Feature by: Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
For our purposes here, a superset is the completion of consecutive sets without a rest. The sets can be for exercises of the same, opposite or completely unrelated muscle groups. When performing supersets for opposing or unrelated muscle groups, there is an opportunity for one muscle to recover while another is worked, therefore allowing a heavy weight to be used for both exercises.
Because minimal rest is prescribed, try to arrange for exercises that can be performed within a close proximity of one another (i.e. a flat DB press and a One-arm DB row). Training opposing muscle groups in this manner ensures the development of balanced muscular strength. You can design an entire workout using multiple supersets OR you can add a superset at any point in the workout (i.e. such as the transition from chest to back).
An example of opposing muscle groups is the chest & back. Pick a back exercise that pulls the arms into the torso (a row) and balance that with an exercise that pushes away from the torso (flat DB press). You can also use supersets for the anterior and posterior heads of the deltoids (shoulders) which somewhat oppose one another.
An example exercise combination would be a front DB raise followed by a bent-over DB raise. Muscles of shoulder extension (lats) can be super-setted with the antagonistic shoulder flexors (deltoids) using a pulldown-shoulder press combination. And finally, for the ultimate arm superset, choose one triceps exercise and follow it with an exercise for biceps.
Supersets can also be performed using 2 successive exercises for the same bodypart. This has been referred to as "pre-exhaustion", where an isolation exercise is performed for a muscle group (i.e. a DB fly for the chest) followed by a compound exercise for the same muscle group (i.e. a bench press). The second exercise will be performed using a lighter weight than is normally used because the muscle group will have been previously fatigued.
A second superset method for the same muscle group is referred to as "drop-setting". In this technique, a set of an exercise is performed to failure at which time the trainee reduces the weight and performs subsequent repetitions with the lighter weight.
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