Using Heavy Weight Supersets to Improve Strength

Experience Rapid Strength Improvements with Heavy Weight Supersets

Heavy weight supersets are an incredibly effective way to build strength, plus there are all sorts of additional athletic and physique benefits that I’ll outline in this article.

It’s a slightly different article today – I’m sharing much more video content with you, so you can see what I mean, rather than just read or look at pictures.

Anyway, on with the topic – heavy weight supersets and how to use them in your training programme….

All fitness is built on a foundation of strength. If you want to be bigger, you need to be strong enough to cope with a high training volume. If you want better endurance, you have to be strong enough to cope with the training demands. If you want to be faster, you need strength to put more force into the floor to propel you forward. If you want to be more powerful and explosive, you need strength to move at speed.

Noticing a pattern here? Improving your strength improves all of your abilities.

Since I’ve been using heavy weight supersets in my training I’ve…

• Seen increases in strength across ALL of my lifts.
• Added more muscle than ever before
• Reduced my training time

My most recent heavy weight supersets workout went like this…

• 500 metre row to warm up, followed by specific mobility exercises.
• 3 Cleans, on the minute, every minute for 10 minutes.
• Front Squats/Snatch Grip Deadlift (4 sets, 3 reps per exercise)
• Push Press/Pull Up (4 sets, 3 reps per exercise)

Using heavy weight supersets is a fantastic training protocol. Too many people under-use genuine heavy weight training in the gym, which holds them back in terms of their fitness, physique and athleticism.

Why should I strength train?

With typical weight training, there’ll be some incremental strength increases over time which is a natural by-product of working against resistance. After a while though, this plateaus off.

Unless you focus on your strength training, your strength numbers won’t improve much at all after a year or so of consistent training.

Here’s a couple of personal examples of how heavy weight supersets have transformed my own athletic ability….

Video 1 – here I am performing 100kg squats in 2013. Not shabby, but certainly not strong. At the time, my one rep max was around 120kg. My body weight was around 85kg.

After training with heavy weight supersets and heavy complexes…

I’ve seen my performance improve dramatically. This is 150kg at 89kg bodyweight…

Here’s another example of improvement through strength training…

Thrusters pre-strength training…

…and thrusters after a couple of months focussing on strength training and heavy weight supersets…

Notice in every video, how much easier the movement is now I’m stronger? The cross-over benefit of strength training can’t really be quantified easily, but it’s massive. It’s not only about how much you can lift, it’s how you lift it.

There’s no point in being able to lift a heavy weight if your form is terrible and you risk injury every time you do it. That’s not impressive. It’s dangerous.

A strong lifter is a safe lifter.

Why should I use heavy weight supersets in my training?

Heavy weight supersets use a lot of muscle as they allow you to combine multiple movement patterns in a single workout. This means you can improve your strength across a number of different muscle groups and experience a generalised, rather than localised fatigue. The benefit of this is that the recovery time is reduced, meaning you’ll be ready to train again sooner.

Another benefit to using a heavy weight superset is that you physically can’t use the same body part for two exercises in a row because done properly, you’ll exhaust the muscle group after the first exercise. This means you’re forced to train multiple body parts in the session, which is important for developing more balanced strength and physique.

With heavy weight supersets in your training, you have to use compound exercises, which are better for muscle building anyway. You just won’t get the benefit from using this on isolation exercises and in truth, unless your training is horrifically imbalanced, you won’t be able to lift more on isolation exercises anyway!

Heavy weight supersets are also a way not overusing same movement patterns (you can’t do two squatting patterns in a row, for example, therefore reducing injury risk through the training.

The heavy weight supersets approach should be high intensity and short duration. This isn’t an easy way to train if done correctly, so be prepared to take a day or two off the gym afterwards (seriously – I was woken at 3 in the morning thanks to my DOMS after doing this because I stupidly did more than I should).

Fundamental to this approach is that you understand you are doing this to improve your strength – the other benefits I’ve mentioned in the post are bonuses.

Heavy Weight Superset Workout Example

The workout I’ve given you in this article is an edited version of the one I did.

I had plenty of energy and felt like a good workout. I’d made my mind up I was going to do more than usual and had it planned….

After I did my heavy weight superset workout, I then (stupidly, I now know) went on to do some Snatch practice (around 20 medium-heavy reps), some Clean and Jerk practice (around 10 heavy reps), some incline bench press (3 x 8), some alternating hammer curls (3 x 20 reps) and some rotational core work (3 x 10 reps).

Not a good idea.

Why?

There are different types of fatigue and the type of fatigue you’ll feel when strength training isn’t immediate – you’ll only feel out of breath for a short while. Your muscles may feel fatigued, but they partially recover relatively quickly, meaning you think you can do more than you should.

In the early days of strength training when you don’t recruit muscle particularly well, you may not experience massive fatigue, but as you become better at strength training, it’s an issue!

Usually the fatigue hits you a day or two later, where you feel tired and achey. This may or may not be accompanied by DOMS, but either way you’ll probably feel tired and not up to much. That’s why it’s wise to address caution and use a minimal effective dose if you want to train effectively multiple times in the week.

With the warning issued, here’s the heavy weight superset workout I did, with short videos of the main bulk included (each video is less than 1 minute long)…

The Heavy Weight Superset Workout

Warm Up – 500m row and mobility exercises.

(Some great warm up tips can be found here).

When it comes to weight selection, remember we are looking for strength improvement, so go heavy. Pick a weight you can lift well for 3-4 good reps before your form fails. If you can only manage 1-2 good reps, drop the weight. If you can manage 5-6 good reps, up the weight.

Exercise 1 – 3 clean and presses, on the minute, every minute for 10 minutes…

Heavy weight superset 1 – Front Squat and Snatch Grip Deadlift (5 sets, 3 reps per exercise)

Heavy Weight Superset 2 – Push Press and Weighted Chin Up (5 sets, 3 reps per exercise)

After these, cool down, stretch and go home. That’s it – you want quality here, not quantity. Give yourself time to recover ahead of your next session.

I keep a (rough – I don’t always keep it as up to date as I should!) training diary on the site. Check out some of my other workouts and add these into your programming…

• Sample training week
• Sample workout 1
• Sample workout 2

As ever, if you are going to strength train you could do with the correct equipment. Here’s my basic kit that I use…

Finally, as ever I’m giving away a FREE eBook ‘101 Health and Fitness Tips’ to everyone who subscribes to my VIP email list. By joining the list you’ll have access to exclusive content, discounts, offers and products from both me and selected partners. Click here to download!