I had a question passed along to me that I didn't have a good answer for - any suggestions as to why and when to do supersets?

The one way I've used them has been to pump a warmed-up muscle full of blood following excentric (flexion while stretched) movement, such as sissy-squats followed by leg-extensions.

Here's what Dan had to say, it's what I thought, but needed to make sure. It makes it a bit like cardio, getting your heart pumping. So it makes it HIT.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...light=supersets

They add intensity to the program.

They increase time under tension if you are supersetting the same muscle group ... and since the rest periods will be shorter, the heart rate is elevated.

Thanks mle and Trainerdan!

Do supersets have any effect on your muscle development, positive or negative, or is it simply for added cardio effect while lifting?

I do not do supersets yet much, but I will do supersets on my lats between 2 different machines a couple of times, that really gets me breathing hard.

In my opinion it is a variety issue. Your body can get used to any one thing you do too long. This is why adding some variety to workouts is important. Doing different things for periods of time may help stimulate muscle growth. Some ideas:

Vary rest periods between sets
Vary # of sets or reps
Do different excercises for the same body part
Do supersets
Do long negatives
Vary time of raising and lowering the weight
Periodization of training (a couple weeks this... a couple weeks that) You can google search this for more info. if your interested.
I even cycle my calorie levels
If anyone can think of other things... please share!

Supersetting gets my heart pumping HARD and fast, much more than any of the cardio I do. In fact I don't really know why I bother that much with cardio when lifting with supersetting or short rest periods. Between my work (am digging trenches with pickaxe type tool around and under houses for termite control, really gets my heart pumping!) and my lifting, I get plenty cardio. I superset often and I just do it mostly to keep my workout from taking too long (with antagonistic muscle groups) and because I just really like to do it for arms!

Some other things that add to variety might be:
*Vary the order of excercises
*Vary the number of times per week you excercise a given body part. Not sure about this one but it sounded good.

I agree with you on both counts. I sometimes do my workouts backward, or hit different parts of the same muscle group over several workouts.

Another one is to occasionally do a whole-body routine for a week or two, or even a day or two.

What kind of bakround must you have? How do you lead up?

Not sure what you mean, NewAudrey. Wanna elaborate a bit?

Well i'm just starting out and i guess i don't even know what they are?

Oh, okay. Click on the link mle gave on the second post of this thread. There's an explanation in there.

I wouldn't worry about starting out with supersets - if you're new to lifting, go to the General Exercise forum and click on the sticky "Advise for the beginner". I've got my first lifting routine posted on the first page on my journal as well, if you'd care to look there.

Glad you've found us. You'll find really good advice on this board - lots of very helpful, knowledgeable people.

Ok thanks so much!
xoxoxo
Audrey

n/p. Have fun - lifting's great!