I want to share a great technique for you to throw in to your routine. This is not for beginners, but is great for when you hit a plateau or are getting bored with your existing routine.
(By the way, this is the kind of thing I’ll be answering questions about on Thursday’s free teleseminar - sign up at http://www.askdatabase.com/campaigns/?af=49557 . Even if you don’t want to ask a question, you’ll need to enter your email address so I can send you the dial in info.)
But before I share today’s tips, we need a little background.
Workout Volume
It’s becoming in vogue now for fitness experts, especially strength coaches, to recommend lower volume workouts. Lower volume means fewer total number of reps per muscle group.
For example, a high volume workout for chest would be 4 or 5 sets of 8 to 12 reps of flat bench, followed by 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps each of incline bench, and then 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps of flyes. So the total # of reps could be anywhere from 80 to 156 reps! And Arnold, who advocated this kind of volume, would even do some muscle groups 3 days a week!
Nowadays people are generally seeing big strength gains and lean mass built in much lower volume routines – say, 4-6 total sets of 4-6 reps each, or 24 to 36 total reps per muscle group – once a week!
Which is better depends a bit on your goals, your personal ability to recover, your lifestyle, your diet, and a number of other factors.
But why not combine these…
What Are Drop Sets?
Regardless of what your current volume is, you will enjoy a little spice in your regular routine by doing drop sets (sometimes also called strip sets).
You do drop sets by starting out with weight X and doing your reps until you just barely get that last rep out. Then you (or your workout partner) literally take weight off the bar (“dropping” or “stripping” the weight). With just those 5 seconds or so of rest, you next do more reps with the lower weight until you fail. Then drop more weight. Etc. etc. until you are totally burnt.
But this works even better (in my opinion) with dumbbells because
- dumbbells are generally safer to use when you are exhausted; and that’s what your’ going for here – exhaustion
- you don’t need a training partner to help you switch plates; switching them yourself is fine, but then you end up resting too much between drop-sets
- dumbbells, at most gyms, are available in small increments (every 5 pounds) so you can go in steps that make sense for you, even for lightweight exercises
The Process
You want to get at least 4 reps for each set, even the last one. You’ll find that you need to drop the weight dramatically. For small-muscle exercises, like shoulder laterals, you might drop in increments of 5 pounds. But for bigger compound exercises (like chest presses), you need to drop a lot each time. Most people make the mistake of dropping too little between drop sets.
With dumbbells at a commercial gym, you literally just run down the rack and you can very quickly adjust your poundage. In contrast, doing these with barbells and plates is harder to get the poundage just right for each set so that you are getting 4 to 8 reps each set.
Generally, you still want to focus on compound exercises. Sure, you can do it for isolated movements, but we’ve gone over this many times: compound exercises are the best for building lean muscle mass and you only need to think of isolated movements if you are injured, extremely deficient in one particular area, or thinking of competition-level bodybuilding.
Examples of good exercises:
- Dumbbell chest press [chest]
- Arnold Presses [shoulders]
- Dumbbell rows (standing or seated) [lats, shoulders]
- Dumbbell lunges [upper legs]
- Dumbbell squats [legs]
- Dumbbell deadlifts [back and legs]
- Etc.
- (For more ideas, check out Craig Ballanytine’s $10 dumbbell workouts)
I am NOT recommending you base your routine around drop sets.
I’m not even recommending a single entire workout of drop sets.
When I do drop sets, I tend to just pick one exercise a workout. Then my next weight training day, I’ll pick a different exercise and focus on a different muscle group. For example, on Day1 I might do drop sets of dumbbell chest press at the end of my chest routine. Then Day2, if that’s a leg day, I’ll do drop sets of lunges.
So, if you are working with weights 3 days a week, you’ll only do a total of 3 drop sets a week and each will target a different muscle group.
Do these at the end of your workout because you’ll be wiped out for anything else!
Oh – one more thing: do NOT “save up” your energy within your regular workout just to have more strength for drop sets. Every set needs to be the maximum intensity you can muster, so don’t tank on your deadlifts just because you know you are going to do a drop set of lunges later…!
Have you used this? Got any tips to share? Share this, add it to Stumbleupon, and make a comment!
Just starting out with weightlifting? Want to get bigger muscles this winter?
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Related posts:
- How Long to Rest Between Sets
- Power Dumbbell Rows – A Great Row Variation
- WFN Beginner to Intermediate Training Program
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May 27th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Thank you for sharing that idea. Looks like a nice way of getting yourself and your partner completely exhausted. I should try it for fun. Thanks. Any science behind this technique? Keep up the good work!
May 27th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Strength will not develop muscle in size because of the low deterioration that it causes to the muscle fiber, the best way to get muscsle is to do sets of 10 to 12 reps and max of 90 sec. rest between sets. And drop sets, cool way to give a little bit o variation to the session.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I incorporate this techniqe on my work outs, not all the time for the same reason of hitting a plateau. The key to gaining muscle mass (of course doing compound exercises) fatigue your muscles. Two important motions in working out is concentric, and eccentric. No matter what technique you incorporate, focus on breaking muscle fibers, and be changing your work out parameters.
I would recommend training to failure when doing strip sets; take more time off if needed – “I wouldn’t do strip sets, 3xs a week. Hence i would need to recuperate on the following days, or i would be short circuiting the process.
good post :P
May 27th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
@Alejandro – no, I don’t know of any studies that specifically have tested “drop sets” or “strip sets”. They might exist, but I don’t see them in the scientific peer reviewed studies. And actually, even the premise of “training a set to failure” is not proven to be beneficial. Many studies have shown no long term difference between training to failure and not training to failure over periods of 12 weeks. But they all miss an important point: the belief that it works, will actually make it more likely to work. See, so many studies are done without accounting for one of the most powerful forces – the human mind. So when I hear someone say that they get better results from doing drop sets, or failure sets, or whatever, I bet it’s true – because they believe it’s true. Of course, there is a limit…
In any event, I like the drop sets simply because they are fun! If you want a variation that is both fun (and painful) and has science behind it showing effectiveness, try doing many sets of negatives.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:33 am
You made a very good point there Darrin: Workouts should be fun independently of any scientific research, etc… and you should put your mind into it also! Thanks for pointing me out the negatives.