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Drop sets to save time, and grow muscle

Writer's picture: Timothy StirohTimothy Stiroh

Let me ask you this......

If your goal is to put on some muscle, how hard are your workouts?

If you have been training for years now, you may have experienced some stalling to your muscle gain progress.

Don't worry, this happens to a lot of people, myself included every now and again.

One way you can bust out of that frustrating plateau is to switch things up a little bit.

Training to maximize muscle growth is a long process filled with up and down battles.

Over the years, I have realized what matters the most when it comes to muscle building.

These are are:

  1. Appropriate protein intake

  2. Appropriately challenging training

  3. Making your training harder over time

  4. Consistency

Today, I am going to unpack the second bullet, and share a way you can make your training a little more challenging.

I want to highlight one method some you can try that will provide a simple but effective way to upgrade your training. That method is drop sets.

Basically, drop sets are a way of training that allows you to increase the amount of total repetitions you are completing under fatigue for a given muscle group or exercise.

I would suggest this method is best for those of you that have some experience in the gym.

After you have a solid foundation of the basics, it will only make more advanced training methods like this more valuable for your progress.

Drop sets are when you perform a set of an exercise, and then immediately reduce the weight by 10-30% and do another set with the same or more reps.

Let’s use the lat pulldown as an example.

In this example, let's say you are doing 3 sets of 12 reps, resting 2 minutes between sets, using 70 lbs, with one drop set after the 3rd set.

That may sound complicated but it will be easier when you see it like this.

Set 1: 12 reps at 70 lbs. Rest 2 minutes Set2: 12 reps at 70 lbs. Rest 2 minutes Set 3: 12 reps at 70 lbs. Rest: none Drop set: immediately after set 3 do 12-15 reps at 50 lbs. A 30% reduction from the first 3 sets.

The reason why drop sets have helped clients of mine with their strength and muscle development is because they force you to push yourself a little more.

These can be a great way to save time and make sure that you are getting high quality and challenging sets into your training.

So if you have to keep your workouts to 40 minutes or less, this can be a great addition!

If you would like to experience some new methods of training, sign up for a free personal training session so you can try new methods of training that will help you reach your goals! To get started, fill out the form here so I can get an idea of what you are looking for and I will call you to discuss your free training options!

One last word on drop sets.

Drop sets can be performed with just about any exercise but tend to be the most effective in exercises where you are confident in your form, machine exercises, or utilizing body weight in the drop set.

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