Add Drop Sets Like It's Hot
- Holly
- Jun 25, 2019
- 4 min read
Since I am a CrossFit coach, a lot of the fitness questions I get pertain specifically to that style of training. However, it's been fun to get some questions recently about building strength. Now don't get me wrong, if you are following a CrossFit training program, you ARE going to get strong. In fact, I would probably argue that if it's a well written program, that CrossFit builds the best general fitness and strength out there. But sometimes, you are looking to build SPECIFIC strength. Like if you know you are quad dominant and want to strengthen your glutes, or maybe you feel like your shoulder strength is lacking and you really want to tackle that. CrossFit will continue to build those things, but because it is constantly varied, you may not be hitting the area that you want as often as you would like.
This is where some accessory work 2-3 times a week could be beneficial. One piece of accessory work that is often overlooked are drop sets, and I'm here to tell you that if you are in a strength building phase, you need to add them back in. How often you can add in these accessory sessions is going to depend on what kind of shape you are currently in, what the rest of your training schedule looks like, and what your ultimate goals are. That being said, up above I say adding accessory work 2-3 times a week, but that might not be appropriate depending on where you are at in your journey. If you have specific questions, PLEASE reach out to me. Programming is one of my biggest passions and I absolutely LOVE it.
Okay, so let's talk about what drop sets are. According to Muscle and Fitness drop sets are defined as:
"a technique where you perform an exercise and then drop (reduce) the weight and continue for more reps until you reach failure... Drop sets work because in any given set, you're only recruiting a certain amount of muscle fibers. By then stripping the weight down and going lighter, you recruit different muscle fibers, which should help the muscles achieve growth that couldn't be achieved by sticking with the same weight."
Within the realm of drop sets there are lots of different rep schemes that you can follow which is great because it allows for variety. For instance, some people do a waterfall technique which is basically like what is described up above. Let's say you squat 155 pounds for 10 reps, upon completion you immediately remove 10-20 pounds and then do a set of 12-14, upon completion immediately remove 10-20 more pounds and do a set of 16-18, and then you could do one more set aiming for about 18-20 reps after reducing the weight for the last time. The goal is to not rest for very long in between sets, so make sure that you reduce the weight enough that you can keep moving and keep increasing reps.
One of my favorite ways to incorporate drop sets is as a finisher. Meaning that I'll do my strength set of 5x5 bench press, and immediately following that, will lower the weight and do the aforementioned waterfall technique. Finishers are great ways to really stress the body and force that muscle adaptation because the muscle fibers are already significantly fatigued.
My other favorite way to incorporate drop sets is another type of finisher. Purists of the drop set will tell you that this isn't a drop set at all, but it follows the same science so I put it in the same category. Let's say I'm doing weighted pull ups, 4 sets, 8 reps. I complete my fourth set and lower the weight (or remove the weight all together depending on how much weight was being used) and complete as many reps as I can until I physically cannot complete the rep that I am working on (also known as a fail set).
Two quick things to note if you start incorporating drop sets:
1. Drop sets are also known for adding muscle tissue so your muscle will gain strength but also size (in most cases). For this reason drop sets are very popular in the body building world, but it is something to be cognizant of if having smaller muscles is more advantageous for your sport or lifestyle.
2. Adding drop sets adds volume to your training so just like with anything else, when adding it in, start small and then increase as your body adjusts to the new style and volume of training. Increasing volume too quickly and not letting your body adjust could most certainly lead to injury so take it SLOW! Adding in 1-2 drop sets a week at first and then slowly adding from there.
I hope you learned something new today! I love talking about this stuff and learning new techniques to try and push myself to that next level. If you have something specific that you are working towards and think that incorporating drop sets could be helpful, leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I would love to chat with you!
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