Maximise Your Training Using Supersets

....a word of caution, not all supersets are created equal. 

Supersets are commonly used in strength workouts and are a great way to organise your training. Put simply, a superset is pairing two exercises and doing them back to back. Commonly, there are three different types of supersets:

1. Agonist & Antagonist (opposite movements), e.g. chest press and bent over row.

2. Upper & Lower, e.g. back squat and shoulder press

3. Same muscle, e.g. chest press and chest flye

Let’s talk about the benefits:

1. Save time - supersets can cut the amount of rest periods when training. You can effectively be resting one muscle group while the other is working (not applicable to same muscle group supersets).

2. Increase training density (more exercises completed per unit of time) - by super setting throughout your workout, you can fit more exercises into a session.

3. Can improve performance - studies have shown a boost in total training volume (more total reps) when supersetting (Paz et al -2017). Note, this only applies to agonist, antagonist supersets.

4. Boost your cardiovascular capacity - due to reduced rest periods, higher training volumes and potentially greater performance, demands of the session are greater. This leads to increased cardiovascular demand and potentially a higher calorie expenditure, (which as I’ve mentioned before, isn’t something to be that bothered about).

So, with four wins for supersets, does that mean we should be supersetting our entire workout? Not so fast….here are some considerations to take on board: 

1. Peripheral fatigue - if you superset the same muscle group back to back, e.g. squats and lunges, this puts a lot of stress on the same area of the body, creating localised fatigue which can make you very sore and will reduce overall performance (explained below).

2. Reduced performance - in a study by Weakley et al (2020), it was found that doing upper, lower supersets or same muscle group supersets, reduced the training output due to creating so much fatigue that the participants could not sustain repeated bouts of lifting. 

3. Global fatigue - when pairing compound exercises in a session, the total demand of the session is very high leading to fatigue, which can reduce the total number of sessions you are able to do per week and decrease the intensity of subsequent workouts. 

Should supersets ever be avoided?

This question came up in my Q&A on Instagram a few weeks ago and there are two reasons I wanted to highlight the answer.

Exercising pairings are common and a smart way to organise your workout. But, I constantly see poorly paired exercises being performed in the gym. Here are some examples:

• Exercises that tax the grip in a pairing, like rows in RDLs. It’s not wrong, it’s just going to fry your forearms before the big muscles you want to target.

• Exercises that hit the lower back hard. Military press into almost any other compound lift like bent over rows, squats or deadlifts. That’s a surefire way to cause a back issue. 

Massive compounds paired together, back squat into RDL or deadlift into the bench press. You will not be able to reach your maxes pairing these exercises. 

The other point was to say the term “superset” is specifically opposite movement pattern (agonist/antagonist) pairings. These have been found to boost the outcome of the subsequent lift, hence the name SUPERSET. Chucking any two exercises together isn’t a superset. 

A word on Compound sets and Giant Sets. Compound sets pair the same movement pattern together, which is fine. But it’s not how you would program all your training because you will struggle to get stronger this way. Giant sets are a pairing of 3 or more exercises on the same muscle group together. Once again, this is fun for a few weeks, but it’s not a sustainable way to train.

So, supersets can (and should) be used but there are some rules to adhere to.

1. Same muscle group supersets are not something I recommend, unless you are very advanced or for home training on certain muscle groups (like glutes), where it is hard to create enough training stimulus with bodyweight or limited load selection. If you want help maximising your training, check out my online personal training program.

2. Upper, lower supersets are going to be the most globally fatiguing. Pairing two big compound exercises back to back is going to be very tiring and your ability to lift the correct amount of weight across both lifts is going to be impaired. To get around this, you can pair a compound exercise with an isolation exercise, e.g. reverse lunge paired with a bent over lateral raise.

3. The agonist, antagonist pairing is the champion of the supersets, both from what the literature supports and also in the real life setting when training. However, not all agonist, antagonist pairings are equal. All the research has focussed on chest press and row supersets, and these movements feel great together when training. Another great pairing is bicep curl and tricep press and isolation leg exercises like leg extensions and leg curls. A pairing like a squat into a RDL is an agonist, antagonist, but the pairing would likely crush your lower back and you wouldn’t be able to use the correct weight on each of the exercises. 

So the key message regarding supersetting is a positive one, and I highly recommend using them, especially for women (read this to find out why). But be mindful of which pairings you are putting together. If the pairing limits the weight you can lift, then I’d say it is not going to be an effective way to train. Using appropriate training load is going to be more beneficial in the long run.

If you want to find out how to align your training, nutrition and lifestyle apply here to find out more about working with me online.