Cut Workout Time in Half With Supersets
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
Open an exercise. Do your first set. Tap Superset. Select your second exercise (we usually recommend selecting the next one in your workout list, as we’ve paired antagonist muscles together whenever possible).
Then, when you’re done with the first set of your second exercise, tap superset again, and come back to the first. It looks like this:
- Exercise 1 – set 1 >
- Superset >
- Exercise 2 – set 1 >
- Superset >
- Exercise 1 – set 2 >
- Superset
- Exercise 2 – set 2 >
And so on.
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 cutting down on that limitation, and cutting your workout time in half.