Everyone who wants to get stronger and stronger – and even lose weight – wants to get the most out of exercise. Maybe it means changing your routine, finding new ways to increase your intensity, trying workouts that will generate even more fat burning or simply scheduling your workout under the window on the day where it will have the biggest impact. According to at least two top coaches we spoke to, there is at least one surefire way to ensure that you tick most of these boxes: You should change your routine so that you engage in the old bodybuilding trick of performing supersets.
“Doing whole body workouts with supersets as opposed to the classic ‘body split’, with ‘leg days’ and ‘chest days’ can be very effective for rapid fat loss and body change, and it only needs to be performed three times a week,” says Elliott Upton , a NASM certified personal trainer at Ultimate Performance and the head of LiveUP Online Coaching. “Superset training means that the rest time is reduced during a training session, the training intensity is kept high and you can burn significantly more calories by doing so.”
When you perform a superset in strength training, you quickly go from one exercise to another without taking a break in between. A common superset tactic includes doing an exercise that works one muscle group and then immediately jumping to a pull that works another muscle group. Another type of superset is to participate in two exercises that hit the same muscle group back to back. “Pairing exercises together means that your workout takes less time to complete, so it’s perfect for lunch breaks at work,” says Upton. “Many of our personal training clients are senior entrepreneurs and CEOs who do not have hours to train.”
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Science has proven that supersets are effective. A study published in European Journal of Applied Physiology found that supersets can really “improve training efficiency and reduce training time.” Given the intensity of the supersets, the researchers note that some “extra recovery after exercise” would be needed to minimize the effects of fatigue.
Upton is not the only coach who preaches the merits of the superset. James de Lacey, a Master of Sport & Exercise Science from New Zealand who has worked as a professional strength and fitness trainer for several top rugby teams around the world, advises you to use the ground when performing supersets, and usually by performing burpees. “By having to go down and up from the ground between each exercise, your heart rate increases even more than if you performed all standing or all ground-based exercises,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons the burp is so difficult: you have to get down on the ground and get up again and again.”
We asked Lacey for a great superset routine that you can perform at home with just your body weight, which you will find below. So read on and consider trying. And for better exercise advice, make sure you are faster in the only effective way to exercise every day, say psychologists.
Stand with arms outstretched; then squat. Pause and rise. Perform 10 reps.
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Assume a pushup position, with your hands just wider than your shoulders and your body forming a straight line along your back and to your heels. Tighten the core and lower until the elbows are 90 degrees, then push up. Perform 10 pushups.
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Grab a pullup bar with your hands just wider than your shoulders. Hang until the arms are fully extended. Pull yourself up so that your chin comes over the bar. Perform 5 pull-ups in total.
Assume a plank position by resting your forearms while keeping the rest of your body elevated and straight. Tighten your glutes and abdomen and hold this position for 30 seconds.
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