Looking for a way to boost your workout success? Tired of seeing slow to stagnant progress? If you feel like your workout needs a wake-up call, this is the way to Shock Your Muscles.

Giant sets prove to be one of the top ways that you can seriously increase the overall intensity of your sessions while shocking your muscles into massive growth potential.

Chances are, you’ve tried supersets before.  Time and time again, they’ve had their place in your program. And this is great because supersets are one way to challenge your body more and move to the next level.

But are they enough?

As your intensity heats up, so should your workouts so the following will help you move to the next level.If you’re new to work out suggest you check out this article on a beginner’s workout.

Shock Your Muscles with Giant Sets…

Giant Set Definition

First, let’s talk about what this ‘giant’ set really is. A giant set is basically where you are going to stack 4 exercises back to back with each other.

This makes it more intense than a superset, more intense than a tri set – it makes it the most challenging protocol you’ve done yet.

The purpose behind a giant set is to bring your muscles to a state of fatigue where you just can’t push any harder.  Basically, you’re maxed out and need to rest before continuing on.

Then, when you go back to doing straight sets later on as you always have been doing, your muscle endurance will be up and you will likely see strength gains as well.

This is what helps you get to the next level. If you’ve felt stuck in a plateau and unable to lift more weight, sometimes the best approach is to stop trying to lift more weight.

Instead, evoke a higher fatigue stimulus in some other manner. Give it times, and then come back. When you do, you’ll find you’re stronger.

Ways To Employ Giant Sets For The Best Exercises

Now there are many ways that you can go about doing giant sets.  Since you are going for a maximum fatigue level here, I would suggest performing a combination of isolation moves and compound moves.

One exercise should be repeated twice.

So for instance, let’s say you are going to train your quads and you want to burn them out really good.

Start with a set of leg extensions. This will fully isolate the quad, bringing about a state of fatigue. Do not take this set to exhaustion, however.  Next, move over to a squat or leg press (if you don’t have a rack for safety reasons).  This is your compound move and where you will lift the most weight. You’ll already feel tired from the leg extension, so you should find this set harder to get through.

Bring this set one or two reps shy of maximum fatigue.

After that, go back to the leg extension. Now your quads are begging for mercy and crying out in pain.  It’s time to finish them off.  Do a third set on the leg extension, going to full fatigue.

You aren’t quite done yet.  The fourth set now should be an isolation move for the opposing muscle. In this case, the hamstrings. So you finish up by doing a set of hamstring curls. This will now fill the muscle with blood even more, bringing nutrients and oxygen to the quads, helping to provoke better growth and progress.

That last exercise should be done with slightly lighter weight and higher reps, going into the 15-20 rep range.

Once you’re finished all this, now you can rest.

The rest periods after giant set will need to be longer than after say a superset or triset for the fact that you are that much more fatigued.  You’ll basically need 3-4 times the rest period that you would normally take, so if you rest for 3 or 4 minutes, you should be on track.If you want an extra edge you can read my article on the best supplements for muscle growth found here. 

Points To Know

Before you go rush off to do this protocol, there are some important points to know.

First, realize that you absolute must make sure that you are well fueled going into any session where you plan to do these sets.  They are going to burn up glucose quickly and if you haven’t been eating right, it is going to influence the performance you are able to give.  Eat a good combination of both proteins and carbohydrates before this session and make sure you have eaten adequate calories leading up to the workout as well.

Do NOT attempt a giant set if you are on a fat loss diet plan.  You simply won’t have the fuel energy to complete the workout.

Second, since these sets are so very intense, you should not be doing them each and every workout. They will burn you out quickly if you are not monitoring your fatigue status, so you must make sure that you are taking the time to recover between them.

You should aim to choose one particular muscle group you want to target with giant sets and then use them for 3-4 weeks.  Just do them for that muscle group only and after you’re finished, you can then proceed to do them for another muscle group at that time.

By alternating like this, you’ll keep your body feeling fresher, avoid overtraining, and also reduce the chances of injury.

You may not even use them each and every workout for that single muscle group, but rather alternate. One week you use it, the next you don’t.

Finally, make sure that you maintain good form.  Never let your form slip. It’s easy to let yourself get caught up in using poor form as fatigue sets in, but you must avoid this.

Stop before you let poor form set in. if you aren’t completing the exercise using good form, you might as well stop doing the exercise entirely.  It won’t serve you well.

If you do need to stop, rest for a few seconds, take a few deep breaths, and then try and squeeze out as many more reps as possible.

Sample Giant Sets 

So now that you know the concept behind giant sets, let’s show you a few more that you can do throughout your workout depending on which muscle group you want to target most.

Hamstring Giant Set

1 set hamstring curls
1 set stiff-leg deadlifts
1 set hamstring curls
1 set leg extension

Shoulder Giant Set

1 set lateral raises
1 set shoulder press
1 set lateral raises
1 set reverse fly’s

Back Giant Set

1 set single arm seated rows
1 set bent over rows
1 set single arm seated rows
1 set chest press

Chest Giant Set

1 set chest fly’s
1 set bench Press

1 set chest fly’s
1 set seated row

Conclusion

So next time you feel like you need a challenge with your workout session, consider adding in a Giant set or two.  This is one of the best ways to see tremendous strength and size gains all while taking your fitness to the next level.  You’ll also reap a few cardiovascular gains as well since your heart rate will stay elevated for a longer period of time.

Train hard, train smart, and you will see success.

-Terry Asher