Don’t Do Dumb Drop Sets

Finding fatigue is essential for hypertrophy, but finding strain and injury is more than unnecessary. When drops sets look more like a long, slow, painful death of technique and efficacy, it’s time to rethink the strategy. Watch out for these fatal drop-set flaws, and learn some better alternatives, your joints will thank you, along with your scale.

What is a drop set?

A drop set is when an athlete performs a certain amount of repetitions with a heavier/more difficult load, before dropping the load or difficulty down to complete more repetitions, for more fatigue. They are a staple of the community that believes time under tension is the most important phenomenon for hypertrophy. 

For example, perform ten bicep curls with 30 pounds each arm, and after 10, drop down to 20 pounds for another 10 repetitions. After that is completed, you’ll have done 500 pounds of Load volume in that set. (Load volume=reps x weight, 30x10 [300] + 20x10[200]=500) If the reps go past this the load volume increases. However, this is not all there is to look for.

Drop sets have the benefit of training muscular endurance, causing hypertrophy, and sending any training session off with a bang. They can be effective, if they are done wisely. If drop sets look like any of these, changes need to be made. Grab a pencil and paper, and revisit some simple math with your training numbers.

Not dropping enough weight, and falling short on the second set of reps.

What people hate about dropsets, besides the brutal pain that comes with them, is the ego factor of working with lighter weights, and struggling with them. The purpose of drop sets are to find fatigue and build endurance. If you dropped only 5% of the load off of the dumbell bench press being performed, set part 2 isn’t going to go well, and reps will be left on the table, with more risk of injury of being fatigued and attempting to use more weight. Make sure that a drop removes about 20-25% of the original load. It needs to be significant enough to accumulate more volume, and more fatigue. 

The other side, dropping too much weight.

Again, look at that 20-25% of the original number. If you immediately drop the load in half, this may feel too easy, and lose effectiveness. Drop sets are an element of STRENGTH training, don’t let them encourage weakness. If set #2 goes longer than set number one, add more weight. The drop set is to create fatigue, not relief! Only make marginal cuts from the initial load for that first or second drop in the weight.

Unneccessary repetitions. Don’t run the rack.

What are those 5 pound overhead presses really doing for strength if the 1-rep maximum is 200? Nothing! 1 drop can be enough, the load should be lighter, but heavy enough to be challenging. If you crush 2 back-to-back sets of moderately heavy weight, you will gain muscular endurance for moving heavier weight. You get stronger, your muscle mass gets better, and you don't run the risk of embarrassingly flinging 5 pound dumbbells with poor technique in public.

Doing multiple sets.

The key of drop sets are fatigue. If a drop set was truly done to fatigue, every subsequent drop set is going to be weaker and more sloppy than the first one. Finish workouts on a high note, not on a ten pound pec fly that blows out your labrum. Instead, hit multiple sets of just the working resistance, like in a 3x10 type workout. Then, do a fourth set, with 10 reps of the original weight, and then 10-15 more of something light enough to be doable, but heavy enough to be challenging. When done with that exercise, move on, and crush another part of your body, or movement. 

Always maintain proper technique.

While some strength and conditioning experts are fine with a few sloppy reps to cap off fatigue at the end of a drop set, you can never actually know how effective the movement is for you. So err on the side of caution, and drop the weight enough to sustain the technique. 

The Secret: Average Repetition Load.

Notice that In our original example, the load volume of 20 repetitions was 500 pounds. At 20 reps, the average rep weighed 25 pounds. Now let’s add an extra 10 reps at 10 pounds. 600 pounds of load volume, divided by 30 reps, and now the average repetition only weighed 20 pounds. The numbers will also suffer if you bite off more than you can chew on the first drop, and get very few extra reps, only to have to drop the weight down and lower that average rep load. This won’t do anywhere near as much as actually building muscular endurance with more load. 

Set a repetition limit, and break down the numbers needed to keep that average rep load moving up, session after session. 35x10+20x10 will still increase the average load. 35 pounds x 10+22.5 pounds x 10 will also increase the Average Repetition Load (ARL). With this ARL number, you can now see how performance is improving in each exercise that dropsets are performed on. How high is the ARL number in 25 reps? Or 20?  One week you do 30 pounds x 10, and then drop to 15 pounds for 10. 20 reps, 450 Load Volume, and an ARL of 22.5 pounds. If the next week, you get 13 reps with the 30 pound weight, and the remaining 7 with the 15 pound weight, your ARL will have gone up to 24.75. While a small increase, it's an increase. There's many routes for getting that load volume, and your ARL number up. More weight with the same rep scheme, or more reps with the initial weight. Strategize, and pick your poison.

Instead of adding repetitions to get weaker, add more weight! Or keep the weight the same, and add assisting movements.

Mechanical Drop-sets: Modifying the demands of the movement to find more fatigue.

For example, after you finish a set of 10 overhead presses and begin to fail, turn it to a push press, and safely use your legs to help you get those hands all the way overhead with that same weight. This is a mechanical dropset, and will actually preserve overall average repetition load, as the actual load never goes down.  What this isn’t is an excuse for crappy, incomplete technique. There are good push presses, and bad ones. Swinging your elbows forward to crank out more curls is only increasing the chances of a shoulder injury, and nothing will half a training routine like that. When learning movements, learn different variations, and how to do all of them proficiently. Kipping isn't the best way to do a pull-up, but knowing how can help you add better movements into training. Doing pull-ups until failure, and then switching to kipping pull-ups until failure is one slightly questionable way to do a mechanical drop-set. Going from from kettlebell swings to kettlebell sumo deadlifts can be a phenomenal mechanical drop-set for the glutes. We can change the weight, make the movement easier, or make the movement shorter, to take these muscle groups to fatigue.

Range of Motion Drop Sets

Doing range of motion work isn't just for powerlifters. Bodybuilders with lagging triceps should try adding board presses, pin presses, or vertical rubber band assistance to crank out extra reps, and challenge the strength of a weak muscle group. Doing something like this on a pull-up or pull down can help a bodybuilder bring out the lats. When the biceps can't finish the reps of either movement, the lats can still be properly fired to move the weight. If you have biceps that outshine your back, use a variety of safe, measurable ways to modify the range of motion, and bring those muscle groups up to speed.

Drop sets are an element of strength and conditioning. Strength is the ability to produce force on an object, and conditioning is simply the ability to do it again, and again. Don’t condition to check off the boxes sloppily, condition to preserve strength, and continue applying heavy force to objects. 

Strength is never a bad thing. No matter what amount of reps are being performed, the aim should be to increase that load, and only if it is being done safely! Adding more reps will only keep that Average Repetition Load low, and force athletes to do painstakingly light, degradative reps, for the sake of soreness alone. This will just condition an athlete for weak, painful muscular endurance. Always do the movements properly, and always aim to be a stronger person, and the drop sets will be staple for your training programs, or your clients.

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DAVID CORRADO BS CSCS

Owner of Trainathlon and NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, TSAC-F. University of Florida Grad, training throughout South Florida.Performance over everything.