Welcome back to The Strong Series, our weekly deep dive into the training and wellness stuff that actually matters for women who lift. If you missed Week 1 on how to build a training week from scratch, start there. This one builds directly on it.

Last week you built the structure. This week we're filling it with the right stuff.

Specifically: the five compound movements that should be anchoring every training week you ever put together. 

What Is a Compound Movement (And Why Does It Matter)?

A compound movement is any exercise that works multiple muscle groups simultaneously, across more than one joint.

The opposite, an isolation exercise, targets one muscle group specifically. A bicep curl isolates the bicep. A row works your back, biceps, rear delts, and core all at once. Both have a place in a well-designed program. But compound movements are where the real work happens.

More muscles recruited per rep means more stimulus for growth, more calories burned, more strength built, and more carry-over to real-world movement. For women who lift, compound movements are the foundation everything else is built on.

Here are the five you need to know.

1. The Squat

The queen of lower body training. Nothing builds quad, hamstring, and glute strength simultaneously quite like a properly loaded squat.

There are many squat variations, goblet squat, front squat, hack squat, split squat, and all of them have value. For the purposes of this list, we're talking about the barbell back squat or a loaded goblet/dumbbell squat for those earlier in their lifting journey. The principle is the same across all of them.

How to do it: Feet shoulder-width apart, toes turned out slightly. If you're using a barbell, it sits across your upper back (not your neck). Brace your core, take a breath, and sit your hips back and down (like you're lowering onto a chair that's slightly behind you). Keep your chest up and knees tracking over your toes. Drive through your heels to stand, squeezing your glutes at the top.

The move here: Go as deep as your mobility allows. The deeper the squat, the more glute involvement. If mobility is limiting your depth, work on it. It's worth it.

Common mistake: Letting the knees cave inward at the bottom. Push them out actively, tracking over your pinky toe, throughout the entire movement.

2. The Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

Possibly the most underutilized movement in women's training. And one of the highest-return lifts you can add to your week.

The RDL is a hip hinge, it loads the hamstrings and glutes through a lengthened position, which is exactly where the most muscle growth happens. The stretch you feel in your hamstrings at the bottom of a good RDL is the stimulus that builds the long, strong, defined posterior chain that makes every other lift better.

How to do it: Stand with a barbell or dumbbells in front of your thighs, grip just outside hip-width. Soften your knees slightly, they stay in that position throughout. Hinge at your hips, sending them back as you lower the weight down the front of your legs. Keep the weight close to your body, back flat, chest up. Lower until you feel a deep stretch in your hamstrings, for most people this is just below the knee. Drive your hips forward to return to standing.

The move here: Nail the range of motion before adding weight. The deeper you can hinge with a flat back, the more you're getting out of every rep. The stretch is the point.

Common mistake: Bending the knees too much and turning it into a squat. The RDL is a hinge, not a squat, the movement comes from your hips, not your knees.

3. The Hip Thrust

If you're serious about building your glutes, this is the move. Full stop.

The hip thrust targets the glutes through peak contraction at the top of the movement — something the squat doesn't fully replicate. While the squat loads the glutes through a deep range of motion, the hip thrust creates maximum tension at the point of full hip extension, which is where the most glute activation happens. Both matter. But if you're only doing one, the hip thrust is winning.

How to do it (if your gym doesn't have a hip thrust machine): Sit on the ground with your upper back resting against a bench. Roll a barbell over your hips (use a barbell pad, your hip bones will thank you). Plant your feet flat on the floor, roughly hip-width apart. Drive your hips up explosively until your body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Squeeze hard at the top, and hold for a sec (or two). Lower with control back to the start.

The move here: Load it heavier than you think you can. Your glutes are one of the largest and most powerful muscle groups in your body, they can handle significantly more than most women give them credit for. If the last two reps of every set aren't genuinely challenging, add weight. This is one of the fastest-responding exercises to progressive overload in women's training.

Common mistake: Not squeezing at the top. The peak contraction is where the magic happens, slow and controlled.

4. The Bench Press

Upper body day needs a compound anchor, and the bench press is it.

Women (me lol) consistently under-train their upper bodies, either avoiding it entirely or defaulting to weights that don't provide enough stimulus to drive any real change. Heavy bench pressing builds chest, shoulder, and tricep strength that creates genuine upper body definition, improves posture, and carries over to everything from push-ups to overhead pressing.

How to do it: Lie on a bench, grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width. Plant your feet flat on the floor. Lower the bar to your mid-chest with control, keeping your elbows at roughly 45 degrees, not flared straight out, not tucked all the way in. Press back up to full extension.

The move here: Don't be afraid of the bar. If you've never bench pressed before, start with just the bar, get the form right, and build from there. The women who've been avoiding this one for years are always surprised by how quickly they progress once they actually commit to it.

Common mistake: Flaring the elbows out to 90 degrees. This puts unnecessary stress on your shoulder joints. Find the 45-degree angle and stay there.

5. The Row

Every pushing movement needs a pulling counterpart. The row is yours. IF YOU WANT A DEFINED BACK THIS IS YOUR GIRRRRRRLLLLL.

Rowing works your back, rear delts, and biceps, and directly counteracts the forward-rounded posture that comes from too much sitting, scrolling, and yes, bench pressing. A strong back is the foundation of almost every other lift: it keeps you upright under a squat, stable in a deadlift, and injury-free long term.

This works with a barbell, dumbbells, a cable, or a machine. The principle is the same across all variations.

How to do it: Hinge forward slightly at your hips (for a bent-over row) or set yourself up at your chosen machine. Pull the weight toward your body, driving your elbows back and squeezing your shoulder blades together at the end of the movement. Control the return - the eccentric (lowering) portion is where a significant amount of the muscle-building stimulus happens.

The move here: Most women under-load their rows significantly. If the last two reps of every set aren't challenging, add weight. This is one of the exercises where the gap between what women lift and what they're capable of lifting tends to be largest.

Common mistake: Using momentum to swing the weight rather than controlling it. Slow down. The muscle-building stimulus is in the controlled movement, not the heave.

How to Use These in Your Training Week

You don't need all five in every session. Here's a simple distribution that works:

Lower body day: Hip Thrust + RDL + Squat

Upper body day: Bench Press + Row

Full body day: Pick one lower, one upper, add accessories around them

That's a complete, balanced training week built on five movements. Everything else (the isolation work, the accessories, the extras) fills in around these. The compounds are the foundation. Build from there.

The Bottom Line

Compound movements are the highest-return investment you can make with your gym time. More muscles, more stimulus, more results per rep. If your current program doesn't have these five at its core, that's the first thing worth changing.

See you Tuesday. 🖤

Related reads:

→ The Strong Series #1: How to Build a Week of Training From Scratch

→ The Secret to Building a Shelf (Hint: It's Not More Squats)