Workout Wednesday 7/7/16: Incorporate Opposing Muscle Group Supersets Into Your Program

In many of my personal workouts and training programs as well as those I design for my clients one method I often use is using supersets for opposing muscle groups.

I wanted to take this time to give Jim Stoppani a shout out as he has a well written section on the benefits of this in his book Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength.

Here are five of those benefits listed in his book:

1. Greater strength and power.  I won't cite all the studies to support this but it seems like doing supersets can activate the muscles better.
2. Greater fat burn in the workout.  Stoppani lists references for this as well but doing two exercises for opposing muscle groups will increase the caloric burn during the workout.
3. You will hit muscles you have probably neglected.  The main muscle group that people miss is back and this technique allows you to train that more as you have to match the volume of the chest.
4. Time management.  This is a no brainer as you will be doing work while you are resting.
5. Change.  Changes are you have not done this before.

Regarding the fifth point, if you have not tried opposing muscle group supersets in the past give them a try in the future as they can be a really nice change in your program.