Sandor Balsamo, Ramires Alsamir Tibana, Dahan da Cunha Nascimento, Gleyverton Landim de Farias, Zeno Petruccelli, Frederico dos Santos de Santana, Otávio Vanni Martins, Fernando de Aguiar, Guilherme Borges Pereira, Jéssica Cardoso de Souza, Jonato Prestes

The super-set is a widely used resistance training method consisting of exercises for agonist and antagonist muscles with limited or no rest interval between them - for example, bench press followed by bent-over rows. In this sense, the aim of the present study was to compare the effects of different super-set exercise sequences on the total training volume. A secondary aim was to evaluate the ratings of perceived exertion and fatigue index in response to different exercise order. On separate testing days, twelve resistance-trained men, aged 23.0 ± 4.3 years, height 174.8 ± 6.75 cm, body mass 77.8 ± 13.27 kg, body fat 12.0% ± 4.7%, were submitted to a super-set method by using two different exercise orders: quadriceps (leg extension) + hamstrings (leg curl) (QH) or hamstrings (leg curl) + quadriceps (leg extension) (HQ). Sessions consisted of three sets with a ten-repetition maximum load with 90 seconds rest between sets. Results revealed that the total training volume was higher for the HQ exercise order (P = 0.02) with lower perceived exertion than the inverse order (P = 0.04). These results suggest that HQ exercise order involving lower limbs may benefit practitioners interested in reaching a higher total training volume with lower ratings of perceived exertion compared with the leg extension plus leg curl order.