#30: Why 'combo exercises' are a waste of time (and what to do instead to build muscle and strength)

Resources mentioned in the episode:

✅ Learn to Lift with Lynn - 10-week GROUP beginner weight training program >
✅ Training tracker >
✅ For more information on progressive overload listen to episode #18

One of the big misunderstandings that I see out there is the belief that 'combo exercises' are effective for toning and building muscle. That simply is not the case.

In this episode, I go over: 

🎇 What is a combo exercise?
🎇 Why are combo exercises not ideal for building and maintaining muscle or toning up🎇 What you should do instead of combo exercises for better results

#fitafter40 #fitafter50 #fit4life #beginnerweighttraining #weighttrainingjourney #buildmuscleburnfat #fabulousafter50 #midlifefitness #progressiveoverload #bodyrecomposition #onlinefitnesstrainer #midlifefitness #menopausefitness #fitnesstips #weighttrainingtips #fitnessjourney #fullbodyworkout #comboexercises #fitnessmyths 

Transcript

#30: Why 'combo exercises' are a waste of time (and what to do instead to build muscle and strength)

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host. And today I really want to dive into kind of one of my pet peeves from social media. There's so many fitness influencers who are showing certain kinds of exercising, and they're really implying that that is something that is going to help you to become more muscular or more firm, more toned, and really It doesn't.

And I kind of want to dispel this myth because I saw another one of those today, and every time I see them, I just want to comment that, Hey, this is really not going to do it for you. Please, please, please don't waste your time on this. So anyway. That is what we'll be talking about. This will be a short episode for a change.

And sorry, my voice is a bit, a bit harsh this morning [00:01:00] because I had a lovely time last night. I hosted, um, a dinner party, actually a crayfish party, which is something which is quite traditional here in Finland, which is where I live. And I've been hosting these parties. Wow, for probably 22 years started doing it when I was married and now that I'm divorced, I decided that, Hey, why stop such a good tradition?

So I started to do these with my girlfriends. And so last night's was actually. With eight of my closest girlfriends and they're a vex. So it was a really, really fun time. But my voice is a little hoarse from all the talking and the singing and only sleeping five hours. I digress. Let's get into the topic of the day.

So what I'm talking about today really is these combo [00:02:00] exercises or these exercise that you'll see online where they say this works your whole body. And the post that I'm thinking about in particular, which really kind of got me going on this today was a woman who is a fitness influencer and has a fairly large account.

And she is there, um, in her workout clothes and she's holding a smallish dumbbell. I want to guess that it can't be bigger than about eight kilos. So what's that? 15 pounds, something like that. 20 pounds. And so she's holding this one smallish dumbbell in her hands in front of her body. She's standing with her legs or her feet apart and she's.

Holding it. Yeah.

Okay. So you need to first visualize [00:03:00] the movement that this woman is doing. She's standing there holding a dumbbell. Her hands are so that the palms of her hands are facing each other and between them is the dumbbell. So each hand is holding on to one of the ends of the dumbbell. She's standing. She has her feet.

Uh, about shoulder width apart and her arms are bent at this point. So at the top of, let's say a bicep curl and what she does in this movement is she squats down, pauses, straightens her arms. Bends her arms again, so she does bicep curl, stands back up, and then while she's standing, she raises her arms so that the dumbbell is above her head and then brings it back down in front of her chest.

And she repeats this motion over and over again. And in the [00:04:00] text on it, it says, this simple exercise. It works your shoulders, back, arms, chest, thighs, knees, and butt. Okay. So let's think about that. Now, obviously she is moving many, many parts of her body, right? She has bending her legs, so she's doing a squat.

She is doing like a bicep curl. She is doing a shoulder press. So, yes. All of these muscles will act, they will do something during the course of performing this exercise once. And, you know, that's all well and good. I mean, if your goal is just to move your body and, you know, raise your heart rate somewhat and all that, then this is, this is [00:05:00] definitely a movement pattern that you could do.

And for sure, after doing that five or 10 or 15 or 20 times, you are going to feel like your body is. Getting tired and your heart rate is going to go up and you might start sweating and all those things, right? And that's completely fine. I mean, that's like an aerobic exercise. You may even feel some burn, you know, from Repeatedly lifting, you know this this lowish weight and having so many breaths Anyway, but what it is not going to do for you is it is not going to build muscle and strength in all of those body parts.

And now why is it not going to do that? It's because you are actually. using a weight, which is, you know, you're, you're trying to work different muscles, all with the [00:06:00] exact same weight. Now, if you think about it in that motion, she's doing a bicep curl. Your biceps are likely to be the weakest muscle out of all the things that you, all the pieces of that motion that she does.

So your bicep, you will need to choose how heavy that weight is based on how much your biceps can actually handle. But your glutes, for example, and your thighs are Far, far stronger muscles. So that small weight that may be sufficient for your biceps to get something out of it is not going to be enough to really get anything out of.

your glutes. Same thing, your shoulders are likely to be quite a bit stronger than your biceps. So you're [00:07:00] likely to be able to shoulder press more than you can bicep curl. And not really sure where she's getting very much chest. Okay. Yes. When you do a shoulder press, you do hit a little bit of your chest.

Um, so I mean, I hope you're able to follow along with this logic that that's really not going to do much for you. So then the question rises that what should you do instead? Much more useful would be for you to do the motions separately. So right there, actually what she's doing is she's doing a squat.

Then she's also doing a bicep curl. She just happens to be in a squat position when she does the bicep curl, but she's doing a bicep curl. And then at the end, when she's standing, she's doing a shoulder press. So she's actually doing those three exercises. And if you want to really [00:08:00] work your body in an effective way, you will do those three exercises.

as three different exercises because they are targeting different muscles and the strength of those different muscles is different. So instead of doing her one exercise, I would write those three exercises into your tracker and then figure out, okay, so how much weight can I squat? And you test, right?

And you figure out what is the weight that you can do that squat. Movement with and then you write down that weight and. You start working from there and you do the same thing for the shoulder press now. I wouldn't use just one dumbbell. I would use two dumbbells in the shoulder press. So one in each hand.

I would also sit down, uh, and on a bench or a chair if you're at home so that you have some back [00:09:00] support and also so that you can't be kind of Cheating by, you know, a little bit hoisting with your knees as you try to, you know, press those up and figure out what your shoulder press weight would be. And you stick that in your tracker as well.

And then finally. You want to think about what is your bicep curl amount. And here again, I would not use just one dumbbell and do the bicep curl, like holding onto the two heads of the dumbbell. No, you take two dumbbells, one in each hand, and you do your bicep curls like that. And that will be a far, far more effective way for you to start building muscle.

Okay. So if you have any questions about that, I would love if you would get in touch with me on Instagram, direct a message me there, and I will be happy to go into this in more depth, but I hope [00:10:00] that I was able to explain that. And then I also want to point you to two of my earlier episodes, which. If you are not familiar with progressive overload, because that's what I would suggest that once you've written down these three exercises onto your tracker sheet, that you would then start applying progressive overload to those each time you train podcast.

Number 18 is the one where I really explain what is progressive overload and how to apply it. And then the other thing I would suggest is that you actually use a tracker. It makes a big, big difference. Don't just go in there and grab some weight and kind of feel, Oh, this feels okay. And, and then start working with that.

No, you, you shouldn't know what weight you were using last time and then either use that same weight and try to aim for. Another rep or some more reps in your sets or [00:11:00] if you've gotten to the top of your rep range Then you would increase your weight and you're gonna remember that so much better if you write it down.

I mean Yeah, I may not have the best memory and especially post menopause. It is not what it used to be So tracker is essential and I have a free tracker that you can download Uh, on my website, which is www. befitafter40. com slash tracker. So go ahead and download that so you can start tracking your workouts.

So, in summary, when you see those exercises that they're doing online, where they're combining different movements, they're doing bicep curls or, or tricep extensions, uh, squat, and, Whatever shoulder press or something like that or a lateral raise and [00:12:00] they're kind of moving them. They're doing them in one exercise that is never going to be very effective because You're trying to work different size different strength muscles with the same resistance with the same dumbbell.

And so you are really not going to be able to push all of those muscles to their point of being uncomfortable using just that same weight. So I want to remind you of two things that you may have been taught at some point in your fitness journey, but that really are not the case. The first is that you do not need to feel the burn to be stimulating your muscles.

In fact, Don't chase the burn, forget about the burn. What you need to be doing is pushing your muscles beyond their comfort zone, like a little bit past their comfort zone. And that is going to stimulate them to make adaptations. And in the [00:13:00] case. Of strength training, the adaptation would be to grow bigger and stronger.

And the second part of this is if it is an exercise where your heart rate is going up significantly, so there's this aerobic capacity to it, then you can be pretty sure it is not going to be ideal for any kind of strength training. So generally in, if you're trying to build strength and muscle, it is a calm activity.

You do sets where you'll do a set and then you take a rest. And the point of the rest period is to let your body recover so that you can do another set as effectively. So you will take anywhere from like a minute and a half to five minutes. Just hanging out. That's why if you look in the weight room, you'll see tons of people just sitting on the [00:14:00] equipment or standing around.

I like to pace at a very slow pace, so I get a few extra steps in during the day, but that is not the moment to be doing burpees or anything like that. Okay. That's when you take the break. So if you think about these kinds of combo exercises, their point is to raise your heart rate and to get you out of breath and all that.

And that is, that is not the same thing as doing exercises really for muscle growth and strength. So, that's one of those, I think that's a really, really hard misconception to get rid of. I mean, I get it. You think it's effective because it feels hard. Right? You feel a burn in your muscles, your heart rate's going up, you're sweating, and your fitness watch is telling you that you're burning a ton of calories.

And [00:15:00] all those are indicators that yes, you are doing some exercise and most likely you're doing something that is a. cardiovascular exercise. So some aerobic exercise, those things that I listed just now are not indicators of an exercise, which is good for building and strengthening your muscle. These are two different things, guys, two different things.

Right? You're going to train in a different way for those two different things. The same way as if you were on the track team, if you're a sprinter, you're going to train in a totally different way than the marathon long distance runner, right? They're two different things altogether. Okay. So if you have any questions, please reach out.

I love, love, love to hear from you. I've been getting more and more messages and it just makes me so, so, so happy. So with that, I will leave you have a wonderful week. [00:16:00] And happy training.