When you compare two types of weightlifting—supersets and regular sets—they work your muscles just as hard and you lift about the same amount, based on quick tests from different research.

For people who already lift weights, doing superset workouts (where you do exercises back-to-back) gives about the same results for building strength, endurance, and muscle size as regular workouts over a few weeks.

Doing superset workouts and regular weightlifting give you about the same long-term results for things like getting stronger, building muscle, and improving endurance.

When people do superset workouts (doing exercises back-to-back without rest), their bodies work harder and show more signs of effort—like higher heart rate, more sweating, and feeling more tired—compared to doing regular workouts with rest breaks.

If you lift weights more each week for each muscle, you’ll likely gain more muscle size—studies show about 3.9% more growth compared to doing less.

Most of the research on how much to lift and how often was done on young men who already train—so we don’t know if the same rules apply to women, older people, or beginners.