When it comes to lifting weights, people are always looking for a new way to hit their muscles. While some of the techniques you’ll see on TikTok are laughable at best, there are some tried and true methods of getting your muscles to grow that you might not see in every gym routine.
Among these, supersets, tri-sets, giant sets, and compound sets stand out for their effectiveness and, if I’m being honest, brutal difficulty (in the best way).
Below, let's look at each of these methods to understand how they can benefit your workout routine and how to work them in.
Tri-Sets
What Are Tri-Sets?
A tri-set involves performing three different exercises back-to-back-to-back with no rest between each exercise. These exercises usually target the same muscle group or related muscle groups, aiming to completely exhaust the muscle.
How to Perform Tri-Sets
- Exercise Selection: Choose three exercises that target the same muscle group. For example, one of my favorite tri-sets for upper chest is: Rotating DB Incline Press, Rotating DB Fly, and Incline Svend Press. Give it a try, and in no time, you’ll be able to balance a glass on your upper chest.
- Execution: Perform the first exercise for the desired number of repetitions, then immediately move to the second exercise, followed by the third. Preparation is key! Make sure you have everything you need set up before starting so you can move seamlessly from exercise to exercise.
- Rest: After completing all three exercises, rest for a minute or two before starting the next tri-set. You’re going to need it.
Benefits of Tri-Sets
- Muscle Fatigue: By hitting the muscle from different angles and with various exercises, you can achieve greater muscle fatigue and growth. I love hitting triceps with a tri-set, with each exercise focusing on a different muscle head.
- Time Efficiency: Tri-sets allow you to pack more volume into a shorter period, making them ideal for those with limited workout time. Lunch break crusaders, I’m looking at you.
- Intensity: They’re a great way to step up your workout, promoting greater calorie burn and cardiovascular benefits. If you’re not breathing heavy at the end of your set, you’re not working hard enough.
Giant Sets
What Are Giant Sets?
Giant sets take the concept of tri-sets a step further by adding at least one more exercise to bring it up to four or more exercises performed consecutively. These can be used to target the same muscle group or multiple muscle groups for a more comprehensive workout.
How to Perform Giant Sets
- Exercise Selection: Pick four or more exercises that either target the same muscle group or different muscle groups for a full-body workout. I like working these in on back days. Hitting different angles, like wide-grip pulldown, high row, close-grip pulldown, and low row, is a great way to have your entire back feeling pumped up.
- Execution: Perform each exercise one after the other without resting between exercises. These might be a little more difficult to pull off, especially if you’re in a commercial gym at the height of their busy time.
- Rest: After completing all exercises in the giant set, take a longer rest period (about 2-3 minutes) before repeating. That time is going to fly by, so enjoy it while you can.
Benefits of Giant Sets
- Comprehensive Muscle Engagement: Giant sets can thoroughly work a single muscle group or multiple muscle groups, providing a more exhaustive workout. Although I love hitting the same body part with this, it’s also a great way to hit opposing muscle groups (which was one of Arnold’s favorite ways to train).
- Increased Caloric Burn: The high intensity and minimal (they’re going to feel like 30 seconds by the last set) rest periods significantly boost your heart rate and calorie burn.
- Variety and Challenge: Giant sets are a great way to switch up your workout. Doing at least four exercises in less time than it takes most people to do a set with rest time means you are going to be really pushing yourself to the limit. Giant set starting to feel a little too easy? Switch up the order you’re doing the exercises. Just that little change will breathe new life into your preferred exercises.
Compound Sets
What Are Compound Sets?
Compound sets are like the brother to supersets. The main difference being, compound sets are back-to-back exercises that target the same muscle, rather than opposing muscle groups (like supersets).
How to Perform Compound Sets
- Exercise Selection: Choose two exercises that work the same muscle group. For example, for biceps, you might go with barbell curls and hammer curls.
- Execution: This one is pretty simple to grasp. Do your first exercise, then do the second one without resting between.
- Rest: After both exercises, rest for about a minute before repeating the set.
Benefits of Compound Sets
- Focused Muscle Fatigue: By concentrating on one muscle group, compound sets can help you train to absolute failure on the target muscle, promoting growth and strength.
- Efficiency: Compound sets let you get double the work in on a muscle group, usually without having to bounce around the gym. Cable towers are my go-to for compound sets, especially for smaller muscle groups.
- Muscle Pump: The continuous stress on the muscle group results in a significant muscle pump, which not only makes you look great, but the increased blood flow to your muscles can help bring in more nutrients to your muscles, fueling growth.
Related: How to Use Drop Sets
Tips For Introducing These To Your Routine
To integrate tri-sets, giant sets, and compound sets into your workout routine, take a look at our suggestions on how to properly put these in your programming:
1. Start Slow:
If you're new to these techniques, start with compound sets and gradually incorporate tri-sets and giant sets. This also means you’re going to have to adjust your weights. You don’t want to blow all of your stamina on your first exercise and not have anything left in the tank for your next movements. We like to be around an RPE of 7 when doing multiple sets. You can read all about RPE here if you’re not sure what I’m talking about.
2. Balance Your Workouts:
Unless you’re an extremely advanced lifter, don’t make every exercise a special set of some kind. Having a workout full of endless sets with minimum recovery is going to most likely end up with you overtraining. If you’re just starting out, limit yourself to one special set per workout until you’ve reached a moderate experience level or higher.
3. Listen to Your Body:
Pay attention to how your body responds to these sets. Adjust the volume, intensity, and rest periods based on your fitness level and goals. Some days you might really be feeling it, and can squeeze out a few more reps. Other days, you may need to drop the weight just to get through the workout. Word to the wise, if you’re joints are hurting, take a break from the extended sets, and make sure you’re eating and drinking enough to fuel your recovery.
Conclusion
Tri-sets, giant sets, and compound sets are powerful weapons in the arsenal of strength training. They maximize muscle fatigue to increase workout efficiency and intensity. By understanding and incorporating these methods into your routine, you can take your training to the next level. Just remember to add them to your regimen in moderation, otherwise, you could overtrain easily and take yourself out of the gym for a while. Lift responsibly!
Related: How to use Cluster Sets
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