There is nothing quite like that feeling of bringing your muscles to absolute failure and lets face it some days we just have more energy than others to push harder so why not mix it up with a bit of drop sets. I love shocking my muscles and there are many different ways to do this but Drop sets are one of my favourite ways to push your muscles to the limit.
You can complete drop sets with barbells dumbbells or even machines. To say drop sets are not an advanced way of training would be a little lie but they are definitely one of my favourite and very effective. Think of your muscle after it finishes a set when it is at failure. It doesnt necessarily mean that the muscle cant work anymore but you can still push a lighter weight so why not take the muscle further.
So what are they?
Drop sets are basically three or four sets of the same exercise repeated without rest after each set reducing down the weight. There are two examples which I find work well depending on what you are trying to achieve. Drops sets work deep into the mitochondria muscle and trust me you will really feel the burn afterwards.
8 ,8 ,15 reps finishing on the lightest weight for 15 reps I find works well for isolation exercises or
6,6,8 reps finishing on the lightest weight for 8 reps works well for compound exercises
So why do them? Drop sets are great if you are short of time but don’t forget to do a warm up set of 20 reps before hand about 50% of the heaviest weight you intend to lift so as to make sure the muscles are fully warmed up. They are ideal to shock the muscle especially if your body is a little bored with your usual workout.
Tip
Have all your weights lined up so that you have no delay in your drop set.