Hi All,

I wanted to get feedback on something I tried on Saturday. I didn't really want to spend much time in the gym so I wanted to do a circuit.

I wasn't sure of a good weight to start with so I thought a 25lbs plate on each side of an olympic bar would be cool.

The circuit went like this.

bench 10 reps
stand up over bend and do squats for 10 reps
then go into standing shoulder press for 10 and then step away from bend for deadlifts.

Now, i wasn't sure to how many sets total, so I aimed for three and din't feel like that was enough and continued for 5 sets. But by the time I hit the 5 set my reps were between 6-8.

My rest was just long enough to catch my breath and continue again.

Any comments and/or feedback would be appreciated.

Hi Mr M, sorry I have not re[plied to your PM, what with raw egg, forearms and a number of PM's from all sorts of people I have been struggling to keep up. Aplogies.

Your circuit is OK, but if you can go from one big exercise to the next with no rest, this suggests you are working too light. Most couldnt do much after a set of correct weight squats- let alone stick deads in at the end.

Rather than circuit these movements, I would try supersetting them instead.

Group deadlift and benchpress together, with weight that hits you hard at 8-10 reps on each respective exercise (set up two individual bars for the exercises- the weights will vary). Go from bench, straight into deads, then have a 60-90 second rest before the next superset. 3 in total.

Next set up the bars for squat and overhead press, same reps, same 3 superset volume and rest periods.

Wont take long, but its a tough little workout.

It is cool cord.

Thanks for your valuable input. I will try that next time. Thanks.

With supersetting, can I use the 5x5 method or no?

Probably best not to. The idea with pure 5x5 is that you never burn out or get fully fatigued. its why so many people have a hard time adjusting to it- no pump, not a lot of sweat, just sitting around till you feel far too relaxed for your own good, then chucking out a few reps but finishing with 1 or 2 'in the bank' as it were, then more rest. you can almost get to feel a little lazy whist doing it .
Supersetting will incur too great an oxygen debt for the benefit of 5x5 to become apparent, supersetting is more geared towards muscle gain, and fatiguing the strength you have in the most time efficient way.