SUPER-DUPER SETS JACK UP THE INTENSITY OF YOUR WORKOUTS WITH ONE OF THE MOST CLASSIC TRAINING PRINCIPLES AROUND: SUPERSETS BY BILL DOBBINS ONE OF THE TRAINING QUESTIONS MOST OFTEN ASKED IS: HOW CAN INTERMEDIATE OR ADVANCED BODYBUILDERS INCREASE INTENSITY WHEN THEY’RE ALREADY TRAINING AS HARD AND HEAVY AS THEY CAN? THE BASIS OF THE BODYBUILDING WORKOUT IS PROGRESSIVE-RESISTANCE TRAINING. THAT IS, YOU HAVE TO KEEP INCREASING THE INTENSITY OF YOUR WORKOUTS AND KEEP THE MUSCLES OVERLOADED IF YOU EXPECT TO CONTINUE TO MAKE PROGRESS. SOMETHING THE GREAT CHAMPIONS HAVE IN COMMON IS THAT THEY ALL WORK OUT WITH 100% EFFORT. IF THEY DIDN'T, THEY WOULD NEVER GET TO THE TOP. HOWEVER, THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANY BODYBUILDERS STAGNATES BECAUSE THEY ENCOUNTER STICKING POINTS, WHICH THEY CANNOT OVERCOME. BEING HIGHLY DEDICATED AND MOTIVATED, THEY OFTEN TRY TO CORRECT THIS SITUATION BY DOING MORE OF THE SAME, SUBSTITUTING INTENSITY OF EFFORT FOR INTENSITY OF EFFECT. BUT IF YOU’RE ALREADY TRAINING AS HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN, ATTEMPTING TO TRAIN EVEN HARDER ONLY LEADS TO OVERTRAINING, LOSS OF STRENGTH AND RECUPERATIVE ABILITY AND THE INCREASED RISK OF INJURY. THUS, INTENSITY CAN ONLY BE INCREASED BY FINDING WAYS TO TRAIN MORE EFFECTIVELY RATHER THAN JUST HARDER AND HEAVIER. THERE ARE A NUMBER OF LIFTING TECHNIQUES THAT ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM – ONE OF WHICH INVOLVES SUPERSETS. WHAT ARE SUPERSETS? Supersetting involves doing two exercises for opposing muscle groups one after the other without stopping to rest in-between. (This is different than doing two exercises for the same muscle group – called a compound set – which is another way of increasing intensity.) An example of supersetting would be a set of biceps curls followed immediately by a set of triceps extensions; or leg extensions followed by leg curls; or even bench press followed by a rowing exercise for the back. Supersets involve two exercises rather than three (as in tri-sets) or more (giant sets). After the double-movement superset, you stop to rest for a minute or two before going right back into more of them. Overall, the best way to do supersets is to reduce the period between them as much as possible and to cut the rest time between the two exercises in an individual superset to as close to zero as you can. SUPER BENEFITS There are a number of advantages to doing supersets. For example, working a muscle and then immediately hitting the opposing muscle brings in a greater supply of blood to the area. Bodybuilders who do supersets typically feel an increased “pump”, and in time will experience an increase in the vascularity of the muscles involved. Eventually, this greater potential for blood supply to the muscles, which brings in more oxygen and nutrients to the area and speeds up the removal of built-up lactic acid, will lead to greater gains from a variety of different types of exercise routine. Supersets, especially if they are performed using a full range of motion on each exercise, can also lead to greater joint flexibility. For example, bodybuilders who do more conventional training, such as performing four or five sets for biceps, followed by another four or five sets for triceps, normally experience tightened biceps or triceps the following day. Many people like to stretch the muscles they’re working between sets, specifically to minimise this effect. However, by supersetting biceps and triceps you’re alternating stretching one muscle as you contract the other, which not only speeds up recovery but also helps to eliminate excessive tightening and soreness in the muscles a day or two after working out. But you’re doing much more than just stretching the opposing muscles when you superset. When you do biceps curls, for example, the triceps are not just stretching; they’re also working in combination with the biceps to stabilise the elbow joint and to control the range of motion of the exercise. If the triceps weren’t helping to slow down, and eventually stop, the movement, the exercise would likely result in injury to the joint. Thus, the triceps are not really resting when you train biceps, nor are the biceps fully resting when you train triceps. As a result, since you’re going from a movement of one muscle group to the other with no rest in-between, both of them are working continuously during the entire superset, although one is always working with greater intensity than the other. Therefore, when doing a superset there is a lot more intensity of effect generated without overstressing the muscles involved. And as intensity goes up, so do results. You get the pump without the pain. Furthermore, doing a double-movement of this sort, and pumping more blood to the area as a result, warms up the muscles, tendons and ligaments faster, speeds up their recovery and allows you to work effectively and safely with a considerably larger amount of weight than you might first expect. NOT FOR BEGINNERS? Beginning bodybuilders can get some benefit out of supersets, but the more advanced you are, the more likely it is that they will speed up your gains. In reality, beginners usually lack the ability to contract their muscles with the same degree of intensity as an intermediate or advanced bodybuilder. Not only are their muscles not as strong, but also they aren’t able to use as high a proportion of the strength they do have. Why is this so? Many people don’t realise that, in addition to the neuromuscular impulses generated by the body to create muscular contraction, the nervous system also sends out a considerable number of inhibitory signals as well, signals that limit the force of the resulting contraction. It’s not hard to understand why. If this weren’t so, every time you attempted to contract a single muscle, the entire body would go into spasm. Imagine your entire body cramping up and you can see what a problem this could be. These inhibitory impulses also protect you against injuring yourself by contracting your muscles too hard. We’ve all heard the story of a mother summoning the strength to lift a car off her child. This is a case of the body overriding inhibitory signals in an emergency. What is usually not stated is that the mother would undoubtedly end up in the hospital with torn and injured muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments as a result. Emergency or not, the body cannot take this kind of overstress without damage. How strong you are is both a matter of the number and size of your muscle fibres and the degree to which the excitatory signals to your muscles outnumber the inhibitory signals. Muscle training consists both in building stronger fibres and in teaching the nervous system to use more of their potential by reducing the output of inhibitory signals to the fibres involved. Beginning bodybuilders may, because of genetics or prior athletic activity, already have fairly large muscles. But, unless they have done a lot of this muscle-specific training, it’s unlikely they can use as much of their muscular potential as more advanced trainers. Part of what supersets help you do is increase the number of muscle fibres you can recruit in an exercise, which can lead to bigger, stronger muscles. SUPERSET CYCLING However, no type of super-intense workout should be done all the time. Doing supersets for every bodypart workout will ultimately reduce their effectiveness, as well as increase the risk of overtraining. Intensity training principles, like supersetting, are strategies to be used in addition to straight sets, not instead of them. The most effective way of maintaining intensity and stimulating maximum progress is by cycling your training – using various principles for several workouts or several weeks and then changing your workout to involve other training strategies. But every time there is a lag in development in a certain part of your body, and you hit some kind of sticking point, using the superset principle to “bomb and blast” the fibres, and to saturate the area with blood (pump), will help to create the shock necessary to create additional muscle growth. So get supersetting! M&F

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