Supersets

LiamaDelta

Looking for a bit of help - I want to make my current programme a bit more efficient, and also I prefer supersets as they keep me occupied more in the gym. Just wondering if there are any do's and don'ts with supersets (apart from the obvious of not working the same muscles in each). Currently leg day looks like this:

Squats
Lunges
Deadlifts
Lying Curl
Calf Raise
All 4 sets of 10 as I'm on a bit of a cut at the moment.

I was thinking of just grouping them as they are set out there
Squats & Walking Lunges
Deadlifts & Curls
Calf raises

Any opinions?

caviardreams

Squats & Walking lunges are pretty much working the same muscles - they are also both tough exercises imo which require decent recovery between sets (or maybe that's just me )

Same goes for deadlifts and leg curls - I personally find DLs too much to superset with anything.

It completely depends on your goals though, if you are doing light weight, high rep, conditioning type stuff it might work fine for you.

LiamaDelta

Thanks, I guess I always thought of supersets as a way to give one muscle a break between sets but in this instance I'm basically just going all-out hammering the same muscles. I find it tougher but quite doable.

Mellor

LiamaDelta wrote: »

Thanks, I guess I always thought of supersets as a way to give one muscle a break between sets...

They can be used like that, but its not the only approach tbh. There are many ways to set up supersets. Such as;

• Pre-exhaustion - Isolate a muscle first (1), to reduce it's activity in the second compound lift (2). Triceps followed by bench press
  
• Post-exhaustion - Do a compound lift (1), and follow up with an isolation lift focus on one of the muscles involved. Bench press followed by chest flies
  
• Staggered - Do any lift (1), followed by a completely unrelated lift. Barbell Press then Lunges
  
• Opposing - Similar to above in this case the second lift works a different area that directly opposes the first. Chest Press, then Barbell row
  
• Compound - Two similar compound lifts back to back. Like the squats/lunges above, or deadlifts/leg curls you mentioned above.
  
• Isolation - Two isolation lifts back to back. Hammer Curls, then Barbell Curls

All are valid forms of training. The real key is knowing why you are doing a particular approach. Is you goal to target a certain area, or get more in a given time frame, etc

ThunbergsAreGo

Supersets are great. I would be the same about liking to be occupied in the gym

Squats/DL and Pull ups are one I like

Or superset in mobility work, band pull aparts etc.