Opposing muscle supersets, more commonly known as antagonistic supersets are a great way to train for building muscle, increasing strength and losing fat. According to Charles Poliquin, owner of the Poliquin Performance Center, this way of training also increases motor unit recruitment, which boosts your strength and makes your muscles build up resistance to fatigue. You can train your whole body in one workout using an antagonistic superset approach.
Squats and Deadlifts
Two of the most effective leg exercises are squats and deadlifts. Squats focus on the quadriceps on the front of your legs, while deadlifts place more emphasis on your hamstrings at the back. Perform a set of eight squats, immediately followed by five deadlifts, and repeat this five times. As you get stronger, and start using heavier weights, you may find that squatting and deadlifting in the same session causes too much muscular and neural stress. If this is the case, do lighter front squats and heavy deadlifts one session, then heavy back squats and lighter stiff legged deadlifts in the next.
Bench Press and Rows
The bench press is a staple in many bodybuilding routines, as it effectively targets your chest and triceps muscles. It can also lead to injury if performed incorrectly though. Corrective exercise specialist Mike Robertson advises keeping your elbows tucked in, and squeezing your shoulder blades together when benching, to avoid elbow and shoulder injuries. Perform five repetitions on the bench press, do 10 reps on a row variation. According to Matt Kroczaleski, strength coach and elite powerlifter and bodybuilder, the most effective rowing exercises for your back are barbell rows, T-bar rows and dumbbell rows. Change the version you do at each workout.
Chin Ups and Shoulder Presses
While your lats and shoulders aren't exactly opposing muscle groups, but this exercise pairing still works well, as the movements are opposites -- chin ups are a vertical pulling exercise, while shoulder presses are a vertical push. It is also difficult to train shoulders with another opposing muscle group, as they cover the front, side and rear of your upper arm. Do eight chin ups, eight shoulder presses with a barbell or dumbbells and repeat four times. You can substitute chin ups for assisted chins or lat pulldowns if you struggle with them.
Other Muscle Groups
These three supersets will give you a great workout, but you may wish to add in a little extra work for muscle groups you wish to improve. You can do a biceps and triceps superset using curl and pushdown variations, or train your abdominals and lower back muscles together, with a variety of crunches or planks and back extensions. You can even perform an antagonistic superset for your calves. Do a set of machine calf raises, immediately followed by some bodyweight toe raises. Keep the intensity low to moderate on these supersets, as doing too many after your main workout could lead to fatigue and overtraining.
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