Cluster Workouts: How to Use It to Build Strength and Muscle

This training relies on performing short repetitions of the same exercise, with a rest time between 10 to 30 seconds, and then continue with the same series. It works great with people who are lifting large amounts of weight as it gives them time to recover for their next effort.

Despite not being a type of training widely heard today, many people usually use it to build strength and improve their muscle development. lets, discover how to use cluster workouts properly to build strength and muscle.

 as we know Cluster training is based on using short periods of rest between sets (usually between 10 to 30 seconds), in order to help us do more repetitions with a much heavier amount of load.

 for people who do not understand how cluster training works, we have  an example of a squat with a 5RM will be used throughout the text to better explain how it works. Thanks to it we will be able to demonstrate the difference between a cluster training and a traditional one.

In a traditional workout, you should do your squats for a maximum of 5 sets, resting between 2 and 3 minutes between each set, and then moving on to the next; while in cluster training, what is done is to divide the 5 series into 4 miniseries of 2 repetitions (for each series), with a break of 10 to 15 seconds between each one. This allows us to do 8 repetitions of squats with our 5RM.

At first, doing 3 additional series doesn't seem like a breakthrough, but when you realize that it equates to a 60% increase in production, you start to notice the effectiveness of cluster training. In this way we can "trick" a series and perform more repetitions than we normally could.

 the benefits gained from cluster training arise from the ability to do more repetitions with a heavier load. As long as you can maintain a good level of intensity while doing more repetitions, you can perceive improvements in strength and muscle gains.

One of the benefits of this workout is that you can easily manipulate the set/repetition/rest scheme to make it more biased to induce strength gains or hypertrophy, depending on what your goal is.

For example, if your main goal is to improve your strength, you should try to maintain a high load of movement (at 90% or more of your 1RM), and low repetitions (miniseries of 1 or 2 repetitions), with shorter rest periods (10 to 15 seconds).

On the other hand, if you want to improve hypertrophy,cluster training allows you to take a weight that you would not normally use to increase strength (i.e. a 5RM), and in this way increase your number of repetitions to a range where hypertrophy is possible (from 8 to 12 repetitions) which places a greater degree of mechanical stress on the muscle.

There are several ways to set up a cluster training. We present some schemes of series and repetitions with which you can start.

It should be noted that you can use cluster training in most exercises, but since you are mainly looking for strength and muscle gain, then the most recommended exercises would be those of bar with large weights.

In this case, you must perform 4 total groups (the first number) and each group will consist of 4 miniseries of two repetitions (the numbers in parentheses)

Using the squat example, here's what the workout would look like: