Increase Your Muscle Mass and Strength Gains with Drop-sets

Posted on | May 26, 2009 |

If you are looking for a workout that increases your strength while helping you blast past weight lifting plateaus, drop-sets may be just the perfect thing to add to your workout. I use drop-sets for almost every body part I work out, and the best thing about them is that they are a quick and easy way to finish your workout. Drop-sets can be applied for back, chest, arms, legs, and shoulder workouts, and should be completed on your final set to get a maximum pump. Your muscles will be so filled with blood that you will feel muscle growth almost immediately. The key here is not to do a drop-set too early in your workout because you may not be able to perform the rest of your exercises.

How a drop set is done is by performing an exercise at a set amount of weight, for instance 225 lbs on squats. As soon as you complete the set, put the bar down while your partner reduces the weight by anywhere between 33%-50%. In this instance, he/she pulls off one plate from each side and reduces the weight down to 135 lbs. Perform another set at that weight with minimal rest in between. Depending on how much weight you are drop-setting, you can drop it again, as I do for Squats.

My workout for tomorrow is Chest, and a great chest routine with a finishing drop-set is doing Flat Barbell Bench Press.

Flat Bench Press:
• Set 1 - 135 lbs x 18 reps
• Set 2 – 135 lbs x 15 reps
• Set 3 – 225 lbs x 10 reps
• Set 4 – 275 x 8 reps
• Set 5 – drop set = 275 lbs x # reps, then 185 lbs x # reps, then 135 lbs x # reps. Maintain minimum rest in between sets. No more than 10-20 seconds.

By performing this routine on a consistent basis at least once a week, you will be able to lift more weight, build muscle mass faster, and grow stronger in less time. It is best to start out with weight that you can perform at least 10 reps with and build from there.

Give it a try for a few weeks and see how quick you see results.

Category: Chest, Strength Training Workouts
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Comments

3 Responses to “Increase Your Muscle Mass and Strength Gains with Drop-sets”

  1. How I Lost Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days
    May 27th, 2009 @ 11:10 am

    I was just searching for about this when I came by your blog post. I’m only visiting to say that I really enjoyed reading this post, it is really clear and well written. Are you thinking of blogging more on this? It seems like there is more fodder here for later posts.

  2. 3 Simple Super-sets to Burn Fat and Help You Burst Through Your Plateaus - Muscle Body Workouts
    May 28th, 2009 @ 12:07 pm

    [...] Drop-sets are great ways to burn fat but Super-sets really help you blast that unwanted fat. To complete a super-set you complete one workout and immediately move on to the next without leaving any time for your body to rest. By working out different muscle areas, you’re maximizing the output of your muscles without exhausting them to failure so you can’t perform any more reps. [...]

  3. 3 Supersets to Increase your Bench Press - Muscle Body Workouts
    June 6th, 2009 @ 3:14 pm

    [...] Increase Your Muscle Mass and Strength Gains with Drop-sets [...]

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