August 2, 2008 -

Many people that workout have body parts they love to train. For me, it’s arms – and nothing beats the pump that comes from a few sets of curls and triceps extensions.  On the other hand, many people also have body parts they hate to train, such as legs, back or abs.   

The bugaboo for me was abs.  Oh I wanted a shredded six-pack like the ones on the covers of bodybuilding magazines – but I hated the work required to flatten and tighten my abs.  Then I tried staggered sets of arms and abs training and entered the brave new world of the washboard waistline. 

What are “staggered sets?”  Staggered sets integrate your favorite body part training with a workout for one that you’d otherwise avoid training.  For example, if you love to work your chest but hate to train calves, with staggered sets you’d do one set of calf training for every three sets of chest work that you completed.  A sample chest/calves staggered set workout would be three sets of bench press followed by one set of standing calf raises, then three sets of dips followed by one set of seated calf presses, then three sets of incline bench press followed by one set of seated calf raises.   

When I used staggered sets to train my abs, I integrated my abs work into my arm training in this same 3-to-1 fashion to ensure that I trained my core.  For every three sets of arm training I completed I also did one set of abs work.  Since I loved training arms so much, before I knew it, my abs became flatter and tighter than I ever imagined because of the staggered sets workouts. 

If you’ve got a body part that you hate to train, try working it with staggered sets.  You may never fully enjoy training this body part, but it’s a lot easier to take this “medicine” when you combine it with your favorite workouts.