The Concept and Benefits of the Giant Set

Written by: Rainey Ashcraft, Fitness Director @ O2 Fitness Seaboard

How often do you do you go into the gym with a workout in mind and leave feeling unaccomplished and bored?  You find yourself dragging along through your workout from exercise to exercise, giving yourself enough rest in between sets to barely push you through to the next.

At about an hour into the workout you find yourself zoned out on a piece of equipment staring off into space.  Later on you probably reflected on whether or not you felt like you actually got a decent  workout in.  If this is you then you are not challenging yourself enough during your workouts!

3 Aspects to Fitness

Traditionally when we plan a workout there are three aspects everyone should try to include:

1. Cardio
2. Strength Training
3. Core Exercises

Why can't you incorporate those elements into one large set?

The Giant Set!

The giant set is the concept of doing multiple exercises (more than two), back to back, then resting afterwards.  Once completed you would repeat 2-3 times based on your strength training goal.  Working out in this way has many benefits.  First, your body doesn't need all that rest in between each exercise.

There is no reason why you can't work one muscle group while another one recovers.  In doing so, you keep your heart rate up and increase your cardiovascular endurance.  Instead, you rest after two strength training exercises & lower your heart rate into active recovery by doing a core exercise involving the abdominals.

Finally, spike your heart rate again by doing some form of cardio burst like jumping jacks or jump rope to get your heart rate back up into the fat burning zone.  Once these exercises are completed, then rest.  Repeat your new routine 2 more times!

Accomplish More During Your Fitness Workouts

If you begin training in this way you quickly begin to see the benefits.  You will accomplish more in the time you are in the gym, and you certainly will not be bored considering how active you keep yourself during the workout.  You will feel accomplished having done cardio intervals in your routine and leave the gym knowing that you burned more calories in a shorter amount of time.  Doing this will turn you into a calorie burning machine for the rest of your day!