You don’t need a gym full of state of the art equipment to create a great workout. If you go about your business the right way, less can be more effective for making gains.
In this case, if you’ve got one moderately light dumbbell along with a flat bench, you can create a routine that will have more muscle-building effect in just a few minutes than an unfocused, hours-long training session.
It’s a single-arm skull crusher and seated single-arm curl superset, and it’s a one-two classic combo that will work your arms to blood-pumping fatigue in as little as two or three sets, according to Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.
How can something so simple be so effective? According to Samuel, the key to this classically-styled superset is how it's designed to attack opposing muscle groups—in this instance we’re targeting the biceps and triceps back-to-back. And because the work is localized to a single limb, you get more blood flow pouring into that upper arm area, helping you get the most out of your training.
Benefits of the Single-Arm Skull Crusher to Curl Superset
●Faster and more efficient than training biceps and triceps muscles separately
●Classically-styled superset targeting opposing muscle groups means you can cut down rest time
●Biceps work while triceps rest and vice versa
●Working with one arm keeps blood in the upper arm, promoting muscle growth
●Great as a finisher or quick standalone arm workout
How to Do the Single-Dumbbell Skull Crusher to Curl Superset
●Start by setting up for skull crushers—lie back on a flat bench, holding a dumbbell with one arm.
●Press the weight up to a 91 or 92 degree angle relative to your torso, then lower it down to your head, moving only at the elbow. Extend your off arm straight out and keep your glutes and abs engaged to stay balanced on the bench. Perform 10 reps.
●Immediately sit up and move right into 10 reps of seated biceps curls.
●Once those are finished, lie back down and knock out eight reps of skull crushers, then eight curls. Keep the back and forth transition smooth as you keep dropping the reps by two—six, four, then finishing with two reps.
●Switch to the other arm and begin the countdown.
This superset allows one muscle group to rest while the other works. The work-to-rest ratios will begin to decrease slightly, but your rep counts—and therefore the amount of work—are dropping as well. This allows you to keep a greater focus on your muscle contractions rep after rep.
Again, two to three sets of these will be more than enough to finish off either an upper body or total-body workout, or just as finisher to your arm day training.
