Program Design #6: Opposing Supersets

Ever wonder where the time went? Does that happen to you in the gym? Do you feel like you are in the gym far too long and also not getting the results you had hoped for?

No one wants to be in the gym forever, even those who enjoy training. Life is busy and we all have other things to do whether it is work or spending time with family. Therefore, I often use opposing supersets. A superset is when you perform two exercises together; doing one set of exercise 1 then performing one set of exercise 2, then returning to exercise 1 and repeating for the called upon sets. Opposing refers to exercises that either 1) work opposing muscles groups so they do not interfere with each other or 2) are different enough that they do not interfere.

If we are working the bench press for example, we may choose to superset with a row. Bench press works chest, shoulder and triceps. Rowing works the muscles of the back (traps, rhomboids, lats) and biceps. No interference and an excellent example of opposing muscles groups. The fact that they don’t interfere will keep your performance level high on both exercises provided you are resting enough. We could also superset the bench press with an abdominal movement. The abs do not “oppose” the chest, like the back does, but they also will not interfere with the bench press either.

Typically, you will want to rest enough to catch your breath. This may mean anywhere from 45 to 90 seconds between sets. You can see how this will allow peak performance. Instead of having 45 to 90 seconds between sets of bench press, now by combining it with a row, you are have that rest period effectively doubled (because of the rest period after the row) plus the time it takes to row. Assuming it takes about 30 seconds to complete a set, your rest between bench press sets is now closer to 120 to 210 seconds.

How does this save you time? Let’s look at two scenarios.

Scenario 1: Client trains bench press for 3 sets of 8. In order to maintain performance of all 8 repetitions with his training weight, client needs to maintain rest periods of 90 seconds. Once complete with the bench press, client moves on to the row where he also completes 3 sets of 8. Again, to ensure he can complete all the repetitions without decreasing weight, he finds he needs 90 seconds of rest between sets. At the conclusion of these two exercises, he completed 6 sets (30 seconds long hypothetically) and had 5 rest periods of 90 seconds. He spent 630 seconds, or 10.5 minutes in the gym.

Scenario 2: Client trains bench press for 3 sets of 8 supersetted with rows for 3 sets of 8. In order to maintain performance of all 8 repetitions with his training weight, client needs to maintain rest periods of 90 seconds for each specific muscle. Resting 45 seconds before and after the row would give him 90 seconds of pure rest plus 30 seconds where he was rowing and not engaging his pushing muscles. At the conclusion of these two exercises, he completed 6 sets (30 seconds long hypothetically) and had 5 rest periods of 45 seconds. He spent 405 seconds, or 6.75 minutes in the gym.

With just one superset we shaved almost 4 minutes off his gym time! Not only that, but he actually had more rest between sets of the SAME exercise. From the time he completed his bench press in scenario 2 until he started his next set of bench press, he had 120 seconds. Granted, you will be slightly more out of breath from this training, but it is easily adapted.

If you feel too out of breath, increase the rest periods. Imagine 60 second rest periods, he still get out of the gym faster, but now he is less winded on subsequent sets. Or he could keep 90 seconds of rest and not be any more winded than scenario 1, but he will likely feel much stronger due to the long period between sets of the same muscle group.

As I hope you can see. This can easily be adapted for your goals. More rest if you are after strength. Slightly less rest if you are after muscle, and less still if you want to do this style of workout more for the metabolic effect while still preserving muscle mass.

I rarely program supersets that hit the same muscle group, for example, bench press with chest fly. It can be done if someone has a very specific desire to improve one certain muscle group, but otherwise I do not find it a great use of time since it detracts from performance too much and will likely lead to more time in the gym or similar time in the gym without accomplishing as much as you could. Most people are not at a level where they need to improve their chest or their biceps for example.

In general, most of us simply need to focus on establishing good habits and consistent workouts. And I find opposing supersets to be a great way to help encourage this habit and consistency because almost everyone enjoys being efficient.

Well, almost everyone.