If you want to build muscle mass fast in certain area or areas of your body, DROP SETS are a great addition to your weight training routine. Basically, muscles grow by being stressed and stimulated by the weight you are lifting, which results in muscle hypertrophy and growth. Drop sets allow you to stress an area and promote muscle growth when they are done correctly.
Here is how:
Drop sets are exactly what they sound like. You start at one weight then drop to a lesser weight and continue to exercise, then drop the weight even lower and finish the exercise to “exhaustion.”
Remember, the goal of a drop set is to fatigue the muscle to the fullest extent, so the first thing you are going to do is decide what weight to start with. For example, if you normally do bicep dumbbell curls with 45 lbs. weights, I suggest your first set start at that weight. Remember, you will be doing two additional sets after the first one WITHOUT ANY REST BETWEEN SETS.
Set up your weights in a manner that is easy for you to use one right after the other without any rest (or as little rest as possible) when going from one weight level to another. For example, with dumbbell curls you start with 45 lbs., go to 30 lbs. and finish with 15 lbs. Some people will only “drop” by 5 lbs. between sets; it just depends on their physical condition and strength.
The goal of drop sets is to stress out your targeted muscle to the max, so you will most likely have to start the set with weight slightly lighter than usual. Perform 6 to 8 curls at the highest weight, then drop to the next weight and do the same, and finish with lightest weight you may be very surprised how “heavy” this light weight may be during drop sets!. DO NOT rest between weight set changes. The goal of drop sets is fatigue. You will need to rest after you complete the full drop set.
As a trainer, I recommend at 1-2 sets of drops sets targeting the specific muscle group. You should rest for 2-4 minutes between COMPLETED drop sets. Drop sets are a great stressor to your muscles so only do these 1-3 times per month max!! By the way that image above is me 🙂