Superset Training: Boosting Your Workout Intensity
Have you been stuck in a rut lately at the gym? Maybe you have become bored of doing the same old workout routine and not seeing any results? Perhaps you are ready to increase the intensity of your workouts with Superset training. When you are just starting out for the very first time on a strength training program, following the basic lifting principles is a very safe path to take as your muscles need to adapt to the basic exercise movements being applied. Eventually, your body will adapt to these basic lifting moves and will need more challenging methods of training in order to achieve increases in muscular strength and overall conditioning. This is when Superset training could be a good choice.
Supersets combine two or more exercises with similar movements to increase the amount of work of an individual muscle or group of muscles. The key to this method of training is that the exercises are completed back to back without resting. An example would be doing the bench press, which primarily works the pectoralis and triceps muscles, and then performing an exercise that targets just the triceps such as triceps extensions. Generally speaking, you would perform three or four supersets in this pattern, making sure to rest between each superset.
The exercises that you perform do not have to be from different muscle groups, any two exercises can be paired to be considered a superset. For example, if you are trying to focus on one specific muscle group such as shoulders, you can do a set of overhead presses followed by lateral raises. This example is a very good approach for exhausting a single muscle group to promote the muscle fiber breakdown.
Besides boosting your workout intensity, the important benefit gained by this advanced training method is that you are performing twice the sets in the same time it takes to perform straight sets. Not only will you save time during the workout, but by decreasing your rest periods you will keep your heart rate elevated for longer periods and in turn will increase calorie burning. So, if you are looking to boost the intensity in your workouts or you want to add a cardio element, perhaps super-setting is your next training method of choice.
