Drop Sets - BTB Year 6 Block 3
Coming back into an accumulation block, we are going to embark on Drop Sets. The results we get are only as good as the quality of reps we make. So if we are overly fatigued from something too heavy or too long, the results diminish.
Drop sets have an amazing history. This method was pioneered by the original HIT (High Intensity Training) Methodology and its creator Arthur Jones. Jones created Nautilus which was technically considered a machine-based company. HIT became a methodology that coincided with the pieces of equipment he created. This is not a chicken or an egg scenario - it was first the machines using a patented nautilus-shaped cam that kept resistance constant over the entire strength curve and then the methods used with the machines.
What Nautilus exposed was that when you isolate a muscle group there is really only one way to maximize performance: training to complete muscular failure. This is limited with gravity-based resistance such as with BBs, DBs, and KBs. We can only go to the level of technique, specifically concentric or overcoming gravity, we have. What machines allowed us to do was more readily reach complete failure by reaching concentric failure, then isometric failure, then eccentric failure. With free weight exercises such as squat, hinge, push and pull we have to be more conservative with how we reach maximal threshold because we’ll get hurt if we don’t.
Jones opened the door for methods that completely exhaust a muscle group. What is so interesting about Drop Sets, is that it allows us to push past concentric failure at a certain exercise by lowering the weight intra-set. Without a machine, we have to find creative ways to completely exhaust a movement pattern that is ultimately limited by our concentric limits. If not we inadvertently increase risk by having to find secondary levers to accomplish the task. We cannot use secondary levers, at least as easily, as with machines.
The Drop Set method is built on choosing a weight that we think is close to a Rep Max hitting it for that adjacent rep scheme, then dropping the weight performing another rep max, and then dropping the weight again to hit another rep max.
So in a normal situation, we stop at whatever rep max we have at a certain percentage of a RM, and we continue by using a lower intensity.
What a Set looks like is:
5 reps/85%
5 reps/80%
5 reps/75%
This works out to be 15 total reps. Normally we can only hit 5 reps at 85%. But by dropping the weight we can hit another 5 reps and dropping the weight again we can hit another 5 reps. This allows us, ideally, to maintain good technique longer and get more value from a set.
Certain muscle fibers are more susceptible to fatigue than others. Fast-twitch fibers will fatigue faster than slow-twitch fibers. Using heavier intensities creates more fatigue with fast-twitch fibers more rapidly. If we diminish our reserves of energy for fast-twitch fibers we diminish our value from that set. Drop Sets allow us to override this.
With Drop Sets (or any protocol) it comes down to getting the most from each exercise by orchestrating the right loaded position combined with a certain intensity (load) and volume (sets & reps).
If we continue to do this strategically and prioritize quality, over time we get more recurring value.
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