Superset Exercises To Keep Adding Strength and Muscle Size

They are a series of two or three different exercises targeting certain body parts/muscles with no rest in between. You can train the same muscles (ex., chest muscles) or different groups of muscles (ex., biceps and triceps).

No doubt about it, training that way can break the muscle growth stagnation known as the training plateau, where your muscles stop growing or grow very minimally at best.

How do this type of training do that? Well, these successive exercises challenge your muscles to the next level of physical fitness adaptation through one of the major factors and that is training density.

When you start performing two or three exercises one after the other without taking a rest in between you're increasing a physiological demand on your body more than performing the "regular one exercise then rest for two minutes and repeat" practice.

Many trainees go wrong by not implementing this concept fully; therefore its effect is reduced drastically. Then the trainees consequently give up performing these types of exercise routine. Two common mistakes I see people doing most of the time and they are as follows:

- They take interval rests but justify them because these rest intervals are short 15-30 seconds and they are not like the regular ones!!

- They perform many exercises (like 5-8 exercises) which look like more of a circuit training routine than superset exercises training. And the problem with that is your training intensity decreases to accommodate the large number of exercises, sets and repetitions.

So if you're reading this article, I urge you to stick to no more than three successive exercises and if you're a beginner it is advised to stick with two successive exercises for better focus and quality training.

Like many training concepts you can design your superset exercises to suit your goal whether it is gaining strength, adding muscle size, and/or losing bodyweight mainly body fat.

However, many weightlifters and bodybuilders use this concept for their muscle hypertrophy objective. In the near future I'll explain of how to design your workouts according to your hypertrophy or strength goal using the superset training.

But for now let me finish by providing some examples of superset exercises so you can try them out and see for yourself how effective they can be for men and women trainees.

Using different muscles

- Push-ups then Pull-ins exercises.

OR

-Barbell Bench Press then Dumbbell Rows exercises.

Using the same group muscles

- Chin-ups then Barbell Curls (standing or seated)exercises.

OR

- Squats (bodyweight or external weight) then Static Lunges (again, using your bodyweight or external weights like dumbbells)exercises.

Like any other training concept the superset exercises will have their effects for a certain time until your body adjusts and adapts; then eventually you will need to change other training variables or the whole concept to a different one. Boost your workouts with these exercises or create your own ones but stick to the rule; no rest and two to three exercises at the most. Have fun and let me know how it went for you by dropping me an email.