The 8 Best Supersets (YOU’RE NOT DOING!!)

Supersets are a workout technique that allow you to train multiple muscle groups (or the same muscle group) with more than one exercise without resting in between sets. This allows you to either speed up the pace of your workout, intensify the effects of your training, or both. In this video, I’m

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 g