you can do.

How Many Compound Movements Per Workout?

Three to five compound movements per session is the sweet spot for men over 40. Enough training stimulus for both strength and hypertrophy without exceeding your recovery capacity. More than five heavy compounds in a single session produces diminishing returns and rising injury risk.

The math: 3–5 compounds × 3–4 sets each × 3 training days = 27–60 hard working sets per week. That’s right in the evidence-based range for muscle growth. You don’t need more. You need consistency.

Progressive Overload After 40

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: you can’t add 5 lbs to the bar every week anymore. And that’s fine.

Progressive overload at this stage means:

Add reps before weight. If the program calls for 3×8 and you hit all 24 reps cleanly, add a rep to each set next week before you add weight. This keeps your joints happy while still driving adaptation.

Improve movement quality. A squat with better depth, better bracing, and a more controlled eccentric is progression — even at the same weight. Your nervous system is adapting. Your connective tissue is strengthening. The gains are real even when the number on the bar doesn’t move.

Periodise in 4–6 week blocks. Run a strength-focused block (heavier loads, lower reps) followed by a hypertrophy block (moderate loads, higher reps). This keeps your body adapting and gives your joints periodic relief from heavy loads. If you’re interested in how structured training blocks work, here’s a deeper look at what a mesocycle is and why it matters.

Deload every 4th week. Non-negotiable. Cut volume and intensity by 40–50% for one week. This isn’t laziness. It’s letting your connective tissue, nervous system, and endocrine system catch up to the muscular adaptations you’ve been forcing. Skip deloads and you’ll learn about them the hard way — through injury.

The 3-Day Compound Movement Template

Stop overthinking it. Here’s a simple, proven structure that covers every movement pattern across three training days. Works for beginners returning to the gym and intermediates looking to simplify.

Day A — Squat Focus

Order	Exercise	Sets × Reps	RPE	Rest
A1	Goblet Squat or Back Squat	4 × 6–8	7–8	2 min
A2	Dumbbell Bench Press	3 × 8–10	7	90 sec
A3	Cable Row	3 × 10–12	7	90 sec
A4	Farmer’s Walk	3 × 40m	8	90 sec

Day B — Hinge Focus

Order	Exercise	Sets × Reps	RPE	Rest
B1	Trap Bar Deadlift or RDL	4 × 5–6	7–8	2–3 min
B2	Landmine Press or DB Overhead Press	3 × 8–10	7	90 sec
B3	Chin-Up or Lat Pulldown	3 × 6–10	7–8	90 sec
B4	Pallof Press (core)	3 × 10/side	7	60 sec

Day C — Variation Day

Order	Exercise	Sets × Reps	RPE	Rest
C1	Bulgarian Split Squat	3 × 8–10/leg	7	90 sec
C2	Floor Press	3 × 8–10	7	90 sec
C3	Dumbbell Row	3 × 10–12/arm	7	60 sec
C4	Kettlebell Swing	4 × 15	7	60 sec
C5	Suitcase Carry	2 × 30m/side	8	60 sec

How to Read This Template

RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) on a 1–10 scale: RPE 7 means you have about 3 reps left in the tank. RPE 8 means about 2 reps left. You should never go to absolute failure on compound movements — that’s how injuries happen after 40. Leave reps in reserve. Your ego will survive.

Schedule: Monday / Wednesday / Friday, or any 3 non-consecutive days. Your body needs 48 hours between sessions to recover. Don’t train two days in a row until you’ve built a solid base over several months.

Progression: When you can complete all prescribed sets and reps at RPE 7, add one rep per set the following week. When you can hit the top of the rep range for all sets, increase the load by 2.5–5 lbs (upper body) or 5–10 lbs (lower body) and drop back to the bottom of the rep range.

Joint Health & Recovery for the 40+ Lifter

I learned this one the hard way. Back in 2015, a personal trainer had me doing something that wrecked my shoulder for four months. Four months of no upper body training because someone who was supposed to know better didn’t respect the fact that my body wasn’t 25 anymore.

Since then, I’ve had a deep respect for what heavy loading does to joints. And I’ve learned that the difference between training for decades and training until your next injury comes down to a few non-glamorous habits.

Warm Up Like Your Joints Depend on It (Because They Do)

Not five minutes on the elliptical while watching SportsCenter. Actual movement preparation.

A proper warm-up for compound training takes 10–12 minutes and follows a progression: general blood flow (5 min on a bike or rower, easy pace) → targeted mobility work (hip 90/90s, thoracic spine rotations, ankle dorsiflexion, band pull-aparts) → specific warm-up sets on your first exercise (empty bar, then 50%, then 70%, then working weight).

Ten minutes of intentional warm-up can save you six weeks of rehab. The math is not complicated.

The Mobility Minimum

You don’t need a 45-minute yoga class. You need 10 minutes a day of targeted mobility work on the areas that get tight from sitting and aging: hips, thoracic spine, ankles, and shoulders.

Do hip 90/90 switches, thoracic rotations on all fours, wall ankle stretches, and band dislocates. Every day. Not as a workout — as maintenance. Like brushing your teeth. You don’t negotiate with tooth decay and you shouldn’t negotiate with joint stiffness.

When to Modify vs. When to Stop

Sharp pain = stop. Full stop. No exceptions. No “pushing through it.” Sharp pain is your body’s alarm system, and if you ignore it at 40, you will pay at 50.

Dull ache that warms up = usually fine to train through with modifications. Swap barbell bench for dumbbell bench. Use a trap bar instead of conventional deadlift. Drop the weight 20% and add reps. There’s almost always a pain-free variation of any movement pattern.

When in doubt, see a sports physiotherapist — not a GP who’ll tell you to “stop lifting.” General practitioners, with all due respect, are not trained in exercise rehabilitation. A good sports physio will tell you what to modify, not what to quit.

The Stuff That Actually Matters Around the Lifting

Training is the stimulus. But testosterone production and muscle adaptation happen during recovery. If you’re sleeping five hours a night, chronically stressed, eating like a college freshman, and drinking four nights a week, no amount of squats will save you.

Sleep seven to eight hours. This is when the majority of your growth hormone and testosterone is released — in pulsatile bursts during deep sleep. Disrupt this with alcohol, blue light, or a terrible sleep schedule, and you’re undermining every rep you performed that day. If you’re interested in how your body repairs itself during those hours, it’s worth understanding autophagy — the cellular cleanup process that kicks into high gear when you give your body the rest and fasting windows it needs.

Eat enough protein. One gram per pound of your target body weight is a good starting point. Spread it across three to four meals — protein timing and meal distribution matter more than most people realise. And if you’re wondering whether you can still build muscle while losing fat, the answer is yes, with the right protein intake — especially if you’re carrying excess body fat, which many of us over 40 are.

Don’t fear dietary fat — cholesterol is literally a precursor to testosterone. A low-fat diet in a man over 40 is a hormonal sabotage plan disguised as health advice. If you want to understand what proteins actually do in your body beyond building muscle, the picture is much bigger than most guys realise.

Manage stress. Cortisol and testosterone exist in an inverse relationship. Chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated, which directly suppresses testosterone production. Meditation, walking, breathing exercises — these aren’t soft. They’re endocrine management tools. If you find yourself battling that internal resistance to doing the things you know you should be doing, that’s limbic friction — and understanding it is the first step to beating it.

And here’s something most guys overlook: the energy you burn outside the gym through daily movement — walking, fidgeting, taking the stairs — accounts for far more of your total daily expenditure than your training sessions. It’s called NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and optimising it is one of the most underrated fat loss strategies that exists.

One more thing on supplementation: if you’re supplementing — and you probably should be — creatine works even when you’re cutting. It’s one of the very few supplements with decades of solid evidence behind it. And understanding how fat oxidation works will help you make smarter decisions about your nutrition and cardio — instead of just doing more of everything and hoping for the best.

The Real Point

Look, you can chase every optimisation hack, every supplement stack, every biohacking protocol on the internet. Some of them work. Most of them are rounding errors compared to this: get under a barbell three to four times a week and move heavy weight through full ranges of motion using compound movement patterns.

It’s not sexy. It’s not novel. Nobody’s going to make a viral TikTok about you doing a set of five on the squat.

But your testosterone levels, your bone density, your muscle mass, your insulin sensitivity, your cardiovascular health, your cognitive function, your mood, your energy, your confidence — all of these will improve. Measurably. Meaningfully.

I’m 43. I’ve lost the weight and gained it back. Twice. I’ve been injured by a personal trainer who should’ve known better. I’ve spent months on the couch when I should’ve been under the bar. I’ve made every mistake in this article at least once.

And after all of that, here’s what I know for certain: compound movements, done consistently, with progressive overload and respect for your body’s recovery needs, are the single best investment a man over 40 can make in his health.

You don’t need a more complicated plan. You need a more consistent one.

Now go pick something up.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the big 5 compound movements?

The five fundamental compound movement patterns are the squat, the hip hinge (deadlift), the horizontal press (bench press), the pull (rows and pull-ups), and the loaded carry (farmer’s walks). Every other compound exercise is a variation of one of these patterns.

Are compound movements better than isolation exercises?

For men over 40 with limited training time, compound movements deliver significantly more value — greater hormonal response, more muscles trained per exercise, better functional carryover, and superior time efficiency. Isolation exercises still have a role in rehab, prehab, and targeting weak points, but they should make up roughly 20% of your training, not 80%.

How many compound exercises should I do per workout?

Three to five compound movements per session is the sweet spot for men over 40. This provides enough stimulus for strength and hypertrophy without exceeding your recovery capacity. More than five heavy compound exercises in a single session typically leads to diminishing returns and increased injury risk.

Can you build muscle with only compound movements?

Yes. Compound movements alone can build significant muscle mass because they recruit large amounts of muscle fiber across multiple joints. Many strength athletes train almost exclusively with compound movements and carry impressive musculature. Isolation work can help fill in gaps, but it’s supplementary, not essential.

Are compound movements safe for men over 40?

Compound movements are safe at any age when performed with proper form, appropriate load, and adequate warm-up. They’re arguably safer for older adults because they distribute stress across multiple joints rather than concentrating it on one. The key is starting conservatively, progressing gradually, and listening to your body.

What compound movement works the most muscles?

The deadlift recruits more total muscle mass than any other single exercise — glutes, hamstrings, quads, spinal erectors, lats, traps, forearms, and core all fire simultaneously. The trap bar deadlift is a particularly good variation for men over 40 because it reduces lower back stress while maintaining the same broad muscle recruitment.