“Good evening. And welcome again to ‘Pumping Up with Hans and Franz,” the informative training program for the serious weight lifter.”
Ever seen one of the old-school Saturday Night Live episodes featuring the fictional cousins of Arnold Schwarzenegger?
These guys may have spoofed bodybuilding, weight lifting, and the Austrian Oak himself, but they actually weren’t too far off the mark whenever they delivered the classic line:
“We’re not here to talk. We’re here to pump…[clap]…you up.”
That might sound crazy. But seriously, if you want to build muscle and get an awesome pump from a workout, you can.
Just make drop sets part of your workout, and you’ll stagger away from the weight room with a major pump that will stimulate strength gains and muscle growth.
What’s a Drop Set?
It’s a training technique designed to help you fatigue your muscles by lifting progressively lighter weights to failure per set.
Pick an exercise like the bench press. Your typical workout might look like 3 to 5 sets of 6 to 12 reps using the same amount of weight. Not bad. But add drop sets to the end of your workout, and you’ll really feel the extra work target your chest.
How to add drop sets to your workout
Complete a standard set with enough weight for 6 to 12 reps. Then immediately drop the weight, and do another set to failure. Don’t rest. Drop the weight again, and complete another set to failure.
Add a couple of drop sets to end end of a workout or combination of lifts, and you’re going to feel the pump.
You can literally do this with any lift from barbells and dumbbells, to machines, and even bodyweight exercises.
Here’s an example of one of my drop set routines
After a complete triceps workout, I finished the day with a drop set of tricep dips.
I started with three 45-pound plates stacked on my lap (135 pounds), and cranked out 8 reps. Then I dropped one of the plates, and did 3 reps. Dropped another plate and did 4 reps. Then I finished off the last drop set with 3 bodyweight tricep dips.
Drop Set 1 – Tricep Dips 135 pounds x 8 reps
Drop Set 2 – Tricep Dips 90 pounds x 3 reps
Drop Set 3 – Tricep Dips 45 pounds x 4 reps
Drop Set 4 – Tricep Dips Bodyweight x 3 reps
This was extremely hard especially after a complete tricep workout. But it works. Drop sets help push more blood into your triceps, allowing them to grow. And there’s an immediate visual benefit: a major muscle pump.
Drop Sets for Building Muscle
If you’re on a mission to shred fat, build muscle, and transform your body, drop sets can help you reach your goal in less time than the typical lift-heavy approach.
Completing a workout with drop sets, or even incorporating a series of drop sets into your workout from start to finish can help:[1]
- Deplete glycogen stored in the muscle
- Damage muscle fibers
- Stimulate muscle repair and growth
- Increase glycogen storage and muscle size
- Elevate the mind-muscle connection and stimulate contractions
- Push more blood into the muscles to create a pump
The Barbell Curl Drop Set Study
In a recent study, researchers followed a group of people new to training in the gym for 8 weeks. They wanted to find out if adding drop sets to a workout made a difference in muscle growth compared to heavy, low-rep sets, and light, high-rep sets.[2]
Heavy reps, light weight reps
Each person in the study worked out 2 to 3 days a week, and trained their biceps with dumbbell curls. One week, they lifted heavy. Three sets at 80 percent of their one-rep max. The next week, they used lightweight dumbbells; 3 sets at 30 percent of their one-rep max, and higher reps.
Heavy reps + drop sets
In week three, they completed one sets of dumbbell curls at 80 percent of their one-rep max, followed by a series of drop sets.
Researchers found that one set of heavy reps, followed by drop sets helped increase muscle mass in less training time than traditional heavy or light-weight training without drop sets.
When you exhaust your muscles during a workout, and finish with drop sets, you’re targeting deep muscle fibers that don’t always get used during a typical workout. You’re adding more volume to your workout. And your muscles respond by growing.
A similar study found that bench press drop sets, are a highly effective way to increase chest muscle size, strength, and endurance.[3]
Drop Sets and Muscle Soreness
Drop sets can lead to an increase in Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), 1 to 3 days after a workout.
For that reason, it doesn’t make sense to do a crazy amount of drop sets every workout. But when they’re part of a periodized program, it’s a highly effective training strategy that will help you get results.
The next time you’re in the gym, consider adding drop sets to your workout, and taking some advice from Hans and Franz. “We’re not here to talk. We’re here to pump…[clap]…you up.”
Want to maximize your time in the gym and get results? Check out my customized training and nutrition plans designed to help you shred fat, build muscle, and transform your body.
References
- McCall, P. (2015). How to use drop sets to improve muscle definition. American Council on Exercise. From: https://www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/professional/expert-articles/5741/how-to-use-drop-sets-to-improve-muscle-definition
- Ozaki, H., et al. (2017). Effects of drop sets with resistance training on increases in muscle CSA, strength, and endurance: a pilot study. Journal of Sports Sciences. From: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2017.1331042.
- Bentes, C., et al. (2012). Acute effect of dropsets among different resistance training methods in upper body performance. Journal of Human Kinetics. From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3590834/.