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Supersets are a great way to force new growth in your chest
Bodybuilding is not a strength sport first. It’s a muscle building sport.
Supersets help to create new muscle growth by working on the volume training principle.
By combining 2 exercises together that hit the chest from different angles you allow failure from 2 stimuli which are focussed on the same muscle group. In this article I’ll share 3 of my best chest supersets that I’ve used in the past in my own training and also with clients to great results.
Help inject some new interest in your chest workouts
Stop doing the same exercises for chest that you’ve always done. I see a lot of trainers doing the same 3-4 exercises every week for their chest workout and never make any significant progress.
One of my first actions when coaching new clients is to shake up their training with a range of different exercises and workouts while focussing on the main goal of building more muscle.
Supersets are part of the puzzle but not the key piece
Let’s be clear here, this article is not saying to ditch your big compounds and do supersets for all workouts.
There’s a ton of guru trainers making up their own ‘best’ weird combination workouts with stupid exercises that do NOTHING for your progress apart from a novelty stimulus.
That’s not what I want you to do.
I want you to think about how to incorporate these exercises into your workouts to compliment your big lifts.
A varied chest workout for bodybuilding uses a combination of factors
- Heavy exercises to failure
- Volume exercises to failure
- Low reps 5-7
- High reps 10-20
- Compound exercises
- Isolation exercises
3 of my best chest supersets
These exercises use
- Isolation
- Compound
- Volume
You’ll find direct video links to these exercises below
Cable Crossover and Cable Chest Press
This superset is one of my favourites for warming up but also as an end to a workout. It allows a good amount of weight to be used on the press movement and a good stretch on the pec from the crossover.
This should not be used as a big weight lift.
Decline Cable Crossover
The cables provide a good constant tension through the crossover movement but many people do this exercise wrong and over stretch the chest leading to excess pressure on the shoulders which can cause injury.
Another common error is to step forward too much on the crossover. People do this to try and put more tension on the chest but it actually loads the shoulder joints more.
One step forward is ample to create a angular tension on the chest and will allow you greater control over the weight.
Cable Chest Press
This exercise is great for putting tension through the chest for a pressing movement without the shoulder pain that can come from bench pressing.
Bench pressing can cause an impingement pain through the shoulder sometimes as the back of the shoulders are pushed back into the bench while the shoulders and chest are supporting the weight.
The cable chest press removes the bench so the shoulder has free movement through the exercise. You won’t be able to press as much as a dumbell or bar but it will be pretty close.
Swiss Ball Flye and Press
The swiss ball is an often misused piece of kit in the gym with people doing barbell squats and all sorts of weirdness on it.
You may be thinking that this is also one of those situations but I can assure you that it is not.
I first saw the late Charles Polequin talk about this variation when I was still a very young bodybuilder. I applied it to my own training and immediately saw the improvement.
These movements allows a much wider range of motion as the swiss ball supports the shoulders where a bench wouldn’t.
This means you can get a greater stretch on the chest without compromising the shoulder
This should not be used as a maximal weight lift.
Swiss Ball Chest Flye
The swiss ball puts you in a good position to arch up your chest to the front of the movement. At the same time the ball supports the shoulder so that you can get a wide stretch on the pec while reducing the risk of a shoulder or tendon pull.
Swiss Ball Chest Press
The key benefit of this press variation is that it allows a really wide pressing movement which I’ve found to be beneficial for hitting the outer edges of the chest near the shoulder.
Incline Barbell Bench Press and Dips
This combination of exercises hits from 2 opposite angles. It’s one of my most used big compound combinations. The reason this is a such a good superset is that it allows you to hit a maximal lift for 5-7 reps on the bench then move onto the dips which you can hit 10-15 reps on. Both are great compound exercises.
This can absolutely be used as a near maximal weight lift for 5-7 reps
Incline Barbell Bench Press
The swiss ball puts you in a good position to arch up your chest to the front of the movement. At the same time the ball supports the shoulder so that you can get a wide stretch on the pec while reducing the risk of a shoulder or tendon pull.
Dips
The key benefit of this press variation is that it allows a really wide pressing movement which I’ve found to be beneficial for hitting the outer edges of the chest near the shoulder.
Doing supersets the right way
Now that you’re all geared up to try out the supersets you need to pay attention to some Do’s and Don’ts.
Following these best practice rules will ensure you get the most out of adding these supersets into your chest workouts and you can start to see new growth quickly.
Superset Do's
- Always use proper form and don’t compromise for more reps
- Ideally you want to hit 10 reps on each exercise but 7 is good if you’re using a heavy compound like bench press
- Always look to hit failure on the last 2 sets
Superset Dont's
- Never overstretch your shoulder or chest, especially on cables
- Leave your ego at the door, supersets are great for volume work which means less weight than normal
- That being said, don’t use really easy weights just to hit the reps
In this video you’ll learn more about incorporating these exercises correctly into your workouts.
Check out my YouTube channel for more videos.
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