The lower body superset

Natural fitness & supersets

The Superset is a neat little trick to have in your functional fitness workout arsenal and one way to increase the intensity of a bodyweight fitness session by reducing recovery time between two exercises in order to deliver more bang for your buck.

Developing lower-body strength is a fundamental part of any regime, no matter whether you're a yogi, dancer, mover or fighter - it's just got to be in the mix somewhere. 

bodyweight training

If you're looking to increase your work capacity over time, bodyweight or lighter weights are all you need, e.g. hitting 15+ reps before fatiguing. This results in greater muscular endurance - being able to repeatedly perform a specific movement. If that is all the resistance work you do, eventually you will lean down and tone up.

Conversely, when looking to develop explosive power and raw strength, you need to load your muscles so that they fatigue within fewer reps, say 5-8. If that is the only type of resistance training you do you'll eventually put on muscle mass and bulk up. 

Our leg muscles are far larger than those of our upper body so they fatigue less easily. This means to develop lower body strength you're going to need to add load. When you're outdoors however a heavy object may not be available; which is where the superset comes in.

the biofit approach

By compounding two lower body exercises, such as a bodyweight squat and a single leg deadlift for example, you're working the front and back of the legs, quads and hams, posterior and anterior chain in quick succession. There's no rest between the two exercises, only 2-3 mins between each so-called superset to let the muscles recover.

This technique creates immediate burn in the legs, gets the heart rate up and is a sure-fire way of delivering a bodyweight only, lower body workout with a kick.

advanced natural movement training

For jedi knights, try supersetting two plyometric, explosive movements such as jumping squats and jumping lunges for added difficulty.

Other lower body supersets to try:

Kossack squats (or side lunges) + hip raises from the ground

Side jumps + box jumps

Assisted pistol squats + dirty dogs (lateral leg raises from all fours)