We analyzed the available evidence and found that 48 studies or assertions support the idea that strength expression is highly movement-specific, but in people who haven’t trained before, compound movements like squats or deadlifts can lead to bigger strength gains in target movements than practicing those movements directly. This appears to be linked to improvements in how the nervous system recruits and coordinates muscle fibers — a process called neuromuscular adaptation [1].
What we’ve found so far suggests that when someone is new to training, their body learns to activate more muscle fibers at once through complex, multi-joint exercises. These compound movements challenge the body in ways that improve overall movement efficiency, even if the exact motion isn’t identical to the target movement. For example, someone learning to improve their squat might gain more strength by doing deadlifts or lunges early on, not because those movements mimic the squat perfectly, but because they help the nervous system get better at coordinating large muscle groups.
This doesn’t mean practicing the target movement is useless — it just suggests that for beginners, the broader neural benefits from compound lifts may transfer more effectively than isolated practice. The evidence we’ve reviewed doesn’t show this effect continuing the same way in trained individuals, only in those who are untrained.
We don’t know yet how long this advantage lasts, or whether it applies equally across all types of movements. But based on what we’ve reviewed so far, starting with compound lifts may offer a stronger foundation for building strength in specific tasks for people new to training.
If you’re just beginning, focusing on big, full-body movements like squats, presses, and rows might help you get stronger faster in other exercises too — not because they’re the same movement, but because they teach your body to work more efficiently as a whole.
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