Two ways to ratchet up the the intensity, effectiveness, and efficiency of your workouts …

Are you ready to advance your workout routine to something with greater intensity, increase effectiveness, and improve the efficiency of your time spent working out? Then you might want to consider adding supersets or trisets (or both) to your workout regimen.

A superset is when you do two exercises back-to-back with little or no rest in between, going back and forth until you’ve completed all the sets for both exercises. Classic examples of supersets would be doing a bicep exercise set and then immediately doing a tricep exercise set; doing a chest exercise set, immediately followed by a back exercise set; or doing a quadricep exercise set that is immediately followed by a hamstring exercise set.

A triset is when you do three exercises back-to-back with little or no rest in between, going through all the sets of all three exercises. For example, a triset could be doing a quadricep exercise set, immediately followed by a hamstring exercise set, immediately followed by a calf exercise set; or, a shoulder exercise set, immediately followed by a bicep exercise set, immediately followed by a tricep exercise set.

Both supersets and trisets can be workouts where you exercise the same muscle group or opposing or antagonist muscle groups. When exercising the same muscle group, the idea is that the second exercise in a superset works the same muscles but in a slightly different way.

Some benefits of supersets and trisets are:

• • Increasing workout intensity. By going from one exercise to another with little to no rest, you increase “TUT” or time under tension. Some research indicates this contributes to greater muscle growth.
  • Research indicates there is a significantly greater “energy expenditure” with supersets and trisets, and this produces greater fat burn.
  • Supersets and trisets enable you to increase workout volume in the same amount of time.
  • There is an aerobic benefit in that supersets and trisets more effectively increase and maintain greater heart rate.
  • And a significant benefit is greater efficiency of your time – instead of standing around during wait periods in traditional workouts, you’re moving on to your next exercise after completing a set. That means less time in the gym while still completing a full, and advanced, workout.

Some “cons” for supersets and trisets are:

• • • They can decrease your ability to lift heavier loads since fatigue will be higher.
    • Neither are an optimal way of training for maximal strength, as rest is important (however, I argue you can usually get adequate rest if working out antagonist or opposing muscle groups).
    • Supersets and trisets can be a way of increasing training volume and spark muscle growth, however often in a more fatigued state. That can lead to overall training intensity decreasing.

  Scotty