Drop Sets

PT with client bench pressing

Advanced Training Techniques 4: Drop Sets

Drop sets are a popular advanced resistance training technique designed to push muscles beyond normal fatigue and increase training intensity.

Drop sets are when you perform a set of an exercise until you reach failure, then immediately reduce the weight and continue performing more repetitions. This process can be repeated multiple times within the same set.

Because the weight is reduced but the exercise continues without rest, drop sets allow the muscle to keep working even after it initially fatigues.

Why Drop Sets Work

One of the key drivers of muscle growth is training volume and metabolic stress. Drop sets increase both by extending the time your muscles spend under tension within a single set. This prolonged effort can increase fatigue and metabolic stress, both of which are believed to contribute to muscle hypertrophy [1].

Another reason drop sets are effective is that continuing past the initial point of fatigue helps recruit additional motor units, meaning more muscle fibres become involved in the exercise as the set progresses. A 2023 review and meta-analysis found that drop set training produced similar increases in muscle growth compared with traditional resistance training methods, despite taking significantly less training time [2].

Because of this, drop sets are commonly used by bodybuilders and strength athletes as a way to increase workout intensity without dramatically increasing the total number of sets performed.

Overall, current research suggests that drop sets are a time-efficient strategy for muscle growth, particularly useful when training time is limited.

How to Perform Drop Sets

Drop sets can be used with almost any resistance exercise.

A typical example using dumbbell lateral raises might look like this:

1. Perform your set with a challenging weight until you reach failure.

2. Immediately reduce the weight by around 20–30%.

3. Continue performing repetitions until you reach failure again.

4. Optionally repeat the process for another drop.

Load reductions of around 20–25% are commonly used in drop set protocols, allowing the muscles to continue working despite fatigue.

This entire sequence counts as one extended set.

When Should You Use Drop Sets?

Drop sets are best used as an intensity technique, rather than as the main structure of every workout.

Because they generate significant fatigue, they are typically used:

• At the end of a workout

• On the final set of an exercise

• For smaller muscle groups or isolation exercises

This allows you to increase intensity without compromising performance in the rest of your training session.

Try It

Drop sets are a simple but powerful way to increase workout intensity and training efficiency.

Research shows they can produce similar muscle growth to traditional resistance training while taking much less time, making them a useful tool for people who want to maximise results within shorter workouts.

Like many advanced techniques, they work best when used strategically rather than constantly, helping add variety and intensity to a well-structured training programme.

Learn more:

Advanced Training Techniques 1: Inter-set Stretching

Advanced Training Techniques 2: Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) Training

Advanced Training Techniques 3: Forced Eccentric Training (FET)