Superset Sunday

Today, I decided to do some supersetting!  I was introduced to the idea of supersets when I was in physical therapy.  In January of 2016, I found out I had a severely herniated C5-6 disc that resulted in a spinal cord injury.

I had had symptoms and pain since high school (fun fact: cheerleading IS apparently dangerous, kids!), but never realized the actual problem.  I had x-rays and nothing ever came up on those (another fun fact: herniated discs only show up on MRIs!).  So, I just always assumed I did too much at the gym or just pulled a muscle or whatever.  One day, I went to a chiropractor and the adjustment caused the herniated disc to poke my spinal cord, which resulted in a spinal cord injury.  One MRI and lots of doctors appointments eventually left me with only one real option- ACDF surgery (in other words, the disc was removed and I'm now bionic!).  I had my surgery in June of 2016 and was allowed to resume working out again in October.  After all that time off (I was only allowed to walk and wore a collar for 8 weeks), it has been a slooooow crawl back.  I'm still no where near where I was, physically, but I'm trying and that's all that really matters.

Anyway, for those 6 months between the spinal cord injury and surgery, I had to stop CrossFit and I started going to physical therapy.  They knew my love for lifting and HIIT-based workouts, so that's how they structured my sessions.  They took all overhead lifts away from me, obviously, but would let me still do cleans, deadlifts, and dumbbell work.  They used supersets for their workouts, and I really enjoyed them.  So, I decided to bring them back today with a little mashup of my own!

NOTE: I did 6 rounds of each superset, but you can do 3-6.  Each superset should be completed quickly and with as little rest as possible between movements.  You can rest as needed between supersets.  Also, feel free to increase or decrease the weights as needed.  Choose a weight that is challenging, but not so challenging that you are completely done after each set.  As a point of reference, I am probably doing somewhere around 50% of my 1RM for deadlift and back squat.

Superset 1-

6 deadlift (120 lbs)
40 second plank

Superset 2-

10 back squat (95 lbs)
20 second right plank
20 second left plank

Superset 3-

10 push ups
10 inverted bodyweight rows

I followed this up with some clean and snatch work.  Nothing crazy.  Just wanted to do a little extra credit.  :)