Effective Muscle Building Workouts Include Supersets

A superset is a combination of two different muscle building exercises performed consequtively with no rest between them in order to increase workout intensity. Supersets are advantageous to a muscle building routine for a number of reasons.

First of all, supersets allow you to save time by eliminating rests between sets. You’ll spend less time in the gym while enjoying all the benefits.

Supersets offer a metabolic boost due to the increased intensity, adding a fat burning component to to your muscle building workouts.

Variety is the spice of life. Supersets keep your workouts interesting with a mix of exercises and very little rest. You won’t find yourself watching the clock waiting to pump out your next set.

There are a number of different types of supersets. One of those involves working 2 different (antagonist) muscle groups. For example you might pair up back and chest with a set of seated rows followed immediately by a bench press. Or perhaps you combine quads and hamstrings with a set of leg curls right after squats.

Pre-exhaustive supersets work the same muscle group with 2 different exercises. First an isolation exercise is performed and second is a compound exercise. For example if you were training your quads you might do a set of leg extensions followed by a set of lunges. Or if you were working on the chest that day, maybe you’d do a set of flyes followed by a bench press. The idea is to fatigue the muscle group prior to the compound exercise. This type of superset needs extra special focus and attention because of the compound move following the isolation. Compound exercises like the squat, deadlift and bench press require stability in order to avoid injury. Since pre-exhaustive supersets are capable of overloading the muscles without the use of heavy weights, it makes them ideal to use when you don’t have a spotter.

Post-exhaustive supersets have a similar purpose to the pre-exhaustive but work in reverse. The compound exercise is performed prior to the isolation. In this case squats would be done before the leg extension, a seated row before the straight arm pulldown or romanian deadlift followed by a set of leg curls.

Try adding supersets to your muscle building program to add some intensity, variety and a boost in caloric expenditure. You’ll spend less time in the gym and more time out in the world showing off those hard earned gains!

About Shauna
	Shauna is a personal trainer, nutrition consultant and health and fitness writer for Workoutbox.com. She is also the creator of the "Soccer Mom weight loss program". Read more

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