Opinion on Training Method

roberteboot

Hey everyone,
Im just looking for an opinion on something.Basically im down in Australia at the minute and what ive noticed alot of the lads doing here, and what ive started to do with most exercises is this -

say doing dumbell chest presses ill do a warm up set with 15kgsX10 then three sets 35kgX6-8, on the last set i definately wouldnt be able to manage another rep id be completely maxed out but ill grab the 15kg again without a break and do as many reps as i can with that(which would be about 4-6 say).

I hope ive explained that.Is it a fairly common method?Ive been training four about 5/6 years but never really noticed anyone doing it at home in Ireland(although i just may not have noticed) and also more importantly is it a good method?I know its sort of like pyramids and you definately feel the effort.

Im just curious and id appreciate if some of the people on here could let me know what they think about it.
Cheers!

cowzerp

What your explaining is a drop set. it is a very effective way of training.

Dragan

As already stated, it's a "drop set" and is a method to bring you past the normal point of failure and cause deeper micro-tears to the muscular tissue. To be honest, unless you can spend the day chilling out, and your diet is spot on it is not a good idea to do this on every exercise everyday, as the requisite recovery may be asking a lot. Don't get me wrong, everyone is different but in my opinion the mjority of people may be have a structured diet and recovery plan to support this kind of added stress to there recovery on a daily basis.

I'm a big believer in a "back off set", especially for big compound lifts….but I will still only do one per session.

Jak

Aye tis a drop set to failure - but just kind of tagged on to a standard progression set. On occassion I'd include this for chest and arms toward the end of a session. So perhaps set the bar up for three or four drops and finish with that.

It's a useful thing to cycle into your training, but be cautious as to where you place this within the overall routine on a given day. Also give some thought to the structure of your weight drops.

I wouldn't reccommend it as a staple of your training diary though... but then very few things deserve a permanent place in a session.

cowzerp

As stated by dragan-the recovery needs for drop sets is much higher than normal so your diet and rest better be up to scratch with this type of training-use it sparingly to liven up workouts but not all the time
its great to build muscular endurance mainly..

J.S. Pill

Is it a drop set only if the last light load is performed in the same group of sets? If for example I was to do some pec flies at the very end of a chest/back day when I'm really weak and only capable of doing light weights would that fall into the same category? Seems to be the same kind of principle - what I'm really asking is should this sort of thing alright to do every week or should it only be used sparingly like proper drop sets?

davyjose

I thought drop sets had a rest between dropping weights, i.e. one set with 50kg, rest, one set with 40, rest, 30 and so on???

t-ha

davyjose wrote:

I thought drop sets had a rest between dropping weights, i.e. one set with 50kg, rest, one set with 40, rest, 30 and so on???

Nay, that's a downward pyramid. A drop-set is done one weight straight after the other, in fact alot of people use spotters to remove the weights so they can keep going with virtually no pause. It's generally a good idea to limit your use of this technique as it requires significant recovery (i.e. don;t do it the same day for every muscle group), and not to exceed 3 or 4 drops.

roberteboot

Cheers for the info lads