When using using our free workout plan creator or viewing any of the workout plans on our site you will see that many of the workout plans have exercises paired together with a light blue color and surrounded by two orange lines. What exactly is a "superset" and how do they work?
The above image shows two exercises (Plank and Side Plank) highlighted with a shade of blue and surrounded by two orange lines. The arrow at the top of the image shows the legend that is available to help remind you what exactly the blue and white coloring mean (i.e. "Normal Exercise" = White, "Superset" = Blue).
The above image shows the "Superset?" column when creating a workout plan.
What does "superset" mean?
A superset (also called a "circuit") is a combination of two or more exercises where rather than completing all of the sets and reps for the first exercise and then moving on to the second exercise as is standard - a superset is different in that one first completes all of the reps for set 1 of exercise #1 and then without resting moves immediately to completing all of the reps for set 1 of exercise #2 (and then set 1 of exercise #3 of the superset if there is one, exercise #4, exercise #5, etc.) and then when all of the reps are completed for set 1 of all of the exercises within the superset then one can rest (and then after resting start on set 2 of exercise #1, set 2 of exercise #2, etc.)
How do I use the "Superset?" column when using the workout plan creator?
In the second image shown above you can see that there are checkmark boxes available in a column with the header of "Superset?". To make a sequence of exercises part of a superset when creating a workout plan you must checkmark the checkmark box only if you want that exercise to be part of a superset with the exercise immediately following it (that is why there is not a checkmark box available for the last exercise in a workout).
So in the image shown above, exercise #1 and exercise #2 would be grouped together within a superset and exercise #3 and exercise #4 would be grouped together in a superset.
Note that theoretically you could design a workout plan where there are supersets that have a rest between exercises but technically speaking a true superset should not have any rest periods between set 1 of exercise #1 and set 1 of exercise #2, etc. but rather only have rest periods between set 1 of the last exercise in the superset and set 2 of the first exercise in the superset, etc. so be sure and set the "Rest (minutes)" column to "None" for every exercise that has a checkmark in the "Superset?" column.
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