This question came up in my Q&A on Instagram a few weeks ago and there are two reasons I wanted to highlight the answer.

Exercising pairings are common and a smart way to organise your workout. But, I constantly see poorly paired exercises being performed in the gym. Here are some examples:

• Exercises that tax the grip in a pairing, like rows in RDLs. It’s not wrong, it’s just going to fry your forearms before the big muscles you want to target.
• Exercises that hit the lower back hard. Military press into almost any other compound lift like bent over rows, squats or deadlifts. That’s a surefire way to cause a back issue. 

Massive compounds paired together, back squat into RDL or deadlift into the bench press. You will not be able to reach your maxes pairing these exercises. 

The other point was to say the term “superset” is specifically opposite movement pattern (agonist/antagonist) pairings. These have been found to boost the outcome of the subsequent lift, hence the name SUPERSET. Chucking any two exercises together isn’t a superset. 

A word on Compound sets and Giant Sets. Compound sets pair the same movement pattern together, which is fine. But it’s not how you would program all your training because you will struggle to get stronger this way. Giant sets are a pairing of 3 or more exercises on the same muscle group together. Once again, this is fun for a few weeks, but it’s not a sustainable way to train.

If you have a question for me, please feel free to join in my weekly Q&As which I host on my Instagram channel. 

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