A superset is when you do 2 exercises with very little rest between them. Paz et al. (2017) studied supersets. They found that supersets:
- Cut workout time in half
- Allowed lifters to do more volume than normal sets
Note that they studied agonist-antagonist supersets, which is the type we recommend. Volume is an important driver of muscle hypertrophy, so supersets should help you there. But their main benefit is really that you save time as you’re using your rest between sets of exercise 1 to perform exercise 2, and vice versa.
How to superset in Dr. Muscle
It’s easy to do supersets inside Dr. Muscle. Just open two exercises or more during any workout and do their sets back to back. Like this:
- Tap exercise 1 to open it
- Save set
- Scroll down
- Tap exercise 2 to open it
- Save set
- Scroll back up to exercise 1
- Save set
- Scroll down to exercise 2
- Save set
And so on.
When selecting your second exercise, we usually recommend the next one in your workout list, as we’ve paired antagonist muscles together whenever possible.
Supersets Vs. Rest-Pause Sets
With Dr. Muscle, you train using rest-pause sets by default. Rest-pause sets are highly efficient and use short rests, so you may not want to superset them.
However, you definitely would want to use supersets when you’re using normal sets. Normal sets increase strength more, but take longer to do. With supersets, you’re working around that limitation, and cutting your workout time in half.
- Cut Workout Time in Half With Supersets
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OK, I’m a bit confused. I thought the purpose of rest-pause sets was to “gain muscle 59% faster”, but above you state that “Normal sets increase strength more”? Seems contradictory?
Also, didn’t you just eliminate the SS button in the latest UI, so now you can just open multiple exercises? If so, maybe this should be edited?
Hi Bob,
Rest-pause sets let you gain muscle 59% faster, while normal sets increase strength more. Each set style has its own strength. Rest-pause is faster. Normal takes more time to do, but it increases strength more.
The new UI is in beta. We’ll update this page after it becomes public.
I hope this clarifies.
Best,
Carl