SUPERSETS

For those guys who have been training for more than a year, there are several special techniques and methods to increase the intensity of load and energy consumption while working in the gym. For beginners, all these techniques are as good as a sick headache, because their muscles and body have not yet adapted to the usual techniques. But advanced athletes often need to look for non-standard ways to increase intensity. There are so many ways to do this. Today we will consider one of the most popular techniques called SUPERSETS!

First of all, I want to remind you of the important fact that the growth of our muscles is nothing more than an ADAPTATION to the changed environment. In other words, the intensity of environmental impact has changed since you started going to the gym and your muscles have to adapt to these changes by increasing strength and size. It's all a theory. But understanding this theory can give us some useful muscle growth moments. Above all, we see that the intensity of the environmental impact (intensity of training) must increase if we want the muscles to grow with it. If the intensity does not increase, the muscles will not increase either, because our body is a terrible miser who will never spend energy and resources on something that is not necessary.

The INTENSITY of environmental impacts can be increased in various ways. In most cases WEIGHTS ON THE EQUIPMENT or TRAINING SCOPE (more sets) are increased.

However, even a bar athlete understands that it is possible to increase working weights or the scope of training only up to a certain physiological limit, after which one will have to either stop completely or at least slow down the speed of intensity increase. So what happens in these situations?

You don't have to worry. In strength training there are millions of ways to increase the intensity in addition to the WEIGHTS on the equipment or training SCOPE.  They are most often referred to as "the principles of increasing intensity" or "Joe Weider's principles".  You've probably heard about many of them, such as "supersets", "drop-sets", "rest-pause", "complex sets", "peak contraction", "negative reps", etc.   Anything in your training that complicates the load is in fact likely to be that principle.   It is very difficult to cover everything in one article, so we will start with one of the most popular ones.  We will talk about SUPERSETS. What is this?

SUPERSET and COMPLEX SET

SUPERSET includes TWO exercises performed for ANTAGONISTIC MUSCLES, one after the other, with no rest in between.  What are antagonistic muscles?  ANTAGONISTIC MUSCLES are muscles with opposite functions. If, for example, one muscle flexes in a joint (biceps), and another muscle expands in that joint (triceps), these muscles will be antagonistic muscles.

MAIN ANTAGONISTIC MUSCLES:

• CHEST - BACK

• BICEPS - TRICEPS

• QUADRICEPS - BICEPS FEMORIS

• ABDOMINALS - BACK EXTENSORS

• FRONT DELTOIDS - BACK

• BACK DELTOIDS - CHEST

There is a very popular misconception about supersets among bodybuilders.  The thing is, most guys think ANY TWO EXCERCISES WITHOUT A PAUSE are a SUPERSET.   This is NOT true!   Let's say if you do two exercises without a pause on one muscle, it will not be a superset.  It will be a COMPLEX SET.

• SUPERSET IS ALWAYS FOR ANTAGONISTIC MUSCLES

• COMPLEX SET IS FOR ONE AND THE SAME MUSCLE

In other words, barbell biceps curls and then triceps extension immediately will be a superset. And if after barbell biceps curls you do dumbbell biceps curls, it will be a complex set.

SUPERSET example:

• Barbell biceps curls 4 Х 6-12

• Lying triceps extension 4 Х 6-12

COMPLEX SET example:

• Barbell biceps curls 4 Х 6-12

• Dumbbell curls with supination 4 X 6-12

I will tell about complex sets in one of the future articles (it is no less extensive topic than supersets).   Now let's look at the main benefits of supersets.

SUPERSET BENEFITS

In general, many competing bodybuilders believed that performing exercises without rest would cut muscles better.  However, it is now established that fat burning does not increase significantly due to the use of such super techniques. So what's changing? Two main points:

MUSCLES RECOVER MORE QUICKLY BETWEEN SETS when you train antagonistic muscles.   Scientists know very well that active recovery in sports (when you do not sit or lie down, but walk or do light exercises) is more beneficial than passive one.  In bodybuilding it turns out that when you perform a hard working set for the other muscle, your basic muscle gets a slight stimulation, due to which it recovers more quickly. In practice, this leads to faster readiness of your muscles for new sets, which means you can do more during training.

MUSCLES ARE BETTER SUPPLIED WITH NUTRIENTS during antagonistic muscle training.  In fact, if you stop doing exercises, the blood gradually starts to flow from the working muscle (blood is a carrier of all nutrients from oxygen to amino acids and hormones).  But the blood can't flow away if the antagonistic muscle stimulation continues. It turns out that both the wolves have eaten much and the sheep have not been touched! Muscles rest and at the same time continue to be supplied with nutrients as during work.

All other points are secondary with regard to the points mentioned.  You can rest less between sets, you lift heavier weights and as a result the intensity of the impact of the same environment increases.

Imagine a situation where a man was training his arms at one training session.  First, he trained his biceps for 30 minutes and then he spent 30 minutes on triceps. This man has been resting between sets for 60 seconds. It is obvious that with each successive set the amount of acidification products in muscle become more and more and he has to reduce the weights in order to continue training. But at some point, the man began to alternate the biceps set with the triceps set. Formally, he didn't change his resting time between sets (let's say he spends a minute on biceps and triceps). But the alternation in total gives not one minute, but TWO MINUTES of rest between sets for the same muscle group. That is, the rest period doubled without increasing the time of training.  And what does that provide? And this provides less accumulation of acid products and more strength applied in the set. Such a man can work with greater weights than before, because he rests longer between sets. In other words, the total load per workout increased without increasing the duration of the workout.  Moreover, the man can now rest less between sets, because he still has double "gap" for rest.   He can train more intensely, or he can shorten the duration of the training.  Do you see the benefits?

SUPERSETS WORK PARTICULARLY WELL WITH MINOR MUSCLES, such as biceps, triceps, deltoids.  Why?  Because training these muscles loads other muscles and body systems less than training major muscle groups. You can rest very little and keep lifting decent weights. But if you train major muscle groups like back, legs or chest, it's more complicated. Because squats don't just load quadriceps.  Squats load the back, body and many other systems.  So even if quadriceps recover quickly, other systems will still limit the ability to continue doing supersets at a fast pace.

REST BETWEEN SETS

Most often SUPERSET is referred to two exercises performed with NO rest or brief rest in between.   Classic situation: the set of biceps curls and the triceps extension in nonstop sequence.   Personally, I've noticed that supersets work better when you're RESTING between exercises.

For example, you do a biceps set, then you rest for 30-60 seconds.  Only after that you can do the triceps set.  Then another 30-60 seconds of rest and a new one set.  Why do I like such a superset more than a classic without pauses?  Because in terms of theory, the rest does not prevent from taking two major benefits of a superset (recovery between sets + nutrient supply), and also it simplifies its use.

You have antagonistic muscle stimulation that speeds up recovery. But you also add rest time without losing performance. On the contrary, extra rest gives you the opportunity to work with more load.  In addition, the supply of blood and nutrients in this set is also more evenly distributed. Let's look at a classic superset with resting between sets.

Classic Superset (antagonistic muscles without the rest)

• Biceps set = 30 seconds

• Triceps set = 30 seconds

• Rest = 60 seconds

Superset with resting between sets.

• Biceps set = 30 seconds

• Rest = 30 seconds

• Triceps set = 30 seconds

• Rest = 30 seconds

As you can see in the first case, the time between sets without blood supply (rest time) is twice as long as in the second case (60 seconds vs. 30 seconds).  CONCLUSION: When performing superset with resting between sets, there is more EVEN blood supply than without rest if you consider the entire workout, not just one superset.