Welcome and Hello!
This weeks topic is supersets for cardio!
Supersets are an amazing and challenging game-changer to add into your fitness routine. What exactly is a superset? It is doing two exercises back to back with little to no rest in between. They have the ability to maximize your muscle engagement and cut down on your gym time.
For this week though, I am going to go over just how amazing supersets can be for cardio! This way you can include supersets as a way to get in a 30 min - 1 hour workout that includes strength training and cardio together. Supersets will not only help your muscles to tone, but they will elevate your heart rate, which in turn burns more calories. By keeping your heart rate elevated, it turns your strength training session into cardio as well.
Also, I am going to go over the cardio benefits of combining legs and shoulders together within your superset. Now this can be legs and shoulders or different muscle groups such as glutes and abs, legs and arms, or any upper body muscle combined with lower body. Just be sure that whatever muscle groups you choose, you give your muscles 24 hours or rest in between repeating that same muscle group. Recovery time is equally as important.
The cardio benefits of supersets
Supersets are done with little to no rest in-between each set. The key to keeping your supersets in a cardio state is the limitation on the rest portion. I would recommend no more than 1 min between switching exercises. For example, if you are doing a squat with a barbell and super-setting with a barbell shoulder press, you would want to keep that rest time in between those exercises under one minute to keep your heart rate high. Keeping that heart rate elevated is the key to keeping a cardio challenge. If you are not keeping your heart rate high, you are still getting a good strength training session in, just not the cardio portion.
Continuous movement, combined with engaging multiple muscle groups will improve not only cardio endurance but a better calorie burn as well. Another example of engaging multiple muscle groups would be a multi-joint exercise. For example, a lunge squat to shoulder press super-setting with a squat to upright row. The lunge squat will fire off your quads primarily, the squats will fire off your glutes primarily. The shoulder press will fire off your anterior deltoids primarily, while the upright row will fire off the trapezius primarily. Therefore, you are still getting legs and shoulders in each exercise, just targeting slightly different primary muscles.
Fitness Motivation from the bible!
Hebrews 12 : 12-13
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet. So that what is weak may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
God's word encourages us to be not only mentally but physically strong. So that we can be a true example of strength. Strength is a balance, it is mental and physical. This verse to me speaks of how my body must be strong. Many of us feel weak and unhappy. But, by building your muscles up you can help your body to be healthy. Being healthy is important to feeling good and healing your body. You need muscle tone to support and heal.
This weeks superset (multi-joint) exercises
Lunge squat to shoulder press
Squat to hammer frontal raise
Alternating back lunges to upright rows
Wide squats to shrugs
Wall crunches to shoulder press
Back leg extension to ½ sunshines
Squat step outs to foreword pushes
For these 7, the first is able to be super-setted by itself, as you need to switch legs every 10-15 reps. The next 6 exercises go in groups of 2. Each exercise on this list is done for 3 rounds and from 10- 15 reps each.
Want to give these a try?
If you have any fitness or nutrition questions feel free to reach out. I would love to help you along with your fitness journey. Thanks for your time and I hope you have an awesome week!
Kiara Paz
Condition By Kia
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