The Best Superset Involving an Inclined Press

The inclined press works your chest, shoulders and triceps, with its main focus being the upper portion of your chest. It's traditionally performed with a barbell. A superset involves pairing two exercises together and performing one after the other with no rest in between. There's no absolute best superset for the inclined press, but there are a number of types of superset you can use to give yourself a new training challenge and boost your gains.

Most supersets involve performing exercises for opposing muscle groups, according to IDEA Health and Fitness Association. These are known as antagonistic supersets. Antagonistic supersets allow you to shorten your workout time without compromising strength levels, claims trainer Nick Nilsson, author of "Specialization Training" and owner of "FitStep.com." Pair your inclined press with dumbbell or barbell rows, lat pull-downs, chinups, or any other exercise that works your back muscles.

Pre-exhausting is a powerful training tool for stimulating your muscle fibers and sparking growth. In pre-exhaustion supersets you fatigue a muscle with an isolation exercise, then go straight into a compound one, according to Charles Poliquin, owner of the Poliquin Performance Institute. Perform a set of dumbbell flyes, cable crossovers or incline flyes before going into inclined presses.

Post exhaust supersets are very similar to the pre-exhausting method, but the other way around, so you do your set of presses first, then go into an isolation movement. The theory is that your chest muscles may not be completely fatigued from incline presses and it may be your shoulders or triceps giving up first, so by doing the isolation afterwards, you're ensuring that your chest has been worked fully.

Use supersets wisely -- they're a highly effective method for breaking through muscle building plateaus, but they're also extremely intense. If you perform them too often, they may lose their effect. If you train your chest and back together, or your upper body as a whole, antagonistic supersets are your best choice, whereas if you focus on single body part sessions, then use a pre or post-exhaust inclined press superset each chest workout.