You have probably been challenged at one point when your personal trainer has structured your personal training session like a giant set, something that is not commonly known about across gyms Perth. Your lungs are burning as you look at the barbell in front of you, one last rep is all you need. Most people are familiar with super sets, performing two exercises back to back with no rest in between. Tri-sets take it one notch up, by grouping three exercises back to back. Further up the legacy is, taking it yet a bit further is the “giant set”. The idea behind the giant set is that you perform four exercises back to back, taking minimum rest between each.
The science behind giant sets is simple. You see, lifting weights has an awesome metabolic effect (raising metabolism) through a biological response called excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption and by the stress caused to your muscle fibers by lifting weights raises metabolic rate and calorie burn to a degree much higher than cardio training. With giant sets, this effect is amplified further, as you’re combining he anaerobic element of resistance training with the aerobic nature of cardio. In short, you’ll burn more calories than you would with a traditional weights workout involving straight sets and lengthy rest periods = faster fat loss!
As for building lean muscle mass, giant sets raise the time muscles are under tension which is a key factor to stimulate new muscle growth. If you hit a plateau, giant sets should solve that problem acting as a catalyst for both fat loss and muscle growth.
What’s the best way to structure a giant set? Well, here’s an example of a Parkfit training session using giant sets to challenge an intermediate client. After warming up, the client will be taken through a set of reps of each exercise at close to their 10RM (they will be close to failure on their 10th rep). Rest 10 seconds between each exercise.
After 3 minutes of rest, repeat the giant set but this time perform 12 reps per exercise. Rest 3 minutes. Repeat the giant set using 15 reps per exercise, and so on so forth until the final round through you are
using 25RM. Start at week 1 with the assistance and guidance of your personal trainer. You will be doing many reps with quite heavy weights so your form should be monitored to avoid injuries and periodic correction.
In the consecutive future weeks, you can progress either by increasing weight or reps like adding on 2.5kg to 3kg.
However, unlike traditional routines though, the goal of giant sets is not to necessarily lift heavier or add reps per set, but simply to perform more work in the given time. That means after week 1, you could aim in week 2 to get 5 rounds completed in the time it took you to do 4 rounds in week 1.