When you hear superset, you normally think Bench Press followed by Cable Fly’s. The technique is normally used to increase the muscle’s time under tension, and subsequent microtrauma which will be a more potent stimulant for hypertrophy. Muscle size is rarely a training goal of a fighter who has a weight-restriction, but don’t rule out the pairing of exercises just yet…
There are two schools of thought when it comes to strength training improving sporting performance. Both have the same ultimate goal: to have the greatest transfer of training effect. Some argue that the exercise must closely resemble the movement encountered in the athletes sport. Others suggest that by practicing the sport concurrently with strength training, the body will learn to use the newly developed strength in the sporting movements.
We are firm believers of the latter (due to differences in the angle of resistance, differences in the phases of the movement, and the fact that there are so many different movements in BJJ/MMA), The implications are that performing uppercuts with a 15kg dumbbell may not necessarily make you a knockout machine.
What does this have to do with supersets? Complex sets were popularized by strength coaches in the eastern bloc, and involve pairing a Strength exercise with a Power exercise. The theory behind it is that because power exercises typically use low external loads, its hard to activate all of the motor units which make up a muscle - the strength exercise will activate the high threshold motor units, making them more likely to fire in the power exercise (1).
Time to kill two birds with one stone… Sporting movements typically have high velocities. A punch, for example, is performed explosively. It would make sense with the information we know, that using a punch after something like a bench press would be a specific way to improve punching power (because we have pre-activated the muscle prior to the power exercise – punching). Not only that, studies have shown that by performing sporting movements immediately after a strengthening exercise, the rate at which it is integrated into sport is quicker (2). Ben Johnson was known for performing heavy squats immediately before sprinting (word on the street was he was squatting a heavy set of three before he ran 100m in 9.79secs)
Check out the video below of a few examples of some sport-specific supersets:
REFERENCES
1. Siff, M.C. (2003). Supertraining (6th ed.). Denver, CO: Supertraining Institute.
2. Cronin, J., Marchall, R.N., McNair, P.J (2001). Velocity Specificity, combination training and sport specific tasks. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 4, 168-171
