Super, man

I’m a big fat liar and my pants are definitely on fire! A few weeks ago I promised to tell you what the most effective types of training were. But, I couldn’t knock myself off my soapbox and instead continued to harp on about what you shouldn’t do.

So, over the next few weeks I’ll give you my all-time favourites.

First, supersets!!

Now, this whole exercise game isn’t rocket science and the superset is evidence of how simple it can be.

The superset is the simple act of combining two unlike exercises and completing them one after the other. For example a push-up and a squat. You’d do the first set of push-ups and follow it immediately with your first set of squats. Then you go back to the push-ups and do your second set, followed by your second set of squats. Follow this plan for three to five sets of each.

Why sweat it out doing a superset? Firstly, it’s a great time saver. If you were to do push-ups and squats individually one after the other you’d take twice as long for no real extra benefit. Second reason is the cardio effect. Put a heart rate monitor on during a superset workout and you’ll notice your rate will be similar to doing a solid interval running session. So you get strength gains whilst working on your fitness. Lastly it allows more volume in your session. Volume is a key training principle and if you can increase the amount of quality exercises you can fit into an hour workout you’re doing well.

Here’s an example of a superset I use with my clients. To set up your own superset just remember the exercises you combine generally need to target completely different areas so that each area is recovering between sets. The easiest way is to combine legs and upper body.

Sample routine:
Superset one
Squats and push-ups
Superset two
Lunges and horizontal pull-ups
Superset three
Step-ups and shoulder press
Superset four
Hamstring curl (Swiss Ball) and chin-ups

Finish with abs or even combine your abs in the supersets