Super set –defined as moving from one exercise quickly to another. The exercises are usually done with same body part like upper leg doing the Adductor/Abductor machine working inner and outer thighs respectively. Another superset involves opposite muscle like legs as in leg extension for quadricep muscles and leg curl for hamstring muscles. Some supersets work different areas of muscles like those of the chest with fly machine for pectoralis minor along the side of chest and the chest press working the big pectoralis major. Both machines work your complete pectorals, along with secondary muscles worked being front deltoids and triceps. Speed up workouts and burn more calories are benefits of supersets! You are continually working various muscles, so intensity is increased and at same time not taking as many breaks! The downside is that you need to plan your time well in that the gym may be busy or equipment being almost used by an assorted type of character that thinks they are the only ones entitled to equipment or space. There is the narcissistic gym rat who is sitting on equipment looking at phone or talking to someone else, staying on bench way beyond the many sets you may have done on 3-4 other machines you have already used in hopes of just completing your objective for the day. Another example is the influencer or Wanna-Be looking at themselves in a mirror moving so they can admire the shape of their body keeping gym bag and/or sweat on the bench you may want to use! All these things equal equipment you cannot use, let alone use as supersets! That leads to my recent discovery in the fitness room of a timeshare resort! Precor’s Vitality Dual Series machines. These machines are all multi use and allow you to use one machine for more than one body part. Precor is the manufacture I found in this particular fitness room. However, other manufactures build multi-use machines like Life Fitness, Free Motion just to name a couple. Since I actually worked on Precor’s multi-use equipment, I will write about the Precor’s machines I used.
Inner/Outer Thigh C008ES Inner aka Adductor/Abductor machine! This is a multi-use thigh machine. This is one type of multi-use machines I’ve seen in either 2 different machines or the combination machine pictured here, in every gym or fitness center I visited in several parts of the world! As a side note: for years I saw mostly women using the machine! Over the past 3-5 years I see guys using these machines, good for you! Also, I see more women in the weight rooms, fantastic for you! You may not think inner or outer thighs are important to develop but they are vital to keeping your balance, keep your daily movements stable and move safely.
Adductor/Abductor Machine
In addition, your inner thighs stabilize your hips, lower back, knees and core. When you engage your thigh muscles and you will notice a difference in your body, muscle strength and core. Toning the outer thighs does more than trim a woman’s hips. Strong abductors help stabilize the knees and protect them from injury during impact exercise, such as running, keeping up with kids…. keeping up with grand kids! Along with support from thighs your ability to walk; run is greatly assisted from leg quadricep and hamstring muscles.
Leg extension and leg curl machine work quadricep and hamstring (upper leg, front; back respectively) Women have wide hips, it is part of the human anatomy that defines us! Our wider hips can lead to miss alignment in our gate and posture. Developing the quadricep muscle, top of thigh, improves alignment from knee to pelvis, the length of quad muscle. Working the quadriceps also increases support for damaged knees. Hamstrings provide support to your glutes or butt! Who is not trying for a better-looking butt? Maybe those who already have one! But i bet they are doing more than just squats. Womens Health states, “If your butt is the roof of your house, your hamstrings are the walls—and you can’t have a nice house without good walls…” I could not sum this up better. Both hamstrings and quadriceps exercises are normally done on seated machines. This helps with proper form therefore decreasing chances of strain or injury. Yes, Precor has a dual machine for that too! I have not seen many dual machines to the legs; however, the 2 single machines often sit close together at most gyms and fitness centers. This is another that is in many popular forms at most gyms. Those of you that have spent time in gym or fitness center and maybe even physical therapy will recognize this movement. The Vitality Series Leg Extension / Leg Curl works by adjusting the yellow handed levers similar to the Abdominal/Back extension machine. To work top bottom of the upper leg you need to first adjust the back rest indicated by the green arrow. Adjust the seat so that your knee aligns with a spot marked near the edge of the seat to your right marked “Pivot Point”. As long as your knee aligns with this mark you will not sit too far back or on the edge of the seat where, in either position you will use your hips and lower back which we are NOT working at all on this machine! 
Some machines have an adjustment to bring the lower bar or ankle bar when positioned almost vertical to each other. You know what muscle you are working before you move the weight. Is the bar sitting ON your ankle or is your ankle sitting ON the bar? 
1st position you will push legs up working your quads, pictured. When you push the weight up you can sometimes see the muscles form an upside down “V”. This movement and machine are both called leg extension. When your ankle is sitting on top of the bar you need to bend so ankles move toward your but! This is the leg curl working back of thigh or hamstring muscle. For those that spent time in gyms and fitness centers you may have seen the leg curl laying down. It is a hard move either way but super effective on your entire leg strength and shape! Leg extension and curl exercise help our bodies by supporting alignment, so we have more consistent gate with less discomfort and pain. Developing hamstrings alone will decrease any frustration we experience when doing squat after squat after squat and not seeing improvement on our backside!!! Hamstring development helps with that. In our daily activities we do not use just a few muscles, although it often feels that way especially after grocery shopping! When working with developing or strengthening muscles it is a holistic approach. The next set of muscles Precor’s Vitality machine works is shoulders and chest.
Multi Chest / Shoulder
Many of my friends, both male and female have always complimented me on shape of my shoulders. I always reply with ‘thank you’ but I think, “What are they seeing?” Now that my best friend and partner is working with strength training, I see the development in her shoulders…yes, I understand that compliment! If you lift anything above your shoulders and head this workout helps. Shoulder work stabilizes not just shoulder muscles but also elbows and wrists, so your joints stay in place! Always when working muscle, you put small amount of stress on the fibers which in turn adds small amount of stress to bone. The slight stress added to bone is exactly what is needed to increase mineral density, become stronger and decrease risk of osteoporosis! Shoulder press helps with chest press. Developing muscles in your chest are plentiful. In addition to obvious pectoral muscles there are benefits of stronger arms and shoulders as result of chest press! Another dear friend and fellow GloriousGal told me picking up her grand baby, and grocery shopping got easier with development of chest and shoulder muscles. I think the most complete multi-use is the combination overhead lift which works your shoulders; the incline bench which works chest (upper pectorals major) and decline bench that also works chest but specifically under side of chest or lower pectoral muscles. The decline can be done with either dumb bells or barbell. But if you are not comfortable in the weight room or everyone seems to be using the same weight you want or the decline bench is in another part of the gym, then the multi-function is good choice. This is https://www.precor.com/en/commercial/strength/vitality-series/dual-exercise”>Precor’s Vitality™ Series Multi-Press. This is a 3-in-one that is the best for hitting shoulders, and complete chest muscles. You can see the handles are yellow and there is a yellow handled lever about where the seat is but underneath it. Pull lever out to adjust seat and back pads for bench press, incline, and decline presses. Proper positioning for incline press is to lay flat on bench and press weight above you. I aim where a 16” necklace pendant lays on my chest. For lower pectoral chest muscles, you want the bar to lower just underneath your chest. The bench will lay flat and the bar that you push up adjusts to come forward. You place this bar over your lower chest
Someone not people pictured in this blog is not a fan of gyms or working out. This friend prompted me to write this blog! My best friend grudgingly went to the fitness center with me. We walked straight to the cardio equipment. Her on recumbent bike and me on elliptical. I like heating my body up on cardio before working my muscles with weights. Warm muscles, cardio induced blood pump nutrients into muscles so I can seriously challenge them with virtually no cramping or injury! When I say challenged, I am not referring to placing an extra 20-40 pounds added on the weight machine. As stated earlier, if you are effortlessly pushing, pulling, or lifting 3 sets of 10 reps each then increase by 5 pounds, sometimes 10 pounds at most. I’ve worked on cardio before weights or stretching for decades and still no gym or fitness induced injury. When my gym-hating friend looked around and saw the weight machines could accommodate more than one movement, she was actually motivated to use the machine! YES! I noticed that! Whatever motivates someone to be active and exercise you should use it. Activity, specifically weight bearing activity is super beneficial to mature women. That is another blog for all the GloriousGals
I imagine the more people get back to the gyms and travel opens up, we will see more Precor-like multi-use and other manufactures’ similar models. I hope you all at least peek into hotel or resort’s fitness room and maybe bring a swimsuit to utilize the pool, sauna or jacuzzi! Developing strength through weight training is very beneficial to women especially all the GloriousGals I know! They feel a sense of accomplishment and recognize the internal grit! They feel a aura of accomplishment and recognize their internal grit! In blog, Girls Gone Strong, Nia Shanks, “Why Women Should Strength Train” “Women really are more confidant: they can push, pull, lift…ideas they had not conceptualized before getting involved with weight training.” Multi-use circuit machines like Precor’s Vitality line, makes weight training more accessible to women.
Yes, as many of you likely noticed I worked on this equipment back before the majority of use were inoculated with any of the 3 COVID vaccines, used here in the US. I hated the mask (still do), especially when I worked on cardio, but I wore it properly (still do), so my nose and mouth were covered. And hey, at least the paper mask sort of matched my fitness clothes!
