00:04hey everybody hope you had a fantastic
00:07weekend um it's Monday morning doing
00:11some Monday morning stuff making this
00:13YouTube for you guys um I just posted up
00:16on Instagram about um there's a study
00:20going around about antagonist super sets
00:23uh basically producing the same amount
00:25of growth that you'd see from uh
00:28straight sets so in other words
00:29antagonist super set you have one muscle
00:31group uh biceps we we'll use I think
00:34they probably is an arm study biceps and
00:37then I think there was a 20 second rest
00:39and you go and you do your triceps work
00:41and then they compared that to just
00:42doing the biceps work triceps work first
00:45I haven't seen the study I'm just kind
00:46of going off what I have read about the
00:49methodology so it could be totally
00:50different if it does I'll um I'll come
00:53back and make another video um
00:54clarifying all that so haven't seen the
00:56study I'm actually very anxious to see
00:58the study to kind of get down to the
01:00granularity of what actually happened if
01:02you wonder my guess my guess is that it
01:07nonstatistical significance difference
01:09but I'll I'm going to say there's going
01:11to be a little bit of a an advantage for
01:14the group that did biceps and triceps
01:16separately and not suers seted them but
01:18we're going to talk about two things
01:24intensifiers okay so I have actually
01:27stated for quite some time the only
01:29super set I think is probably a valid
01:31one uh for getting good results is
01:33probably an antagonist type super set
01:36where you're doing chest and back or
01:37you're doing biceps and triceps or you
01:40know quads and hamstrings or something
01:42um quads and hamstrings you don't want I
01:44don't think you're going to want to
01:45superet like squats and um like you know
01:49stiff leg at De lifts or like two big
01:51exercises back toback where there's
01:52going to be a cardi respiratory demand
01:54going from the first to the second
01:55because that's going to actually um
01:59create create that one of those
02:01interference mechanisms with uh uh motor
02:04unit recruitment that I talk about so if
02:06there's a cardor resory demand in place
02:08it it adds to the perception of effort
02:11uh so it takes up some of that coroller
02:12discharge and that means that we're
02:14going to have a reduction in mod
02:15recruitment due to that increased
02:17perception of effort so um if it was
02:20something like quads hamstrings the leg
02:22extension you know for five or six or
02:24seven reps and then in you know 20
02:26second break and then into a leg curl
02:28probably perfectly okay
02:31um if we're talking biceps and triceps
02:32again we're doing some type of biceps
02:35exercise where there's no cardio
02:36respiratory demand into a triceps
02:39exercise um with like a 20se second
02:41break in there probably a pretty decent
02:43option to save yourself some time um you
02:45could even do like do your big stuff
02:47first so say like because I'm running
02:49the upper lower session um you could do
02:51something like your chest
02:53pressed first and then like your row
02:55your pull down or whatever you're doing
02:57and then do alternating STS between you
02:59say if you're doing you know biceps and
03:00triceps after that you can do that that
03:02way too save yourself some time on the
03:04back end of the workout so um the reason
03:08why um super setting uh antagonist
03:11muscle groups or different muscle groups
03:13um can have some productivity value is
03:16because if you're super setting a bicep
03:19and tricep exercise like that then
03:22you're when you're talking about central
03:23nervous system fatigue you're either
03:24talking about the the superas spinal
03:27level which is in the brain uh and then
03:30that creates interference mechanisms
03:32like afrine feedback from metabol
03:33accumulation um any type of inflammation
03:37that is detected by the brain uh in the
03:39bloodstream you even have that during
03:40the workout with um SE react acute SE
03:43reactive proteins and then um um uh
03:48pro-inflammatory cytoid and stuff like
03:50that so any like a cardiorespiratory
03:53Dand also contributes to that as well so
03:56but if you're doing antagonist muscle
03:57groups and let's say um you're you're
04:00you don't have a cardiorespiratory
04:01demand that's creating some more of that
04:03interference mechanisms for uh for mod
04:05and recruitment you go from biceps to
04:07triceps then those muscle groups are
04:10inovated by different nerves so you have
04:12spinal level fatigue too now the spinal
04:14level fatigue is literally the action
04:16potential sent from the brain down the
04:18spine the electrical signals so when you
04:20have spinal level fatigue and we have
04:22some great research looking at spinal
04:24level fatigue and they can isolate that
04:26stuff off um what happens is as those
04:28the repetitions get longer that's why
04:30High rep sets really suck too because
04:32you're creating two different types of
04:33fatigue you're creating spinal level
04:35fatigue and super spinal level fatigue
04:38because you have all of those afrine
04:39type feedbacks you have
04:40cardiorespiratory demand uh you have um
04:43a multitude of things that will
04:44contribute to interference mechanisms
04:46the at that level the super spinal level
04:48and at the spinal level the consistent
04:50repetitions over and over and over and
04:52over and over again create a fatiguing
04:54effect there to where then there's kind
04:56of a down regulation in the um magnitude
05:00of those signals through the spine so
05:02when we go from an antagonist we do it
05:05and one muscle group to another an
05:06antagonist type uh suet we're going from
05:10a biceps to a triceps
05:11exercise then we those are interated by
05:15different nerves so the basically the
05:17signal is going to travel goes through a
05:19different part um of intervation so
05:21you're not dealing with that same level
05:23of spinal level fatigue so you can still
05:25get um a really good signal like into
05:29that muscle group that's being sent so
05:31as long as you're not creating some type
05:33of Aer feedback um or interference
05:36mechanism in the first exercise that's
05:38going to negatively impact the super
05:41spinal um conditions then you should
05:43still get a pretty good stimulus with
05:45the alternating muscle group um that
05:48you're using there so again biceps to
05:50triceps or triceps to biceps either way
05:52you shouldn't have you're you're
05:54basically creating it so hey I'm not
05:56having to deal with that with one level
05:58of fatigue in the central nervous system
06:02so those are pretty good options for
06:04saving time and the segue into the next
06:07part which there's not really a segue
06:09but I'm just creating one is the idea
06:12that won't seem to die that somehow
06:14intensifiers like Drop sets um are
06:17definitely super sets for like a SL
06:19muscle group are just absolute dooky
06:21like and giant sets giant sets with like
06:23one muscle group um where you're doing
06:26you know like a bunch of back exercises
06:28I know like Milos does that stuff no I
06:30don't think it's good I think when you
06:31put a bunch of guys on all sorts of tons
06:33of chemicals and stuff they can do
06:34almost anything and they're going to see
06:35growth so I don't think those are those
06:37are valid um places to kind of U to work
06:41from to give antidotes because again
06:43once we Institute a bunch of anabolics
06:46and androgens and insulin and all this
06:47kind of stuff everything pretty much
06:49goes out the window but if we're talking
06:50natural physiology here when you're
06:53doing a giant set or a super set in the
06:55same muscle group then as we just talked
06:57about you're going to have that that
06:59degree of super spinal fatigue that's
07:02going to exist because uh you just did
07:04that one exercise and there's metabolite
07:06accumulation it's built up um there's
07:08cardiio respiratory demand and even if
07:10you don't have those things you're still
07:11dealing with the spinal level fatigue of
07:12moving from one exercise to another they
07:14still training the same muscle group
07:16it's just dumb it legitimately is just
07:18dumb okay so the other ones that always
07:22up um are drop sets um drop sets mys
07:28clusters rest po any those are all in my
07:31opinion in some way shape or form um
07:34this the different Wings on the same
07:36bird some can be a little more effective
07:39than others everything is taking a back
07:41SE a back seat to straight straight sets
07:44to failure close to failure with
07:46adequate rest periods and I say adequate
07:48because I think people have gotten crazy
07:49about the rest periods thing so it's
07:51like it's got to be 3 minutes and I
07:53could I probably could take some blame
07:54in that cuz I said 3 minutes because the
07:56research would would use in some of
07:57those studies a 3 minute rest period per
07:59say a 1 minute or whatever and it was
08:02pretty clear consistently that longer
08:03rest periods give us a higher degree of
08:05expression of M faor approaching
08:07synthesis give us greater hypertrophy
08:08outcomes Etc so forth and so on but the
08:10real key is making sure you're just
08:12recovered so if you just did there's no
08:15there's no reason to to take a three
08:17minute rest period between couple sets
08:18of wrist curls compared to say you're
08:20probably going to need three to five
08:21minutes between a hard set of squats
08:23even at six day rep so that's perfectly
08:25okay um you just want to be recovered
08:28between your sets so there's doesn't
08:29need to be a cardiorespiratory demand
08:31and it conceivably you'd want it to be
08:33long enough so that you allow um any
08:36metabol accumulation that's built up
08:37from that set to kind of subside as much
08:39as possible so that's making sure that
08:41we're going into the next set and that
08:42we're getting as much murder unit
08:43recruitment as possible um which is
08:45going to it's going to decrease over
08:47every set anyway but we still want to
08:49maximize it as much as possible from
08:50each set to each set so if you're
08:53looking at a super set of the same
08:55muscle group that's going to be dooky if
08:56you're looking at a giant set for the
08:57same muscle group that's going to be
08:58dooky and then that generally gets us
09:00into stuff like Drop sets uh and some
09:02people will say well there's research on
09:03drop sets that has shown that a drop set
09:06will when you have the same amount of of
09:08failure points so it's essentially kind
09:11of like matching the volume so if you
09:12have three failure points in a drop set
09:14and then you do three sets of failure
09:16that some of the research has shown that
09:18it's equally as productive um this is
09:20true in some of the some of the studies
09:22that we we have is that at best it can
09:25at times be equally as productive um
09:28most of those and I've gone over there a
09:29lot are using novice level people um I
09:33think that you would have different
09:34results if you were using well-trained
09:36people that had been that had could
09:38really climb up very high on the mot
09:39unit recruitment pool but uh with not
09:43very well trained people that's not
09:44going to that's not going to happen and
09:46there's going to be as we all know with
09:48with very people who have never trained
09:51uh I think they're probably going to see
09:52similar amounts of hypertrophy outcomes
09:55whether they're doing a drop set or the
09:58straight set fa with the same amount of
09:59failure points matched so I I don't
10:01really that not that's not not
10:02surprising to me at all this is what I
10:05see um I don't think we'd see that in
10:07well trained people when we talk about
10:09clusters and M reps essentially we get
10:11back to and we're talking about some
10:13form of there is what I call like a
10:15broken rest period and people like what
10:17do you mean broken rest period I'm like
10:18well it means instead of taking like a
10:20full minute or 2 minutes or 3 minutes or
10:22whatever you're only taking like 15
10:24seconds or you're taking 20 seconds or
10:26whatever so when you're taking that
10:28short rest period depending on how you
10:31perform the first set you take a short
10:33break you're going to allow some of
10:35those metabolizes to subside you're
10:36going to allow yourself to catch your
10:38breath a little bit so there's going to
10:39be less of a cardi respiratory demand so
10:41even if you're a well-trained person and
10:43you're using uh mys or you're using you
10:46know clusters or you're using rest Paws
10:49if you're using something that like I
10:51said all of those are very similar to me
10:52and there's there's usually some kind of
10:54what I consider nuances that don't make
10:57aren't going to make a huge difference
10:59but if you are using any of those and
11:03you have that little short break there
11:05that will allow a little bit of recovery
11:07it's not full recovery like taking two
11:09or 3 minutes but allow a little bit of
11:10recovery so those subsequent sets can
11:12still be quite productive even for well-
11:14trained people now what I basically
11:18theorize here is that every workout that
11:22you do is going to have a limited number
11:24of stimulating repetitions that you're
11:27going to get out of it now that's pretty
11:28much the data all all over and over and
11:31over and a repeatable again is that
11:33every workout you do has a limited
11:34number of sets that are going to be
11:36productive so that means there's a
11:37limited number of stimulating
11:39repetitions that we're going to have
11:41within the workout when I think you do
11:44um like a mile rep set or cluster set or
11:46rest Paws or something like that as long
11:48as you don't do something stupid on your
11:49first set like super High Reps and
11:51you're not doing like sets of 12 15 or
11:5320 or some some dumb crap like that on
11:55that first set and you take like the
11:58full 15 or 20 seconds seconds between
12:00that first set and the second set then
12:03let's say you do the first set in a very
12:05intelligent way so let's say you do six
12:06or seven reps with one to two rir and
12:09then you take the break and then you do
12:11the second set and you get either two
12:13failure very close to failure that's
12:15probably pretty close to what you're
12:17getting out of your first two sets um
12:21let's say you did just did the first set
12:23the same way so you're doing straight
12:24sets and you do the first set of um say
12:28six or seven reps with two R something
12:30like that you're getting somewhere
12:31around three or four stimulating
12:32repetitions and you take the second sets
12:34of failure well you're not getting three
12:35or four stimulating repetitions but
12:37you're probably getting around I think
12:38when Chris and I we broke down the data
12:41and you actually look at the second set
12:43is going to get you maybe two and that's
12:45if you're going to failure now if you're
12:47using heavier loads again you're taking
12:48one R doesn't really matter as much but
12:50you're still probably only getting uh
12:52about two simulating repetitions two to
12:54two and a qu I think when we broke it
12:57down is what it was we did in
12:58percentages to so it's every set you do
13:00has less stimulating repetitions in it
13:02due to fatigue that's why people say
13:04every set has five I'm like well no the
13:05first set if you don't have existing
13:07fatigue can have around five
13:09approximately and then the second set
13:10it's going to have less than that and
13:11then the third sets less than that
13:13that's why I take six total that's why
13:15it takes you do the first set it takes
13:16five more sets after that to equal the
13:18amount of stimulating repetitions that
13:19you get out of the first set so when you
13:21do mys or cluster rest Paws or anything
13:23like that what I think is is you
13:26frontload the stimulating repetitions in
13:28a short short period of time so that
13:30should make sense to you I hope um so
13:33the first set you're getting you know
13:34three or four stimulating repetitions
13:35out of that you know let's say you leave
13:37that one or two R to save yourself a
13:38little bit of fatigue there and then you
13:41do the second set and let's say you know
13:43after 20 seconds rest you do the second
13:45set and you do um whatever you get out
13:48of that let's say you get three or four
13:49reps and let's say you even go one r on
13:51there probably got one and a half to two
13:53simulating repetitions out of that set
13:54and then you do a couple of more and you
13:56get one like one one simulating
13:58repetitions so all in all you're getting
14:00somewhere around four five six seven
14:048ish s and a half to 8ish stimulating
14:07repetitions um overall so in a very
14:09short period whereas if you're doing
14:11straight sets um it would you're going
14:14to be it's going to be very closely
14:15matched so what I mean by front loading
14:17is um instead of taking longer rest
14:20periods and doing your your thr say
14:23you're doing three sets like over with
14:25longer rest periods two or three minutes
14:27between sets and it takes this long
14:29um and you're getting say um say you're
14:32getting eight like anywhere from six to
14:35eight simulating repetitions in this
14:36period Well when you do like a my reps
14:39or a rest PA cluster or whatever you're
14:41kind of smushing that into um like just
14:44a shorter time span but it doesn't mean
14:47that you just keep going like that and
14:49you still keep building up simulating
14:51repetitions um theoretically I think
14:53what happens there and what the
14:54physiology is going to show is that um
14:57we just take that we get the stimulating
15:00repetitions in a shorter period of time
15:02but that's essentially what you're
15:04getting is you're just getting it all
15:05smushed into a shorter period of time
15:07rather than resting longer and so from
15:09then on out all of the fatigue
15:11mechanisms that would exist with longer
15:13rest periods where it took you say 15
15:15minutes or 20 minutes to do those three
15:17sets or however long it was I'm just
15:18making up ARB arbitrary times um when
15:21you do the cluster my rep stress pause
15:23whatever you're just getting it done in
15:24a much shorter period of time but then
15:25after that all the subsequent sets you
15:27kind of uh is going to kind of meet that
15:29point of significant diminishing returns
15:31to where it's just not going to be as
15:33productive so um if you're short on time
15:35a myo reps rest pause cluster something
15:38like that even a drop set done in what I
15:41consider an intelligent way can be a
15:43good option and that means the first set
15:45you do five or six reps at one R and
15:47then you drop very just a very little
15:50bit it's like a very tiny drop and then
15:53you you know smash out two or three more
15:55reps and then you do another like micro
15:57drop and you smash out another two or
15:58three reps I think those are going to be
16:00far more productive than doing like
16:01really High Reps um and then doing a
16:03drop and doing High Reps and like that
16:05that's just really that's that's also
16:07dooky that's a that's another dooky
16:09intensifier so you're doing a butt ton
16:11of reps to get very little stimulus
16:13creating a lot of fatigue and a lot of
16:15muscle damage so those are um my Monday
16:19morning Collective thoughts about all of
16:21this stuff um and taging the super sets
16:24going to work pretty well I actually
16:25used to do what I call alternating sets
16:27um whereas I do a set for chest rest 2
16:29minutes do a separate back rest two
16:31minutes do a separate chest um that
16:33gives you a couple of types of recovery
16:34number one you don't have the spinal
16:35level Central level spinal level central
16:37nervous system fatigue stuff happening
16:39but then also you're getting extra rest
16:41time between the actual muscle group
16:43itself so you reduce some of that
16:45localized peripheral fatigue that you're
16:47getting from the calcium ions that get
16:49pushed in there so has a couple of nice
16:51benefits the rest of them for the most
16:53part drop sets are probably um in my
16:57opinion the least effective
16:59comparatively to any type of cluster
17:01where you have a the broken rest period
17:02that allows you to recover a little bit
17:04between those at the end of the day I
17:06think the only benefit to all of those
17:08different ones compared to to straight
17:10sets with long rest period is just that
17:12you're saving a little bit of time so if
17:14you're short on time that's a perfectly
17:15good option if you're not um I don't see
17:18any reason to do them and I still think
17:20straight sets um with longer adequate
17:23recovery uh periods between sets are
17:26going to be always be superior to all of
17:27those other methods so hope you guys
17:29have a great rest of your Monday and God
