How To Use Tri-Sets To Receive Better Gains

Why You Should Do Tri-Sets

Are you one of those people that go into your workout doing the same routine day in and day out? Do you incorporate tri-sets or supersets into your routine? Are you happy with your results? Are you performing an intense enough workout to push yourself enough to make your body feel like it’s in danger and needs to adapt and grow muscle?

This may sound dramatic but this is exactly what happens when you lift weights, your body realizes that you need it to do something that it has a hard time doing and its response is to build muscle so that it can adapt to the new stress you are causing it.

The two fundamental rules of weight training are progression and intensity.

If your workout isn’t intense enough and isn’t kicking your ass than you aren’t doing anything but wasting your time and the person’s time who is waiting to use the piece of equipment your lazy ass is sitting on.

Progression comes from you approaching every workout with the intention of lifting a little heavier or at least doing one more rep than last time. Your main goal every time you approach the iron is to want to be better than you were last workout.

What Is A Tri-Set

A tri-set is three exercises performed right after each other with the only rest coming from the amount of time it takes for you to set up and begin the next exercise.

The only time you will take a true rest period is after the third exercise and this can last anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes depending on the exercise and how much weight your using.

You’ll want to do a warm up tri-set first, I like to use 50% of the weight I would use during a normal tri-set. Remember, when warming up for any exercise you never want to train to failure, you only want to warm your muscles up and prepare your nervous system.

You can choose to isolate the same muscle group throughout the tri-set or do three different muscle groups all together, deciding to do different muscles can allow you to lift heavier since each muscle has a chance to rest while you’re working the next muscle group.

When planning to do a tri-set workout you need the ability to jump from one exercise to another, a busy gym can make this difficult.

Try planning your gym session at time when it is not as busy or if you have the choice and equipment workout at home so that you don’t have to worry about other people getting in your way.

The Importance Of Tri-Sets

Tri sets have many benefits over normal circuit sets

• Time saver.
• Increases your heart rate and burns fat.
• Can prevent you from hitting an endurance and strength plateau.
• Changes the way you stimulate your muscles triggering them to respond more efficiently.
• Allows you to change things up to keep you from becoming complacent and bored.
• Increases time under tension and volume to break you out of an existing strength plateau.

How Should You Structure A Tri-Set

This depends, if your goal is to lift the maximum amount of weight using the most force than you should start off doing the most technical move first than end with the easiest move.

For example,

1. Explosive compound movement.
2. Strength based compound movement.
3. Isolation movement.

The reason I say this is because you don’t want to fatigue a muscle group doing an isolation move than try to use the same muscle group to do a compound movement that requires more weight and strength to perform properly.

This will only lead to poor technique and an increase which will hurt your results, lets be honest,in the end we all want results,this is why you’re reading this damn article in the first place, am I right?

Now lets say you want to completely blast a certain muscle group by fatiguing every muscle fiber in that group.

This time you would start off with the easiest movement and end with the hardest.

Example…

1. Higher rep isolation movement.
2. Moderate rep isolation movement.
3. Lower rep compound movement.

The idea behind this approach is that you will fatigue the targeted muscle group with the isolation movements and use the compound movement at the end to breakdown the muscle even more.

Upper Body Tri-set Exercises

I want to breakdown this section down into free weight movements and cable/machine movements so that whether you’re at the gym or home you’ll be able to put a complete tri-set program together without being limited by your equipment.

If you’re not sure how to perform an exercise click on the link and it will take you to a video tutorial.

Chest exercises

Free weight movements

• Dumbbell High And Low Flies – 12 to 15 reps
• Low Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 10 to 12 reps
• Barbell Bench Press – 4 to 6 reps

Machine/Cable movements

• Mid Pulley Cable Fly – 12 to 15 reps
• Standing High Cable Crossover – 10 to 12 reps
• Standing Low Cable Crossover – 4 to 6 reps

Back exercises

Free weight movements 

• Over Head Barbell Press – 8 to 10 reps
• One Armed Row –  10 to 12 reps
• Reverse Flies –  8 to 10 reps

Machine/Cable movements

• Seated cable Row – 8 to 10 reps
• Wide Grip Lat Pulldown – 12 to 15 reps
• Low Pulley Cable Row – 6 to 8 reps

Shoulder exercises

Free weight movements

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 12 to 15 reps
• Dumbbell Lateral Raise – 10 to 12 reps
• Upright Row – 6 to 8 reps

Machine/Cable movements

• Cable Reverse Fly – 12 to 15 reps
  
• One Arm Cable Lateral Raise – 10 to 12 reps
• Cable Front Raise – 8 to 10 reps

Bicep exercises

Free weight movements

• Hammer Curls – 8 to 10 reps
• Concentration Curls – 8 to 10 reps
• Barbell Curls – 6 to 8 reps

Machine/Cable movements

• Machine Bicep Curl – 8 to 10 reps
• Standing Cable Curl – 8 to 10 reps
• Lat pull Down – 6 to 8 reps

Tricep exercises

Free weight movements.

• Skull Crushers – 8 to 10 reps
• Tricep Kickbacks – 8 to 10 reps
• Dips – 8 to 10 reps

Machine/Cable movements (there isn’t many machines made to isolate the tricep specifically so most of these movements will be body weight or free weight)

• Rope/Cable Tricep Pushdown – 8 to 10 reps
• Dip machine – 8 to 10 (add extra weight if needed with a weighted belt, chains or a weighted book bag)
• Diamond push ups – max reps

Forearm exercises

Free weight movements.

• Wrist rotations with straight bar – Max reps
• Farmers Walk, some gyms have sleds you can carry if not use dumbbells. You want to try and walk 40 to 50 meters you may have to do multiple laps if you have limited room.
• Seated Palms Up Barbell Wrist Curl – Max reps

Machine/Cable movements.

• Behind The Back cable Curl – 8 to 10 reps
• Towel Cable Row – 8 to 10 reps
• Towel Row To Chest – 8 to 10  reps

Abdominal exercises

Bodyweight movements

• Bicycle Crunches – 15 to 20 reps
• Crunches Done On A Medicine/Balance – Ball Max reps (add extra weight by holding a weight tight to your chest)
• Plank – Hold For 1 to 3 minutes depending on your level

Machine Movements

• Vertical Knee Raise Station – 15 to 20 reps
• Ab Wheel – 20 to 30 extensions
• Sit Up Bench – Max reps

Lower Body Tri-Set Exercises

Quadricep exercises

Free weight movements

• Squats – 6 to 8 reps
• Bulgarian Split Squat – 8 tp 10 reps
• Walking Lunges – 12 to 15 reps per leg

Machine/Cable movements

•  Hack Squat Machine – 8 to 10 reps
• Smith Machine – 8 to 10 reps
• Leg Press – 6 to 8 reps

Hamstring exercises

Free weight movements

• Glute Ham Raise – max reps
• Romanian Deadlift with Barbell or Dumbbell – 8 to 10 reps
• Bulgarian Split Squat – 8 to 10 reps

Machine/Cable movements

• Leg Curl Machine – 8 to 10 reps
• Glute Ham raise Machine – max reps (some gyms don’t have this machine, can also be done with a weighted barbell.

Glute exercises

Free weight movements

• Barbell Hip Thrust – 8 to 10 reps
• Front Dumbbell Squat – 8 to 10 reps
• Walking Lunges – 15 to 20 reps per leg

Machine/Cable movements

• Low Pulley Cable Pull Throughs – 8 to 10 reps
• Squat Leg Press Machine – 6 to 8 reps
• Lying Leg curl Machine – 8 to 10 reps

Calf exercises

Most calf exercises are going to be done with bodyweight or dumbbells, some gyms have standing calf raise machines, If your at home or the gym you’ll have access to dumbbells or a bodyweight exercise so I’m just going to list these here.

• Dumbbell Calf Raise Toes Pointed Out – 25 to 30 reps
• Dumbbell Calf Raises Toes Pointed straight – 25 to 30 reps
• Dumbbell Calf Raises Toes Pointed In – 25 to 30 reps
• Tip Toe Walk, hold a heavy dumbbell in each hand a walk only on the tips of your feet not allowing your heels to touch the ground.

What Type Of Set Is Right For You

There are many different types of ways to go about creating a fitness routine that is best fitted for you.

Here is a breakdown of the various choices and how and why to incorporate them into your workout regimen.

Straight Sets

What Are They: This is the most common set you’ll see, this is when you perform an exercise, rest for a little bit then repeat the same exact exercise again.

Why Do Them: These work best when you’re planning on going heavy, the extra rest time you’ll need in between sets when doing exercises like deadlifts, bench presses and squats make these sets perfect so that you have optimal time to recover.

When To Do Them: Since you’ll be doing your heavier lifts with straight sets it makes sense to do these in the beginning of your workout. You don’t want to do heavy technical lifts at the end of your workout when you’re tired because it will lead to improper form and a higher chance of injury.

Supersets

What Are They: This is when you move from one exercise to another with nom rest in between. You can target the same muscle group with both exercises or do non competing muscles so that the one muscle can rest while you’re doing the next one.

This will allow you to rest in between supersets less and you’ll be able to lift heavier.

Why Do Them: Super sets take less time then traditional exercises, so if you find yourself in a time crunch these will be perfect for you.

Since you’re moving from one move to the next with no rest this will help build your muscular endurance and elevate your heart making them better suited to burn fat.

When To Do Them: Supersets can be done whenever it’s good for you, combining multi joint exercises together in a superset will guarantee a wider training area and save you time in the end. For example do a Barbell overhead press with a deadlift.

Tri-Sets

What Are They: Three exercises performed one after another with no rest in between

Why Do Them: Will help you avoid strength plateaus and help you get out of a plateau, great at increasing your endurance and burning fat.

When To Do Them: I like to save them for when I’m pressed for time, I would also recommend only doing them 2, 3 times at the most in a 1 week period. Unless you’re a superior human being (which I’m not) doing tri-sets to often will end up taking to much of a toll on you and will hinder your training.

Drop Sets

What Are They: This is when you perform 3 to 4 moves in a row but you decrease the amount of weight for each move.

We’ll use Bicep curls as an example…

1. First set your weight is at 35 pounds
2. Second set is at 30 pounds
3. Third set is at 25 pounds
4. 4th set is at 20 pounds

Why Do Them: Again they are a great time saver and are perfect when you’re trying to isolate a muscle group and want to make sure you fatigue all of the muscle fibers. They also do a great job at increasing your heart rate helping with muscle endurance.

When To Do Them: I’m going to sound like a broken record here but you’ll want to follow the same rules as the tri-set.

Save them for when you’re pressed for time, don’t do to many of these a week, when done correctly they’re very tiring, also start with a warm up set using about 50% of the weight you would use on a normal drop set.

Circuit Sets

What Are They: An exercise routine that normally consists of 5 to 6 moves in a row with no rest but usually involving weight and cardio moves,

Why Do Them: You will mostly use a circuit set during a warm up, they’re perfect for getting your muscles and central nervous system ready to lift heavy.

You can also do a combination of weight and cardio moves to perform a full body workout in little time, if doing this at a gym just make sure you plan appropriately due to the fact that you will need a lot of space and equipment to complete the entire cycle.

When To Do Them: In the beginning of a workout as a warm up or if you’re trying to do a full body workout in a short amount of time.

Conclusion

You don’t need a reason to do tri-sets as they should be a part of everyone’s fitness plan, but they can be especially useful to someone that has found themselves stuck in a strength plateau, or if you need to burn those last couple of pounds of fat and are having a hard time doing so.

All the exercises listed are great ways to perform a tri-set but in the end the best fitness routine is one that you’re confident and comfortable performing.