Use this Technique to Cut Down on Workout Time by 40%
Take-aways
Non-overlapping supersets appear to result in the same muscle growth while allowing you to cut down on workout duration by 30-50%!
If you have time constraints, consider supersetting different movements that do not target the same muscle groups and aren’t too demanding.
Since many people are limited by time available rather than recovery, I think supersets are an underutilized tool for building muscle.
If you’re experiencing more nausea than usual while using supersets, consider temporarily reducing volume a little, or allowing for a bit more rest. This should subside over time.
We just pre-printed a new study out of our lab at Lehman College, NYC. A fellow researcher, Ryan Burke, spearheaded a study on the effects of supersets vs traditional training on muscle hypertrophy.
This might be the first time you’re hearing about supersets. I’ve made an extensive YouTube video on the topic before, so you can check that out if you’d live to delve into the research. To make a long story short, while there is acute research suggesting supersets - two exercises for different muscle groups - can save time without compromising performance, we only had two studies measuring muscle hypertrophy outcomes, to date.
That’s where this most recent study comes in. We had 43 trained lifters (average training experience of 3+ years) complete 8 weeks of training: in the TRAD group, all sets were performed traditionally, with two minutes of rest, one exercise after the next. In the SS group, all exercises were grouped into pairs (e.g. lat pulldown and smith bench press) and supersetted. The specific exercises performed were the (1) lat pulldown, smith bench press (2) leg extension, seated leg curl, (3) dumbbell curl, cable pushdown.
An example of TRAD vs SS.
As you can see, the SS group was able to cut down on training time substantially. Indeed, they spent 36% less time training (69 vs 44 mins per workout).
Muscle growth was very similar between groups, in the elbow flexors, elbow extensors, quadriceps, and hamstrings. No clear between-group differences were detected.
Likewise, improvements in muscle endurance, countermovement jump height, and maximal strength were similar between groups.
Why?
This is the fourth study on non-overlapping supersets vs traditional training measuring muscle hypertrophy. All four have found similar hypertrophy when using supersets vs using traditional rest intervals (1, 2, 3, 4).
Similarly, the acute research generally suggests that you can superset movements that do not target the same muscle groups with little to no impairment of performance.
Importantly, this current study took place in trained lifters, making it most applicable to your training. All-in-all, the research is quite compelling that non-overlapping supersets are a great way to cut down on workout time or get more volume into your workout within your schedule’s time constraints.
Notably, the superset group did experience more nausea (around twice as many participants) than the traditional group. Similarly, the superset workout was initially viewed as slightly more effortful than the traditional workout (8.1 vs 7.2/10). However, when averaged across the study, session difficulty was rated similarly (8.1 vs 7.8), suggesting you can get used to supersets.
