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“The best results I’ve ever gotten in the gym!"

“I’ve never added muscle and strength so quickly!”

“The workouts feel amazing!”

These are just a few of the many thousand comments I’ve received from happy lifters (both men and women) doing my Xtreme Shredded 8 (XS8) workout plan. Even those who have already done XS8’s predecessor program – Super Shredded 8 (SS8) – are blown away by the programming in the “Xtreme” version.

What makes the XS8 workout so effective and unique? A few things, with one of the major differences being compound sets.

What Are Compound Sets?

A superset is an intensity-boosting training technique where two exercises are performed back-to-back with no rest between them. This not only saves you time in the gym, but it also sparks gains in both muscle size and strength.

A compound set is a type of superset where the two exercises work the same muscle group (two chest exercises, two leg exercises, and so on), whereas a traditional superset pairs opposing muscle groups (back and chest, biceps and triceps, quads and hamstrings, etc.).

Multijoint vs. Single-Joint Exercises

Before we get into the specific compound sets in XS8, here’s a basic refresher on the two major types of exercises we’re distinguishing between:

Multijoint Exercise: Also called a “compound exercise,” a movement that involves action (flexion or extension) at two or more joints. For example, a multijoint chest exercise would be any type of press (flat, incline, or decline), because both the shoulder and elbow joints are involved. Multijoint exercises for back are pull-ups, rows, and lat pulldowns (shoulders and elbows involved); for the legs, squats, lunges, and step-ups (hips and knees); and for shoulders, overhead presses (shoulders and elbows).

Generally speaking, multijoint/compound exercises stimulate more total muscle mass and allow the user to go heavier compared to single-joint exercises. Because of this, multijoint exercises are considered superior for maximizing muscle size and strength.

Single-Joint Exercise: Also called an “isolation exercise,” a movement that involves action at only one joint. Examples here include flye movements and crossovers for the chest; straight-arm pulldowns (back); leg extensions and leg curls (legs); and lateral raises (shoulders). In the case of chest, back, and shoulders, action only occurs at the shoulders. With the leg examples, only the knee joints are acting, not the hips. For smaller body parts like biceps, triceps, forearms, traps, and abs, just about every exercise is a single-joint move (with a few exceptions).

Compared to multijoint moves, single-joint/isolation exercises don’t allow you to use as much weight. However, because only one joint is involved, you’re able to overload and “target” large muscles like the pecs, lats, delts, quads, and hamstrings, which makes single-joint exercises effective for gaining muscle size and supporting strength gains. 

XS8 Compound Sets

In SS8, you did two compound sets per muscle group in each workout. XS8 takes the volume to the next level with three compound sets. More than that, the compound sets are configured differently between the two programs. In SS8, the first compound set pairs a multijoint move followed by a single-joint, and then the second compound set flip-flops the order by starting with the single-joint exercise (a concept called pre-exhaustion, which I’ll cover in a separate article).

I changed things up for XS8. The pairings are different from those of SS8, and they also change from the first half of each week (ie, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) to the last half (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). Here’s what the three compound sets for large muscle groups (chest, back, legs, shoulders) look like in XS8:

Workouts 1-3 Compound Sets

(ie, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

Compound Set #1: Multijoint + Multijoint

Compound Set #2: Single-Joint + Multijoint

Compound Set #3: Single-Joint + Single-Joint

Workouts 4-6 Compound Sets

(ie, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)

Compound Set #1: Single-Joint + Single-Joint

Compound Set #2: Single-Joint + Multijoint

Compound Set #3: Multijoint + Multijoint

As you can see, the muscles get three different stimuli in every workout: two compound moves back-to-back, two isolation moves back-to-back, as well as one of each.

When exposed to these compound sets, two things happen: (1) the muscles get exhausted by sheer volume, and (2) the muscles get “confused” by the mixing and matching of single-joint and multijoint exercises. This combination forces the muscles to adapt by growing bigger and stronger, particularly when the right foods and supplements (like Pre JYM X and Pro JYM) are consumed.

Experience the XS8 Difference

The XS8 compound sets are like nothing your muscles have ever felt. And by the end of the 8-week program, your muscles won’t just feel different – they’ll be different. Bigger, stronger, more defined. That’s the XS8 difference!

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