What is an auxiliary exercise?

An auxiliary exercise is a secondary exercise. Such as in strength training, the primary exercises are compound exercises, namely, squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, dips, and chin-ups. Compound exercises involve more than one joint. Auxiliary exercises are often not compound exercises. They should be done after the primary exercises. For example, suppose you are doing a workout for your upper body and using chin-ups as your primary exercise. After doing them, you might also do some rope-push downs (for triceps), dumbbell curls (for biceps), and wrist curls (for forearms). Those three exercises would, in this case, be the auxiliary exercises.

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