Thread: Am I overusing drop sets?

Don't see what "feeling you've really worked the muscles well" has to do with anything or why you do all your triceps exercises and then all your chest exercises, but do whatever you feel works best for you.

Originally Posted by air2fakie

Don't see what "feeling you've really worked the muscles well" has to do with anything or why you do all your triceps exercises and then all your chest exercises, but do whatever you feel works best for you.

Thanks for your reply.

As somebody without a lot of experience I don't really know what terminology is best to use but the feeling like I've worked the muscles well just means that I can feel the burn / pump afterwards whereas if I don't use drop sets it doesn't feel like I've pumped the muscles as much. I guess I just assume that if I work the muscles harder with drop sets then I should see more gains but the fact that most people don't seem to bother suggests that maybe there's something I'm missing.

I do all these muscles seperately because I honestly thought that was the way it's generally supposed to be done but also because the gym is quite busy and if I leave a particular machine there's a reasonable chance that I may have to wait a while to get back on it. When doing the triceps I do often switch between a drop set of bar push downs then a drop set of rope pushdowns but I'm not even sure if that's better than doing 3 dropsets of each separately?

Like I said it seems unproductive to do a bunch of triceps isos before chest press exercises, and drop sets in general for all your sets/exercises during an entire workout. Feeling your muscles work doesn't mean much if you don't see results in the mirror or lift more weight over time.

You've been around here long enough to know you should be doing a proper program if you don't feel you have enough experience, but if you're happy that's all that matters since it's your body.

Dorian said he didn’t like supersets because human nature he was kinda always thinking about the next exercise. I agree with that and feel it applies to dropsets as well.

There’s times I’ll do them. But supersets and dropsets are two of the most infrequently used techniques by me.

Originally Posted by SmashinYoungVag

Dorian said he didn’t like supersets because human nature he was kinda always thinking about the next exercise. I agree with that and feel it applies to dropsets as well.

There’s times I’ll do them. But supersets and dropsets are two of the most infrequently used techniques by me.

Thanks for the reply, I'm still a little confused as to why drop sets wouldn't be better than standard sets? It just seems to make sense that you can work the muscle harder if you take yourself to failure 3 times per set than you would if you just do it the once? Is it because instead of doing drop sets I should try to add more tricep exercises in?

For example, should I skip the drop sets on bar and rope pushdown and then do an additional exercise such as overhead tricep extension instead? Maybe I could just do the drop sets for the last set of each exercise instead and still add the additional exercise in?

I don't mean to come across like I'm not listening to your replies, I am, I just want to better understand why it wouldn't be better if possible.

Originally Posted by Bobdabuilder1

Thanks for the reply, I'm still a little confused as to why drop sets wouldn't be better than standard sets? It just seems to make sense that you can work the muscle harder if you take yourself to failure 3 times per set than you would if you just do it the once? Is it because instead of doing drop sets I should try to add more tricep exercises in?

For example, should I skip the drop sets on bar and rope pushdown and then do an additional exercise such as overhead tricep extension instead? Maybe I could just do the drop sets for the last set of each exercise instead and still add the additional exercise in?

I don't mean to come across like I'm not listening to your replies, I am, I just want to better understand why it wouldn't be better if possible.

Experiment see what works.

If drop sets are something you like, many people have used them and gotten big. Certain exercises are too taxing for them but see where you like to use them. I’d recommend also trying rest pause sets. Similar to drop sets but I think much more effective.

Although I’m not a fan of dropsets. It doesn’t mean they are “bad” By far the number one variable that will affect progress in the gym is effort/intensity. If you’re going balls to the wall with dropsets (with the right exercises) and not doing stupid sh*t you’ll make progress

Originally Posted by BeginnerGainz

For an intermediate lifter, drop sets should be used sparingly.

For a novice, I don’t program them at all.

Thanks, would you mind explaining to me why it is that drop sets should be used so sparingly? I realise that I should just listen to what more experienced people say regardless of whether I understand why they are saying it but I would really like to understand why they should hardly be used.

Originally Posted by Bobdabuilder1

My join date probably gives a misleading impression of my skill level. I've probably been working out for nearly 2 years but I've generally just been winging it. I do enjoy my routine but I understand that it's probably far from optimal. I'd like to get to a position where it's closer to optimal without reducing the enjoyment that I get from my routine by doing a proper workout routine that involves a lot of exercises that I don't enjoy if possible. I've looked at proper workout routines but TBH as I like to do minimal work on abs and legs, it's hard to find one that I'm comfortable doing.

I have no doubt about your skill level and that you've been winging it, hence my various comments above. Good luck!

Originally Posted by SmashinYoungVag

Experiment see what works.

If drop sets are something you like, many people have used them and gotten big. Certain exercises are too taxing for them but see where you like to use them. I’d recommend also trying rest pause sets. Similar to drop sets but I think much more effective.

Although I’m not a fan of dropsets. It doesn’t mean they are “bad” By far the number one variable that will affect progress in the gym is effort/intensity. If you’re going balls to the wall with dropsets (with the right exercises) and not doing stupid sh*t you’ll make progress

OK cheers, that's very helpful. I'll have a look at rest pause sets as well. I'm guessing that doing a mixture of standard sets, drop sets, rest pause sets and supersets would be more effective than just doing drop sets all the time so I'll see if I can mix it up and experiment a little.