How to Gain Muscle With Drop Sets

If you are interested in developing more muscle mass in a certain area(s) of your body, "drop sets" are a great addition to your weight lifting routine. Basically, muscles grow by being "stressed" by the weight you are lifting, which results in muscle enlargement. Drop sets allow you to stress an area and promote muscle growth when they are done wisely and correctly. Here is how.

Things You'll Need

  • Weights
  • Review of your workout routine
  • Help (spotting) as needed
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      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."

    • 2

      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 35-lb. weights, I suggest your first set start at 30 lbs. instead. Remember, you will be doing two additional sets after the first one WITHOUT ANY REST BETWEEN SETS.

    • 3

      Set up your weights in a manner that is convenient for you to use one right after the other without any rest (or as little as possible) when going from one weight level to another. For example, with dumbbell curls you start with 30 lbs., go to 20 lbs. and finish with 10 lbs. (Some people will only "drop" by 5 lbs. between sets, depending on their physical condition and goals.)

    • 4

      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.

    • 5

      As a clinician and trainer, I recommend at least three sets of drops sets targeting the specific muscle group. You should only rest for 1 minute (or slightly more) between COMPLETED drop sets.