WANT TO GET bigger and stronger without spending all your time in the gym? You’ll need to learn how to train efficiently—and that means training with a plan. One of the simplest ways to do this is by training muscle groups together. For the upper body, that probably means you’ll start by combining your chest and back workouts into one.
Chest and back workouts are extra-efficient because they are opposing muscle groups. You’ll push with your arms to hit the anteriorly-positioned pecs (in other words, the front side of your body) while you’ll pull to work the posteriorly positioned (rear) back muscles like the lats, traps, and rhomboids. Supersets and other rep schemes that don’t require long recovery periods can help cut your overall training time.
Not sure where to start with a chest-and-back supersets workout? Here’s a sample session designed by MH fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. that can get you started. Want more details about how this plan should work? Keep reading to learn more.
The Chest-and-Back Blast Workout
Directions
Do the exercises in order, with exercises 1A and 1B as a superset. Perform both moves back-to-back, resting one minute after completing each set. Do the same for moves 2A and 2B. Do exercise 3 by itself, resting for 1 minute between sets. Finish with 2 sets of exercise 4.
1A. Barbell Row
How to do it:
- Hold a loaded barbell with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width.
- Hinge at the hips and tighten your core, working to keep your shoulders slightly higher than your hips. Don’t round your lower back.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades, then row the barbell to your chest. Return to the start.
Sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 reps
1B. Dumbbell Bench Press
How to do it:
- Lie with your back on a bench, holding dumbbells directly over your shoulders, arms straight. Your core should be tight and your glutes should be squeezed.
- Bend at the elbows and shoulders, lowering the weights to within an inch of your chest, then press the dumbbells back up.
Sets and reps: 3 sets of 8 reps
2A. Chinup
How to do it:
- Hang from a pullup bar with a shoulder-width, underhand grip. Keep your core tight.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades, then pull your chest toward the bar.
- Hold when you’ve pulled your chest to the bar, then slowly lower to the start.
Sets and reps: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps
2B. Mixed-Style Incline Press
How to do it:
- Lie with your back on an adjustable bench set to a 30-degree incline, holding light- to medium-weight dumbbells directly over your shoulders, core tight and glutes squeezed.
- Keeping your right arm straight, lower the left dumbbell to your chest then press it back up. Do that twice.
- Then keep the left arm straight as you lower the right dumbbell to your chest and press it back up twice.
- Lower both dumbbells to your chest and press them back up.
Sets and reps: 3 sets of 2 to 3 clusters of reps
3. Incline Bench Dumbbell Row
How to do it:
- Lie with your chest on an adjustable bench set to a 30-degree incline, holding light dumbbells. Let your arms hang naturally. Tighten your glutes, flex your abs, and squeeze your shoulder blades.
- Row the dumbbells upwards, aiming to drive your elbows higher than your torso. Squeeze your back at the top of each rep.
Sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
4. Pushup-to-Triceps Pushup Finisher
How to do it:
- Get in pushup position. Do one pushup. As you push your torso upwards, jump your hands in the air, into position for a triceps pushup, hands slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart.
- Do one triceps pushup, then jump (or step) your hands back to regular pushup position and do two standard pushups.
- After the second one, move back into triceps pushups position and do two triceps pushups.
- Continue laddering up until you can do no more good-form reps.
Sets and reps: 2 rounds
Benefits of Training Opposing Muscle Groups With Supersets
The principle behind stacking two opposing muscle groups in one training session is simple: You’ll be able to do more in less time. Opposing muscle groups—individually known as the agonist and antagonist muscles for each specific movement—mean that the two muscles perform the opposite functions. Think biceps and triceps with flexion and extension of the elbow, and (of course) chest and back, with pushing and pulling.
Since you’ll be performing two different movements with two different muscles, you’ll be able to recover without fully taking a break. This is the perfect opportunity to use a superset structure; rather than doing one exercise, resting, then doing another, you’ll perform one exercise targeted at the first muscle group, then immediately proceed to one targeting the other. Then you’ll rest and repeat.
Benefits of the Chest and Back Workout Split
The chest-and-back superset session is one of your best training options. It’s grueling and challenging, but it will leave your entire upper body with a vicious pump, and insure that you’re hitting all critical upper body muscles.
And while it’s challenging, it’s also smartly crafted: For the health of your shoulders and your posture, you always want to blend pushing and pulling exercises into your training. Supersetting a chest exercise with a back exercise insures that you do that. Lead with the back exercise in each pair first; for physique balance, you should aim to pull more weight (and more frequently) than you push in all your training.
A chest and back superset workout also lets you move challenging weights; you’ll wind up doing major movements, such as bench presses and rows, and by lifting heavy weights, you’ll spur your body towards muscle growth.
When to Do Back and Chest Workouts
This isn’t the kind of workout you want to do all week, though, especially if you’re training hard. If you try doing chest-and-back supersets, think of doing them twice a week, with at least two days of rest for upper-body training in between.
Chest-and-back supersets work ideally with a weekly split that has you training on a three-day split that starts with legs on the first day, places upper body on the second day, and includes a third day of rest and recovery.
Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men’s Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He’s logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men’s Health, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.
Brett Williams, NASM-CPT, PES, a senior editor at Men’s Health, is a certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
