Drop Sets

*Gasp*

That’s what my muscles look like. SHOCKED.

I’ve started up a new weightlifting routine for the next 3 weeks of All. Drop. Sets. Intense, I know.

The point of a drop set is to hit failure and mutilate the muscles. When I say hit failure what I mean is not “I’m getting really tired”, or even “Hot damn! This is tough!”, what I mean is: honest to God, gun to your head, you cannot lift any more weight.

The strategy:
Start with 1 to 2 warm-up sets of 12 reps.  Rest 1 minute. 1 drop set.
The drop set be about 22 reps in total and will require 3 different weights. For the drop set: go to failure (~10 reps) then drop the weight by 25%, go to failure again (~8 reps) drop the weight by 25% again, go to failure one more time (~4 reps).

I had heard that since the drop set technique places a lot of stress on the targeted muscles it should only be performed for one or two exercises in each workout. I hadn’t done a whole drop set workout before so when I found this one on bodybuilding.com I was intrigued. I e-mailed IFBB pro Marika Johansson who created the workout to ask her more about it.

Marika Johansson

She responded to me right away (love that!) saying

I don’t know where you heard about that you can only do 2 drop sets in a workout…but it is nonsense.

If your body is fuelled with right nutrition before and after the workout and [your muscles] have been recovered then it can certainly handle to do a full drop set workout. . . You want to mutilate [your muscles] in the gym and then recover and fuel them to grow while they resting.

I recommend you do this workout for about 3 weeks and then switch to another regime of the ones I have listed.

. . . This is just a temporary training program as any other to shock the muscles and then you switch for another again to shock the muscles.

I recommend that you listen to your body. If it feels like it is over trained then it might be that you don’t eat enough to recover or maybe you haven’t got enough rest days between your workouts. If you feel your body can’t train this hard then take an extra rest day.

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Drop Sets Workout

Warm-Up: ~12 reps
Drop Set: Go to failure (~10 reps), drop the weight 25% to failure (~8 reps), drop the weight 25% to failure (~4 reps)

Chest/Biceps

Incline Dumbbell Presses                               2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Incline Dumbbell Fly                                        1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Bench Press                                                          2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Cable Crossovers                                               1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Dumbbell Curls                                                   2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Preacher Curl Machine                                    1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Barbell Curl                                                           1 warm-up; 1 drop set

Back/Triceps

Lat Pulldown to the Front                               2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Narrow Grip Pulldowns                                   1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Seated Cable Row                                               1 warm-up; 1 drop set
One Arm Dumbbell Rows                                1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Narrow Bench Press in Smith Machine     1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Triceps Pushdowns with Rope                      1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Overhead Triceps Extension Machine       1 warm-up; 1 drop set

Shoulders/Abs

Shoulder Press Machine                                 2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Reverse Fly Machine                                        1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Front Raises                                                         1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Lateral Raises                                                      1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Cable Upright Row                                            1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Crunches                                                               2 sets x 15 reps
Roman Chair                                                        2 sets to failure
Sit-ups                                                                    2 sets x 20 reps

Legs

Leg Press                                                              2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Deep Squats                                                        2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Leg Extension                                                    1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Lying Leg Curl                                                   2 warm-up; 1 drop set
Seated Leg Curl                                                 1 warm-up; 1 drop set
Standing Calf Raises                                        1 warm-up; 1 drop set

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So far I’ve done the first two days and, let me tell you, my upper body is SORE. I love it. I’m had planned on doing the shoulders workout today but I’m thinking of doing legs instead to give my upper body a break. In 3 weeks I believe my arms will be weapons of mass destruction.

See the results of this workout after 3 weeks here.

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