Drop Sets
OK, in all honesty I really love drop sets, just simply because they give great results and instant pumps that seem to last forever. I made a video on this but I'm apparently not allowed to upload it unless I pay a billion $ so no thanks I'll just explain.
A drop set is where you start off your workout with a very high weight, probably in the region of 80-90% of your 1 repetition maximum. So for example if you were on chest drop sets you could start with the bench press, warming up properly with a very light weight then straight into racking up your 80%.
Using the 80% hit around 6-10 reps with that, you should be failing on the last rep, then jump up and split the weight by near enough half. doesn't have to be exact if the plates don't allow it, but try to aim for half. Then, with the halved weight get back onto the bench and hit your reps until failure, you'll probably hit around 20-25 reps of this maybe less.
Here's my personal weight and rep range for a chest bench press drop set. (inc bar weight)
Set 1 - 90kg - 8 Reps
(1 minute rest)
Dropped - 50kg- 26 Reps (failure)
Set 2 - 90kg - 8 Reps
(1 minute rest)
Dropped - 50kg - 23 Reps (failure)
Set 3 - 90kg - 8 Reps
(1 minute rest)
Dropped - 50kg - 20 Reps (failure)
So doing these sets will increase overall mass because of the heavy load and also shape with the lower failure load. Give it a try if you haven't already. Try mixing it up with different exercises and grips. It gets challenging.
A drop set is where you start off your workout with a very high weight, probably in the region of 80-90% of your 1 repetition maximum. So for example if you were on chest drop sets you could start with the bench press, warming up properly with a very light weight then straight into racking up your 80%.
Using the 80% hit around 6-10 reps with that, you should be failing on the last rep, then jump up and split the weight by near enough half. doesn't have to be exact if the plates don't allow it, but try to aim for half. Then, with the halved weight get back onto the bench and hit your reps until failure, you'll probably hit around 20-25 reps of this maybe less.
Here's my personal weight and rep range for a chest bench press drop set. (inc bar weight)
Set 1 - 90kg - 8 Reps
(1 minute rest)
Dropped - 50kg- 26 Reps (failure)
Set 2 - 90kg - 8 Reps
(1 minute rest)
Dropped - 50kg - 23 Reps (failure)
Set 3 - 90kg - 8 Reps
(1 minute rest)
Dropped - 50kg - 20 Reps (failure)
So doing these sets will increase overall mass because of the heavy load and also shape with the lower failure load. Give it a try if you haven't already. Try mixing it up with different exercises and grips. It gets challenging.
Pyramid Sets
If you take a look at the image on the left you'll see it as the shape of a pyramid, this is what were aiming to do with our training whilst using this method.
Starting from the bottom and working upwards, so we begin with 12 Reps of 70% 1 Repetition Maximum (RM), so again for me this would be around 80kg for me.
Moving upwards you'll increase the weight by 5% of your 1RM each time, doing this 5 times until you hit your peak at 90% 1RM.
Once your happy with your progression up to the top of the pyramid of sets, you then work your way back down to the start, so this time lowering 5 times by 5% each set. Really keep the reps in sync with how much weight your bearing because this is important to maximise results.
Just like the drop sets above this method will help with putting on size, but also assist more towards shape as your using more reps.
This is all just advice, and doing it your way is always better than being told what to do, as I say time after time just find what works for you and work around that and mix it up within that working method.
Starting from the bottom and working upwards, so we begin with 12 Reps of 70% 1 Repetition Maximum (RM), so again for me this would be around 80kg for me.
Moving upwards you'll increase the weight by 5% of your 1RM each time, doing this 5 times until you hit your peak at 90% 1RM.
Once your happy with your progression up to the top of the pyramid of sets, you then work your way back down to the start, so this time lowering 5 times by 5% each set. Really keep the reps in sync with how much weight your bearing because this is important to maximise results.
Just like the drop sets above this method will help with putting on size, but also assist more towards shape as your using more reps.
This is all just advice, and doing it your way is always better than being told what to do, as I say time after time just find what works for you and work around that and mix it up within that working method.