Do Supersets The Right Way To Avoid Injury And Maximize Muscle Gains

Do supersets the right way to avoid injury and maximize muscle gains

Supersets can help us spend less time in the gym. But will they help us build more muscle? That depends on the type of superset we are doing and the two exercises we choose to put together. Some exercise combinations can be counter-productive and others downright dangerous leading you on the path to injury.

By the strictest definition, a superset is doing two different exercises back to back that work opposing muscle groups. Often times you will hear almost any two exercises being put together and called a superset. We will look at this type of exercise combination as well.

There are big differences between supersetting smaller muscle groups using isolation exercises, compared to large muscle groups using compound movements. The Big compound movements are very taxing on our central nervous system and require more time to recover. Doing two big muscle groups back to back will burn more calories, but burning more calories doesn’t mean more muscle growth.

If you don’t have enough energy to give your all on the second exercise and push it within a couple of reps from failure then you aren’t getting the most potential growth out of that exercise and if you have to rest twice as long to recover from the superset then you aren’t saving any time either.

One of the exercises I never superset is squats. They take so much energy out of me I can’t imagine doing another exercise right after. I have actually seen squats with deadlifts suggested as a superset not only would this be massively taxing on our central nervous system, but it is a back injury waiting to happen.

When you are choosing two exercises to put together you need to think about all the muscles used in the movements, not just the primary drivers, our low back along with other muscles are used in both the squat and the deadlift so they won’t be getting any rest when you switch to the second exercise, setting up the injury. A better exercise to pair with squats if you have the energy is hamstring curls they aren’t as hard on our central nervous system and don’t stress the back.

Another way supersets are used is by paring an upper and lower body exercise together again we need to think about our low back and compression on our spine is also something to consider. So to protect our low back you wouldn’t want to pair a bent-over row with a squat or a lunge. Even doing shoulder presses will compress the spine so a better option would be to pair a pull up which would decompress the spine with a lunge or squat.

When it comes to the upper body I find it a bit easier to superset the big muscle groups like chest and back. Bench press and bent over rows are a natural combination and if you do the rows with chest support it makes them even safer to do even when you're tired. Another combination I really like is pull-ups with dips.

A compound superset is where you do 2 different exercises for the same muscle group. There are a few ways these can be done. The two ways that I like to use them is to pre-exhaust the muscle or to post-exhaust it.

The way you do a pre-exhaust superset is first you do an isolation exercise followed by a compound movement for the same muscle group. This can help with the mind-muscle connection a good example of this is with the bench press. Some people have trouble feeling their chest during the exercise, by doing chest flys first it helps to get the focus on the chest by pre-exhausting it. This will also help more fully work the chest during the benching movement especially if your triceps are a bit weak and tire out before your chest does. The next place a pre-exhausting superset is good is for the home workout guys who might be running a little short on weight by pre-exhausting the muscle it allows us to more easily hit failure on our compound exercise.

A Post-exhaustion superset works a bit more like a drop set, with the first exercise being a compound movement followed by an isolation exercise for the same muscle group. Like a bent-over row followed by a straight arm pull down or a dumbbell pullover. These are used when we want to take a muscle passed failure and is a good way to push past a sticking point. So we can keep working out while having fun.