Why I love supersetting exercises
Burn more calories
Super setting is a great way to keep your heart rate high, burning more calories than traditional straight sets. The short or nonexistent rest periods between sets aid in keeping your heart rate consistently high, and fire up your metabolism.
Time efficient
You can get in more exercises in a shorter period of time and squeezing in additional exercises during your time training. A good goal is to aim for 30-50 minutes of superset training 3-5x per week.
Build lean muscles
Supersets are great for building lean muscle and improving muscular endurance. The amount of reps you perform depends on your fitness goals concerning these benefits: If your main focus is to build muscle, doing 10-12 reps per exercise with moderate weight works well. The way to measure your exercise intensity for hypertrophy training is if you’re able to get more than 12 reps in, increase your weight and if you’re only able to get in 2-7 reps decrease your weight.
How to superset
While the majority of exercises are acceptable to superset, major compound exercises are not recommended. Major compound lower body exercises are less suitable to superset as they usually involve similar muscle groups. For example, squats and deadlifts both hit the quads, glutes, and hamstrings. As such, they're not useful for opposing muscle group supersets. A better example would be to perform deadlifts and superset with hamstring curls. Assure you are working different muscles and allowing one muscle to rest while another muscle is working, keeping your heart rate high and improving endurance.
Is super-setting right for me?
If your goal is to build muscle (hypertrophy), supersetting is right for you. Keep in mind beginners should not superset (2 exercises back to back) or triset (3 exercises back to back). If you’re just getting back into a fitness routine or are new to weight training then focus on straight sets (perform a single exercise, then rest one to two minutes before repeating).
Whether you are performing supersets at the gym or at home with my Shred at Home program or my Shred at the gym program, remember to fuel your workouts with quality nutrition and hydration to ensure you are recovering efficiently.
Stay focused and keep working towards your best self. Hopefully you have learnt something new that can help take you to new levels in your fitness journey. With the right training, nutrition, and rest, you’ll be on the right path to crushing your goals!
