Yesterday I went over an upper-body workout in a bare-bones home gym using Doug “Mr. Universe” Brignole’s superset method.
Keep in mind that Doug usually performs four supersets, or rounds, of two exercises back to back, with reps falling like this: 30, 20, 15, 10.
And he adds weight on each set.
So what would be a few caveats with this method in a limited home-gym? Since I went over upper body yesterday, let’s focus on lower body…
Again, assuming you’ve at least got dumbbells, a bench, and a chinning bar, as I had when I wrote OMYM, it shouldn’t be difficult to come up with an effective workout…
Here are a few things to consider:
1) Because you’re supersetting, you don’t want to do two exercises back-to-back for massive muscle groups—like quads and glutes. Supersetting a dumbbell squat and a semi-stiff-legged deadlift would have you breathing like a locomotive and compromise your sets.
2) If you do use a multi-joint move, you may want to superset it with a one-limbed exercise—for example, semi-stiff-legged deadlifts and one-leg calf raises. That will give you more rest between sets of the big exercise as you do calf raises for each leg.
3) You won’t be able to add weight to some exercises—like floor rolls for hamstrings. Just go to failure or close on each set.
4) You don’t have to do four supersets, as you’ll see…
Here’s a recent lower-body day I did with the superset method and without involving cables…
Sissy squats and floor rolls, 4 rounds. You can hold a plate or light dumbbell on your chest to increase weight on the last sets of sissies. I did not. My reps still fell on each set using bodyweight: 23-18-14-10. (For proper form on hamstring floor rolls, see the new ebook).
Dumbbell squats and one-leg donkey calf raises, 2 rounds. No weight increases on either, as it’s impossible—I only have 50–pound dumbbells for squats, and my dogs refuse to stay on my back for one-legged donkeys.
Semi-stiff-legged deadlifts and one-leg standing calf raises, 2 rounds. Again, no weight increases for the same reasons as above.
Step-back lunges, 2 sets. I did these as a stand-alone move because they are demanding, working primarily glutes but also involving the quads. I trained all reps for one leg, then did the other, resting 30 seconds before starting another round. No weight increases and my reps stayed in the low double digits—12, 10.
Incline crunches and erector curls, 4 rounds. I started with a high incline for the first two supersets, then I lowered it a notch for the second two. Lowering the incline is similar to a weight increase on both exercises, as gravity increases the difficulty.
There are start/finish photos and explanations of all of the above exercises in Old Man Young Muscle.
Again, this was my first attempt at a lower-body day with Doug’s superset method, so I’m sure I’ll tweak it. You can easily create your own superset workouts.
This one took me 40 minutes, which is right on par with my normal lower-body Base Workouts. I will rotate in this superset routine when I feel the need.
It’s a great change-to-gain variation for new muscle-mass creation.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief
www.X-Rep.com
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