When it comes to a top level favorite of workouts, working with Supersets ranks right up there. For those who've been living under a rock, Supersets are taking two exercises and doing them back to back for a certain number of reps or sets. You mostly see this in gyms where someone would do a set of let's say Bench Press & Curls back to back for one set without stopping, resting and repeating. In that instance, some will do lighter weight or mix it up doing heavy with one exercise and lighter with the next or do heavy with both. It's a style where it gives off more of the pump along with certain cardiovascular effects.
The style I like to do is take two exercises and do them back to back without stopping for a certain period of time. I set my watch to some arbitrary number like 10 min, 15, 20 or an hour. Keep at a good pace where I'm not moving like Speedy Gonzales on a Coke binge but I'm not moving so damn slow the Mars Rover is outpacing me. I use this purely for strength and conditioning purposes mainly in the realm of carrying an object and doing Step Ups. I've done supersets of Push-ups & Squats in the past or do Bear Crawls one way and do Duck Walks going back as part of a sequence. The carrying and step ups provides the idea of using real world application.
With these workouts, the idea is to rest extremally little or none whatsoever. This teaches your body and mind to keep going even when it gets tougher. Carrying something like a 50 lb Sandbell a couple times and then straight to step ups may not sound tough but over a period of time without stopping, it becomes something more than you would expect. One of the crazy workouts of this magnitude would be to Carry a Sandbell for ten yards on one shoulder, drop and carry 10 yards with the other shoulder, 20-30 step ups (10-15 per leg) and repeat that for an hour straight. That sounds more like a Tri-Set but to me, carrying something one shoulder at a time is one set. I did this workout for 46 supersets without a break (920 Step Ups and Carrying 4600 lb for a total of 920 Yards).
You can do whatever exercises you want to do, the objective is to keep going. If you're a bodyweight maniac, set a timer for 15 minutes and do 25 Squats and 10 Push-ups without stopping. Micro Workouts are great for this kind of thing. You can also do Isometric type training where let's say you do a 30 second Horse Stance and then go into a 30 second Fist Plank and keep repeating that for as long as you can. If you absolutely need a break, take it between supersets until you're ready for the next set but for the most part, if you need a break than you're exhausting yourself too soon. Utilize a pace where it's not so easy but it's not going slow you down either and you can go without having to stop.
Supersets are awesome for building high levels of conditioning and fat burning effects. If you really want to take it to the next level and shed fat faster than butter in a pan, do Sprints and Circuits as a hybrid superset where you sprint for let's say 10 seconds, walk back and do a series of Push-Ups, Squats, Jumps, Burpees or whatever a circuit may be and than rest for as long as needed. Repeat for a few rounds and that's it. This is more of a HIIT type of workout where even 3x a week might be pushing it so don't do workouts anymore than that, 1-2x a week is ideal. I did something similar to this for 6 weeks and dropped a considerable amount of bodyfat, lowered my blood pressure by a huge margin and was leaner despite only losing a few pounds. That's going hardcore and not a beginner type level of training.
Another great workout would be doing Farmer's Carries and Step Ups or Squats. Example would be to carry a kettlebell in one hand for x amount of yards, switch hands and carry the same amount of yards and then do step ups or squats. Repeat this for as long as you wish or can handle. Some would take two exercises and do them with deck of cards to really up the ante like Hindu Push-Ups & Hindu Squats, work your legs hard with just Step Ups & Hindu Squats or whatever you choose to do.
This type of training is very effective and goes beyond just working muscles, you're working your cardiovascular system, you're testing the mental aspects and training muscle groups that are often ignored. Make it work for you and be sure to recover efficiently. If you're into weight training, do supersets that work opposing muscles like a Chest & Back Exercise or Tris and Bi's, Thighs & Hamstrings or Mix and Match. It's not complicated, it's very simple and as long as you stick to the basics, you're golden.
Train hard, recover just as hard and keep up your conditioning so you can last when it counts. Keep being amazingly awesome.
