5 Best Barbell Complex Exercises for Men to Build Muscle

There are several ways to use barbells, such as for isolation exercises, compound exercises, supersets, and others. One such type is barbell complex exercises. These are movements that are done one after the other without a break and can be considered a giant set.

Ideally, you will complete one set of exercises before moving on to the next. You can add approximately 4-5 barbell exercises to each giant set. There are several combinations for barbell complexes, but there are exercises you can include in almost every complex.

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Best Barbell Complex Exercises

The following are five of the best barbell complex exercises men can include in their workout routine to create their own giant set.

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1) Deadlift

Deadlifts are a top barbell complex exercise. They work on the legs and lower back and help massively in building strength as well.

While doing barbell deadlifts, always keep your back stable and straight, and core engaged. It’s important to protect the upper body with proper muscle engagement during deadlifts.

You can find a guide for deadlifts here.

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2) Bent-over Row

The next pick from Barbell Complex Exercises is bent-over rows. It’s best to focus on barbell bent-over rows along with exercises that activate similar muscles. Remember to squeeze your shoulder blades together when you’re doing barbell bent-over rows.

You can find a guide for bent-over rows here.

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3) Overhead Squat

Overhead squats are an interesting variation of squats that help with strength, balance, and stability.

However, you shouldn’t try them unless you’ve attained proper balance using barbell squats. Moreover, you must strengthen your shoulder when doing overhead squats.

To do overhead squats, lift the barbell overhead, and ensure your arms are locked and extended. Proceed to do squats while you’re holding the barbell overhead. Once you’re done, lower the barbell till your shoulders before racking it.

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4) Push Press

Push press is a full body barbell complex exercise and is a popular CrossFit movement as well.

It has two prominent movements. First, using an upright motion, bring the barbell till your shoulders, and twist your wrists to place them on your shoulders with a barbell on your palms. Second, squat slightly, and use the body’s momentum to do an overhead press. The idea is to do all three movements as one swift exercise.

You can find a guide for doing a push press here.

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5) Good Morning

Good morning are hamstring exercises where you place the barbell on the back and behind your neck.

Bend forward from the hips, and keep your legs stiff. Continue to move forward until your torso is almost parallel to the floor, and engage the hamstrings to push your torso back to the starting position.

This barbell complex exercise requires a strong muscle-mind connection. So, it’s better to use lighter weights to create that connection before moving to heavier weights.

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Bottom Line

The aforementioned barbell complex exercises are excellent movements for building strength, as all of them are compound exercises. They focus on more than one muscle group, which means multiple muscles in the body get activated.

However, if you want to ensure that the exercises are working towards building strength, make sure your diet is proper as well.