drop sets

[senn]

hey guys,

Just been reading about 'drop sets'... I've been doing drop sets since I first started working out a year ago, I never knew it had a name or was a technique... I just did it for some reason. As my sets progressed, I took weights off so I could maintain the similar rep range. Is this the right way to go? I've just been reading on the old thread that I should only use drop sets for a few of the sets, not all of them. What's the reason behind this? And which method should I use instead if it's not recommended - do I do the reverse of what I've been doing - i.e. increase the weight with each set until I reach the max weight with my last set (and how should the reps go?), or pick a weight and stick with it but have decreasing reps with each set?

My goals are mass gain.

thanks for any help

[lemon]

Hey,

I tried drop sets once to try cut up a bit over summer, and I only done it on the final set or 2. I wouldn't recommend it for every set as you would burn out ur muscle 1st set and ur following sets would not be doing as best they could. so you would have to lower the weight to compensate, lighter weight isnt gonna give as much gains as a heavier weight.

Mass gain You could try a 5x5 So you do 5 sets of a weight you can only do 5 reps of max. 6 being failure.

Or if you do only 3-4 sets then Id recommend pyramiding it. Something like

1st set being 80kgs

2nd being 85kgs

3rd 87.5kgs

4th 80kgs or 77.5kgs Something like that maybe?

[Phedder]

I've always thought drop sets were lowering the weight but not resting or resting very little between sets? Like doing a DB press with 30s, and having 20s waiting for you once you're done repping the 30s, putting them down then picking up the 20s and repping again.

Personally I love doing it with the leg press. Work up to a very hard 10-15 reps and have people to unload a plate from each side, or if you've got no one do it yourself which gives you 20-30 sec rest. Take a plate off each side and aim for a minimum of 10 reps. Keep taking plates off until you're all the way back down to your warm up weights, they'll have never felt so heavy.

[Shutupandsquat]

Drop sets are when you drop the weight and the only rest period is dropping the weight. I do dropsets all the time but I only do it on my very last set as that's the set where you're really pushing to failure. It's like; you wouldn't go as heavy as you can on squats and just get spotted on every set on nearly every rep, if that makes sense..

[senn]

ok sorry guys i got it wrong then. technically im not doing drop sets if thats the case, im still taking the normal rest time. Just decreasing the weight with each set.

Lemon with regards to the pyramiding I might try that... I assume the rep range would also decrease as the weights increase say from 10 - 8 - 6? or should the rep range be the same across all sets?

[Shutupandsquat]

Pyramiding, you're generally going lighter weight, higher reps then next set will be heavier and lower reps.

For example, when I start flat DB chest press I'll do 30 for 10 then 34 for 8 then a heavier (or the same) weight for as many as I can.

[olympia]

I like drop sets as well as rest/pause and forced reps. I do one of these at the end of the set every workout but i always mix up which one i use to keep the muscle confused. For droppys ill blast my heavy set then immediatly drop 20 to 30 percent and go to failure then drop the same agin and go to absolute failure. Ill also do negatives but only when i have a couple days to recover.

[lemon]

ok sorry guys i got it wrong then. technically im not doing drop sets if thats the case, im still taking the normal rest time. Just decreasing the weight with each set.

Lemon with regards to the pyramiding I might try that... I assume the rep range would also decrease as the weights increase say from 10 - 8 - 6? or should the rep range be the same across all sets?

Yep like SUAS said, your rep range will vary, also like a reverse pyramid It helps you get both types of load on the muscle, a 8-10 one, 6-8 and a 4-6 one, back to 8-10.

[senn]

shot thanks for the advice everyone