A Look At Multiple Sets Part II

In part one of A Look At Multiple Sets I discussed some of the ways multiple sets have been applied and a couple ways I like to employ them.  The following is my second and personal variation (which is by no means new or mind-blowing) that I enjoy using.

First, let’s be clear on some things.  When you perform an exercise “things happen”.  What I mean is there are a lot of nuances that go on with the body that people don’t recognize.  For instance, using a curl can certainly blast the biceps and forearms but makes the upper back and abdominal region work very hard when done properly.  A strict cheat curl (and I mean a cheat curl done with intention of cheating the weight but done in the strictest of fashion) can work the upper back like nobody’s business.  Even when repetitions are changed there are other little things that happen.  Take that regular set of 15 squats and now pick a weight that yields 30-40 reps and you will feel muscles you didn’t even know you had (the adductor muscles work extremely hard with high-rep leg training).  Take it one step further and use that same leg press but do single leg leg presses and see how much the glutes and hamstrings are involved.  Ok, back to the multiple sets.

So, for example, let’s say I want to focus on training my chest, shoulders and triceps so in place of doing 3-4 sets of 10 on the bench, I will do the following:

Dips

Machine Chest Press

Pushups

Machine Dips

I took four chest/delt/tricep exercises and covered the same muscle groups BUT many other muscles came into play here.  I’m not looking at this as “angel training”, it’s just a way of overloading a muscle group, moving quickly through a workout AND having added benefit for the entire body.

Next installment we can discuss what would follow in this routine if one was doing a full-body workout.