Drop It Like It’s Hot: Maximizing Your Muscle Potential With Drop Sets
Written By Valeria Fazio
Having trouble putting on the size you want? Well, are you drop setting? If not, maybe it’s time you re-examined your training. If you want to maximize your muscle-building potential, you must work to activate every muscle fibre in a single set. Drop setting is one of the best ways of achieving this. By integrating drop sets into your regular program and mixing it with proper nutrition, you will be able to put on the size you yearn for.
The aesthetic benefits of drop setting are endless. However, without properly understanding the mechanics behind drop setting, one can be lead astray and become a victim of over-training and even injury. Neither case will help with muscle growth. Regardless, with a little information and direction, you will be drop setting your way to maximized muscle in no time. So here are some FAQs to get you on the right track.
So what exactly is drop setting?
Most popular among bodybuilders and those looking to create symmetry in their physique, drop setting (also known as break downs, strip sets and descending sets) is the practice of working to or just short of muscular exhaustion with a single weight, then stripping off between 10 to 30% of the weight to complete more reps.
Compared to straight sets that only combat the first layer of fibres, preventing you from reaching maximal growth potential, drop sets work to activate the deepest muscle fibres, leading to maximum growth. This technique is very effective in inducing hypertrophy, but is not conducive to speed, strength or power. As such, you will rarely see football players or similar athletes training with drop sets.
Why Is Drop Setting Effective?
In a straight set (8 to 12 reps with one weight), you do not hit all muscle fibres but only the number of fibres required to lift a specific weight for a specific number of reps. By adding a drop set and stripping off 10 to 30 % of the weight and continuing the set, however, you begin to recruit reserve fibres. In doing so you are hitting stubborn muscle fibres. The primary focus of drop setting, therefore, is to shock the muscle by adding stress to a standard set. This added stress induces hypertrophy within the muscle amplifying muscle growth.
How Should I Do Drop Sets?
There are many ways in which you can implement this technique into your program. The trick is to select the method that best suits your training style and goals. Drop sets are very easy to incorporate as they can be completed using barbells, dumbbells and even machines.
To be efficient, however, they are best performed with a partner that can strip the weight for you. Similarly, drop sets work best when the gym is slow, giving you the entire weight rack and preventing you from throwing elbows for dumbbells.
Keeping your goals in mind, you must decide how you want to perform your drop sets.
A typical drop set focuses on hypertrophy by dropping the weight by 10 to 25% following the completion of 8 to 10 reps. Once the weight is dropped you will complete another 6 to 10 lifts. Also known as tight drop sets. This is a perfect way to add those much desired inches to any body part.
But what if you want to be big and strong? Well, no problem. Power drop sets, also known as low rep drop sets, are a way to develop size and strength at the same time. In these sets, you will keep your rep range within the strength rep range (4-6 reps).
Need to add some endurance to your muscle? Working outside of the hypertrophy range on the second part of your set can help you. The 50% drop sets, also known as wide drop sets, allow you to build size and increase your endurance as you activate your muscle systems. This is done by decreasing your load by 50% and working with 6 and 20 reps per drop set.
To avoid over-training, you should only perform drop sets with one exercise per body part. For example, when working back, drop set on the lat pull down, and stick to straight sets on the other exercises in your program.
Drop setting will ensure hypertrophy through large muscle tears, but ALLMAX Nutrition will help with muscle recover. To make the most of your training add adequate high quality muscle-building protein to your muscle-building arsenal. MUSCLE MAXX™ is the ultimate muscle-building protein shake, inclusive of 35 g of muscle building protein per scoop, including 6 g of BCAAs and omega 3, 6, and 9 essential fatty acids.
