Drop Set Challenge

Up at the crack of dawn, I pulled out the blender and tossed in a cornucopia of high energy, fat burning ingredients–for a delicious pre-workout smoothie. While sipping my smoothie, I slipped on my workout clothes, grabbed a bottle of water, workout gloves, today’s routine–and headed to the gym for what I hoped would be a challenging workout. And, I love a challenge!

Over the last three years I’ve tried numerous weightlifting routines—pyramid sets, giant sets, intervals, etc. But the most challenging—for me—are drop sets. This simply means performing a workout with the heaviest weight first, while progressively moving to a lighter weight with each set. After completing a set, drop the weight quickly and move on to the next set without resting, hence drop set.

Performing the same routine over and over can not only get boring, but can also cause muscle stagnation. I like to switch it up about every four weeks and sometimes more often. This morning’s routine was planned ahead of time—a drop set shoulder workout. I started with a shoulder press.

 Example:

Shoulder Press (my 1st excerise of the day)
20 lbs, 10 reps no rest
15 lbs, 10 reps no rest
10 lbs, 10 reps no rest
  5 lbs, 10 reps no rest

Sometimes I prefer to perform the first set to exhaustion (doing as many reps as possible) before moving onto the next set.  Again, switching up your routine keeps muscles guessing and prevents hitting a plateau.

Move to the next exercise with little rest, no more than one minute. Continue with the drop set routine for each exercise.

Today’s workout can only be described as “a killer.” My arms were shaking by the time I left the gym. But they were challenged, and that was–after all–today’s workout goal.

Did I forget to mention, drop sets are a great way to burn fat? Build muscle and burn fat…now that’s a workout.

Gale Compton