Supersetting

[IHateMyJob2004]

I'll do the long version. I dropped from 235 2 years ago to 198 last summer. All while gaining cardio and strength. But last summer I got a nasty groin pull that took 2 months to just begin to feel right. Even after 6 months, I still felt it.

Anyway, that injury started my journey to laziness. I am back to about 218. I have recently started back on track. I can shockingly still do a 3 mile run but I am at 10 minute miles instead of sub 9 when I got injured. I was also nearing the point that I was doing 5 mile runs for my runs. Right now, I can do 2.5 no problem and have to start building back up to 3+ miles. Not a big deal.

Not sure about strength changes (granted I know I am weaker).

Anyway, I plan on getting back off my butt. And I hope to start eating better in a few days. Might wait till this weekend ends to fix diet.

Question 1:
Pre-injury, I was doing what I didn't know was called supersetting. I was bacially doing opposing muscle groups. The way I would do it is:

Exercise A (clock at 0 minutes)
Exercise B (usually the easier of the two exercises)

wait till clock is at 5 minutes:
Exercise A
Exercise B

repeat for 5 reps.

So, this dropped alot of time off my workout (naturally).

Is supersetting supposed to do no time between exercises? I should go from A to B and immediately back to A? Or is a break appropriate?

Question 2:
At the end of my exercise, I might do supersetting with 3 exercises due to them being targetted exercises. I might do curls, dips and something else jsut to speed things along.
Is this bad?

Heck, maybe I'll lift tonight. Been a week or two since I last lifted.

 

[Koing]

Q1) You can take no breaks if you want. Say take no breaks for 6-8 weeks and then in your next cycle do a 2min break. Don't wait longer than 2-3mins inbetween your sets. Depending on how many reps you are doing 5minutes is long imo and it really lowers the intensity of your training session. But again it would depend on *what your focus* is.

Q2) Again this is fine. Do it for 6-8 weeks and then switch it up.

With training you can do A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS.

Just progress the weights or reps over time. If your weights or reps increase consistently you will get results. If neither moves up and your rest period inbetween sets doesn't drop dramatically you won't get any results.

Koing

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Just finished. man, my muscle stamina is gone. Crazy how bad it is. I used to be able to lift heavy (for me) and do alot. Tonight, I did 20% less than what i used to do and only did half of my old workout and my arms are like spaghetti. Man, this sucks.

Anyway. Did supersets. Did each exercise back to back then took a 3 minute break.

Bench - 5 sets
lat pulldowns - 5 sets
-------------
military press - 3 sets
concentration curls - 3 sets per arm
-------------
Military press - 2 sets
Pendalay rows - 4 sets

The only good news is that I tried to push myslef even when my arms said no more. Got to get stamina back.

 

[tedrodai]

Supersets are simply combining different exercises with no rest for 1 "superset". So 1 set of

Bench
lat pulldowns

with no rest in between is 1 superset. How much rest you do in between sets is a seperate thing altogether. Follow rest guidelines between sets as you would for anything else, but as Koing said, you can do lots of different things.

 

[Koing]

Just finished. man, my muscle stamina is gone. Crazy how bad it is. I used to be able to lift heavy (for me) and do alot. Tonight, I did 20% less than what i used to do and only did half of my old workout and my arms are like spaghetti. Man, this sucks.

Anyway. Did supersets. Did each exercise back to back then took a 3 minute break.

Bench - 5 sets
lat pulldowns - 5 sets
-------------
military press - 3 sets
concentration curls - 3 sets per arm
-------------
Military press - 2 sets
Pendalay rows - 4 sets

The only good news is that I tried to push myslef even when my arms said no more. Got to get stamina back.

Training stamina will come back to you quickly. The main thing is HOW HARD ARE YOU WORKING and not the weights. As long as the weights INCREASE OVER TIME you are good to go and will build muscle.

Koing

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

koing, I hope so.

Bad news is that I did not lift since the 7th. I intend to lift Monday though (the 11th). Need to get back into the practice of lifting. Did run a few things. Overall, I'm getting back itno exercise in general which is good.

 

[Koing]

Don't beat yourself up on missing sessions. Just make sure you get to the gym 1-2x a week

Koing

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

had a good workout tonight. Didn't finish but I only skipped 2 or 3 sets of dips.

the dips are hte last thing I do so my arms are usually shot by then. I used to do 5x10s with 5 pounds attached at the waist. That was when I weighed 200 pounds though. Now i weigh 215 or so. I was happy to do 3 sets of 6. I think I am not far away from doing 5x10s again.

Overall, the workout went well. Bench press was a little better. Form started to come back. Last time I had trouble squeezing my back. Today form was good with 5 more pounds on the bar.

Anyway, much better. Tomorrow is my 3 mile run day.

I don't mind taking 2 days off on occasion. 3 days off starts to bother me. After off time like that, I used to run in the morning and lift (upper body) at night just to "catch up"

I think my new plan is to stick to a workout for 6 weeks and change things up. Basically every 6 weeks, I'll change my routine. Probably stick with the same macros but change targeted exercises.

 

[Koing]

Nice mate. Slow and steady makes solid gains

Dips to me today was a nightmare...after MP (Military Press) 62.5kg x 6reps x 6sets, paused reps went to do a few dips to warm up, failed the first one , shoulders were busting from the MP. Did 1, then did 2. rested, ditched the idea of using the 15kg weight, and did 2 sets of 10, a cute PT came over, so gave her some chat, got the 15s on and busted out 12s, did 4sets. Then the PT trained with us.

Yes 6 week change up is a good idea. Go to medium intensity and medium rep ranges. Then next 4 weeks after that go heavy. Cycle about your reps and sets.

Koing

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Today I did lower body. My calf muscles seem to be just slightly weaker. I could still do my seated calf raises with 5x15@145 lbs.

First time squatting in a long time. Did 190 pounds 5 sets of 5. Then threw on 230 pounds and did 2 reps just for kicks. I have to work up slowly because my form isn't all there. I think I lost some strength in my back. So I'll work back into it. What sucks is that pre-injury I was doing 5x5@265 and still progressing each time I lifted.

Deads today were OK. I lost motivation for some reason. Legs were slightly tired but I could have kept going. Did 3x5x190 no problem. Again, I think back muscles were a bit weak.

The back strength issue could just be the fact that I am not used to activating them on demand when lifting like I was able to do last summer. Actually, it is activating the whole core when squatting and dead lifting that I am not used to. I was disciplined with DL more than squats in regards to core activation.

Threw in some ab rolls outs and situps. I think the days of 35 pound plates on my chest while doing situps are a thing of the past.

 

[Koing]

In squats, make sure you take a deep breath and REALLY brace your trunk properly! Keep that chest up! Work real hard on setting up your position. The stronger you setup your base the better your squat will be.

15kg on the chest is nothing. You will build back up to it.

Koing

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

When I have been lifting lately, I've been doing supersetting. It is a great time saver.

That is all.

 

[z1ggy]

When I have been lifting lately, I've been doing supersetting. It is a great time saver.

That is all.

^ That's how I was able to do 8 different exercises in 45 mins.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

^ That's how I was able to do 8 different exercises in 45 mins.

To be honest, if I'm lifting heavy enough, each set takes out so much of me that I cannot properly superset. If I do lighter dumbbell stuff, supersetting is possible, but if I'm doing big barbell compounds, I just can't manage it.

 

[Blackjack200]

Threw in some ab rolls outs and situps. I think the days of 35 pound plates on my chest while doing situps are a thing of the past.

Just a tangential question, how good of an exercise are situps? If I do them weighted I mean.

Right now I'm doing chins as my only assistance exercise, but progress is starting to stall so I was thinking of alternating chin/situp days. Will chins help the main lifts go up?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Just a tangential question, how good of an exercise are situps? If I do them weighted I mean.

Right now I'm doing chins as my only assistance exercise, but progress is starting to stall so I was thinking of alternating chin/situp days. Will chins help the main lifts go up?

Sit-ups are not a great exercise. They're not functional and they're quite hard on the low back (especially the lumbar spine discs). Planks, roll-outs, pull-downs, etc are way more functional and still result in big gains.

 

[Blackjack200]

Nice, I have not idea what any of those are, but I'll just look them up. :thumbsup:

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Nice, I have not idea what any of those are, but I'll just look them up. :thumbsup:

I'm sorry I meant pullovers instead of pull-downs. Leg raises and dragon flags are also good, if you can stabilize your back position throughout the motion.

 

[z1ggy]

To be honest, if I'm lifting heavy enough, each set takes out so much of me that I cannot properly superset. If I do lighter dumbbell stuff, supersetting is possible, but if I'm doing big barbell compounds, I just can't manage it.

I was doing 3 sets of 12...None to failure.

I couldn't imagine lifting heavy and doing it either, but if you are going for more of an endurance work out like I was, it's possible, and it saves time.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I was doing 3 sets of 12...None to failure.

I couldn't imagine lifting heavy and doing it either, but if you are going for more of an endurance work out like I was, it's possible, and it saves time.

I agree and I've used it before, but I definitely have to be in the higher rep range.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Nice, I have not idea what any of those are, but I'll just look them up. :thumbsup:

ab roll outs are awesome.

My friend has soemthing like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Yukon-ACM-190-.../dp/B0007WTOFI

But there is a padded piece that goes accross your chest. it is unbelieable the kind of gains you can get from it. It's goingto be the next addition to my weight room when I have room for it...

As for super setting, if I took 5 minutes between bench, I now do soemthing like:
clock: exercise
0 min: bench
1 min: lat pulldown
5 min: bench
6 min: lat pull down
... repeat ...

I usually do a a macro with one micro mixed in or atleast go after an opposing muscle group. So, I might do military press and arm curls together.

Works great.

EDIT: Actually, my friend has something more liek this:
http://www.amazon.com/Body-Solid-GC...0DD98/ref=pd_sim_sbs_sg_1/175-8892822-5955953