What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today I’ve got my 8 best supersets that you’re likely not doing.
I’m going to show you exactly why I hand selected each of these 8.
But it always helps to start with a good definition of what a superset really is.
There is some confusion there.
There are two criteria to be called a superset.
Number one: You have to have two exercises.
Number two: you need to not rest in between those two exercises.
Now, if you took a single exercise – let’s say a dumbbell incline bench-press – and
you did two sets in a row, but all you did was drop the weight in between sets; that
would be a drop set.
A true superset requires that you go to a different exercise.
When it comes to what happens beyond that, some people think it always has to be opposing
muscle groups.
That’s just not correct.
Supersets can be done with lots of different exercise combinations, the same muscle group,
complimentary muscle groups, or yes, the popular opposing muscle group.
But let’s star there.
When we talk about opposing muscle groups there’s nothing more classic than biceps
and triceps.
Of course, I actually have one hand-picked favorite and it’s this combination.
It’s the dumbbell incline tricep extension, right into the dumbbell spider curl.
The reason why I like this one above all others is because we’re getting the all-important
stretch on the triceps in the hand selected exercise.
So, we can get that done, and immediately, without even having to change weight – because
usually these two exercises tend to be weighted very, very closely – you go right into the
inverted incline position on the bench, and you start repping out in this spider curl.
The spider curl provides a nice benefit for us too because it’s challenging us most
in the contracted position of the biceps, which is not something we really experience
all that often with traditional curls.
If you’re not used to doing this exercise you’re going to get a good stimulus from
it for that one reason.
If you certainly haven’t tried this one combination this way you definitely will.
Next, we can shift more toward complementary muscle groups.
Not in the exact same, but muscles that like to work together.
Here we’re going to hit the back.
This is one of my all-time favorite supersets.
It involves two exercises that a lot of times we forget to do.
We probably have seen them, but we don’t realize how important they are.
It’s the straight-arm pushdown, right into a face pull.
With the straight-arm pushdown we are working our back in one of the most crucial movement
patterns that we can use when training our back because it translates over into other
exercises.
Especially the big exercises, like the deadlift.
You need to have straight arm, scapular strength, not just to do this, but even some more advanced
bodyweight exercises like levers.
So, if we do this here, and then immediately change the position of our hands, and go right
into a face pull we can shift the work to the back, but more to the upper back.
As I’ve mentioned in previous videos here we can hit the rear delt as well.
There is simply no better combo for the most unappreciated exercises, and one of the more
underappreciated areas of our body.
Now we move onto more of the same muscle superset with a little bit of complementary action
going on.
That is one of my favorite here for chest.
Now we all know the classic bench-press into pushups.
But there’s something that allows us to hit the muscles in a little different way
with a single dumbbell.
What you do here is, the UCV raise that’s I’ve shown plenty of times on our channel,
which actually works a little bit of the tie in between the front delt, and the upper chest.
We’re angling our arm up, but then across our body.
You can see the upper chest activated and working here.
But then we can take that and make sure we’re still getting that all-important adduction
component of the chest, which is lacking when we go from bench-press to pushup.
That is why I love this, above all others.
We do what has been dubbed here as the “Cavaliere Crossover”.
I showed this a long time back, years ago.
You take that single dumbbell and what’s ironic about this superset is I can usually
reach for the dumbbell immediately below the one that I’m working on when the weights
are actually put back correctly.
So here I’ve gone from 20lbs to 70lbs.
What I do is lift and drag the dumbbell up, and across my body.
Really trying to work on adduction from the bottom, up.
You can see that my entire chest is activated.
Yes, it feels like it’s going to explode at this point, but that is the premise behind
supersets; to take it too failure and then beyond failure using these two exercises.
The beauty of supersets is that we don’t always have to select them based on the muscles
we’re working, but more so on a purpose.
Here you can take two shoulder exercises with the purpose being to use the first one to
pre-exhaust you for the second one.
The first part of this one is the shoulder L-raise.
I like the L-raise because we’re getting both the benefits of a front raise and side
raise for both the front and the middle delt.
But what’s great is, the same weight, which would normally not be challenging all for
you on a dumbbell press, by the time you’ve reached failure on this first portion of the
superset in the L-raise becomes challenging for that second half.
So, you’ve effectively pre-exhausted that muscle which now allows you to lift these
dumbbells straight up overhead as soon as you’ve done your last rep, and continue
to rep out using the second half, which is just a dumbbell press overhead.
Again, this gives you a chance to pre-exhaust a muscle group with an exercise that makes
the second exercise – which normally wouldn’t be so tough – a lot harder.
Therefore, it gives you a stimulus that you’re not used to.
Continuing on, using a purpose behind the superset, we can take advantage of mechanical
differences in exercises that allow us to take a muscle to failure and then train it
beyond, using a mechanical superset.
You take the first exercise – in this case, a pancake pushup – which places the tricep
at a greater mechanical disadvantage.
Therefore, it’s a harder exercise that you can take all the way to failure.
But instead of stopping there you can adapt and change the position of your body to allow
for a little bit more help for those triceps at that critical time, when they’re most
fatigued, to get even more reps, and more work done.
Here we’re shifting over to the dive-bomber pushup.
This should be slightly easier, allowing you to continue that set for another half until
failure.
Technically the supersets consist of two exercises, as I’ve said.
But you can turn into a little bit more of a giant set, which would still be a superset,
where you would rest no more and go right into a third variation here, which is the
diamond cutter pushup.
This should be, again, slightly easier.
You’re taking it down through these three exercises and it makes it for a more challenging
exercise combo for you.
However, if you want to stick to the true definition of a superset with two components
of it, the more advanced would stick to the pancake and dive bomber.
Whereas the less advanced would start with the dive bomber and go into the diamond cutters.
Rolling on now, we have something called a categorical drop set.
Meaning, the type, or category of the exercise, and what it means to the overall effect of
the superset.
We can go with a classic closed-chain, open-chain superset.
What that means is, a closed-chain exercise is whenever the moving limbs are in contact
with the ground.
So, if I was doing a squat and my feet were in contact with the ground, that would be
a closed-chain exercise, versus a leg extension where my legs are free to move in space, not
in contact with the ground.
We can apply the same here with our upper body, and this is one of my favorite ways
to train this combo, because I feel like it’s the safest way to train this combo.
Here we use an iron-cross dumbbell pushup.
As you can see I’ve got the dumbbells in contact with the ground, my hands via the
dumbbells are in contact with the ground, which therefore makes it a closed-chain exercise.
I can get a little bit of that effect that we’re actually going to cement here with
the follow-up.
That is an open-chain floor fly.
You guys know that this is the only version of this exercise that I like.
I feel like it’s the one that provides the best resistance to accomplish the exercise
without sacrificing the health of our shoulder.
We have the floor as our safety net.
We have the bottom safety position of our elbows up, against the floor.
But we’re doing an open-chain exercise because our arms are not in contact with the floor
anymore, but floating in free space.
The fact is, these open-chain/closed-chain combos provide a hell of a challenge.
This one, in particular, happens to be my favorite.
This next superset is one that showcases how you don’t really have to train the same
muscle group even remotely to have an effective superset.
It could be what the purpose of the superset is that makes it so valuable.
Here we’re talking about a squat and a scap pull.
You might be thinking “What is the relationship here?”
Well, here we’re talking about a loaded, and a de-loaded position for your body.
When we get under the squat bar we know that we have a bit of load directed down on our
spine.
We have spinal compression.
So, we do a set of squats realizing that’s still one of the best damn exercises we could
possibly do for our body.
But one of the great variables that we have in our arsenal is in between sets, instead
of just standing around – especially when it comes to squats – but usually you have
a pullup bar right behind us.
If you turn around, grab onto that pullup bar, and hang, or in this case do something
– which is a small scapular pull – the scap pull will contract/relax technique to
reinforce the decompression that happens when we actually just let go.
If you just let your legs hang here you can feel the spine elongate.
You can feel a little bit of that decompression, which helps us, and makes us feel ready to
attack the next set of squats.
This load/de-load, or compression/decompression combo is a great way to use supersets for
a purpose that you may not have realized in the first place.
Finally, we can use supersets to enhance the effects of a secondary exercise by preceding
it with an exercise that excites the nervous system.
We call this post-activation potentiation.
It’s a type of training that allows us to use explosive exercise – not done to fatigue,
but done to excite that nervous system – to them be applied to that secondary, more powerful
exercise.
Especially when you need that power the most.
Here we have a depth jump into a deadlift.
The depth jump is when we stand on the bench nearby, close to the bar that we’re going
to deadlift, and we utilize two key factors on this exercise.
One: you’re looking for that neurological excitation here of the legs.
Realizing that we want to go down into that stretch reflex, and then explode out of it,
and try to be as high, and explosive as we can in our jump.
The second thing, as you’ll see me working on here, is trying to allow the legs to load
up by hinging at the hips.
Drop into my squat by reinforcing the mechanics I’m going to use in the deadlift itself.
When I do that and come back and approach the bar, you can see that I am much more explosive.
Obviously, I’m not using a heavy, heavy weight here for demonstration purposes, but
I would be.
In this case I would have an excited nervous system that allows me to realize more power
when I lift that bar off the ground.
Which is exactly what we’re looking for here, especially in these bigger exercises.
There you have it, guys.
My 8 favorite supersets, all chosen for a different reason.
The fact is, when done at the right time, for the right purpose supersets can be incredibly
effective for helping you take your training to the next level.
If you’re looking to take your training to the next level and you want me to help
you do that head to the link below this video and allow me to help you choose the program
of mine that is best suited to your goals, and I’ll get you there.
The fact of the matter is, we’re always going to put the science back in strength,
and I’m going to tell it to you the way it is, giving you the ‘no BS’ approach
to making sure you get there, using the right principles, at the right time.
In the meantime, if you’ve found this video helpful leave your comments and thumbs up
below.
Let me know what you want me to cover, what other videos I could make for you that will
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All right, guys.
See you soon.