A Drop Set Workout That Will Fire Up Your Arms

Lifting a lot of weight or doing the most difficult workouts all the time is not necessary for building muscle. How else could you advance your strength training? Add a drop-set exercise to your program me. The drop set is a quick yet powerful weightlifting method that will force your muscles to work hard and assist you in achieving hypertrophy, or muscular growth.

CSCS, owner of Gh Performance in Chicago and a personal trainer, tells SELF that the majority of his customers work out using drop-sets once or twice a week. He claims that this method offers good value for your workout dollar.

What does the term "drop sets" mean?

In a drop set, you choose one exercise and perform reps of it with a certain weight until "failure," which means your muscles are too sore for you to perform another rep with proper form. You do another set until failure while lowering the weight you're using. The weight is then reduced once more, and the last round is repeated until failure.

There is no respite during a drop set. "The only break you get is while you're changing the weight"

How can drop sets be used most effectively?

According to Williams, drop sets should be performed with isolation exercises (i.e., motions that concentrate on a single joint or muscle area, such as bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg curls, and calf raises). Isolation exercises offer a lesser chance of injury in a drop set than complex exercises, which target several joints and muscle groups (think squats and deadlifts). That's because compound workouts, which can be harmful when you're tired, have more space for form mistakes due to their complexity. Additionally, it's frequently simpler to safely reduce your weight and cease performing an individual exercise if your muscles give up suddenly.

Which weight do you select for your drop sets?

When it comes to weight, Williams advises starting your drop set with a weight that will allow you to perform no more than 10 to 12 repetitions of your selected action with proper form. You should choose a weight that makes it difficult for you to complete the last reps, he says. The National Academy of Sports Medicine then advises that you reduce your weight by around 5 to 25% for the following round and another 5 to 25% for the following round (NASM). The objective is to choose weights that will enable you to complete 10 to 12 repetitions every round before failing.

How safe are drop sets?

Drop sets are safe if you have prior strength training expertise and select the right movement for your drop set.

According to Williams, drop sets are clearly advanced, thus first-time strength trainers should develop their capacity to carry out more conventional strength training sets before pushing yourself to the limit with a drop set. A drop-set should be designed using exercises from the latter type, such as biceps curls, triceps extensions, leg presses, calf raises, and lat pulldowns, as these are safer options for drop sets than complex activities.

Exercise:

• Biceps curl

Instructions:  Using the heaviest dumbbells first, perform as many repetitions as you can until you reach failure (i.e., you are unable to complete one more rep with proper technique). Switch to the medium dumbbells and perform as many repetitions as you can till failure without pausing. Use the lightest dumbbells possible and perform as many repetitions as you can without stopping.