How To Do Drop Sets For Muscle Growth (2026 Guide)
Drop sets have been around a long time and are one of the most popular high-intensity muscle-building training methods.
Unfortunately, many lifters aren’t sure how to do drop sets correctly to maximize muscle growth. Most people also don’t know how to use this technique for time efficiency or for progressive overload (hardly anyone understands this).
If you want to learn how to do drop sets the right way – based on science – then read on.
Here’s good news: modern exercise science has confirmed that drop sets are an effective technique. (List of studies at bottom of page below the videos). But drop sets go back a long way.
Drop sets were invented in 1947 by Henry Atkins. The charismatic Arnold Schwarzenegger helped make drop sets for bodybuilding more popular in the 1970s. The Terminator famously used drop sets on barbell curls to build some of the best biceps the bodybuilding world had ever seen.
Today you see recreational lifters doing drop sets every day in every gym.
Maybe you already do them, or you’re interested in trying. But maybe you also have reservations because:
- You heard experts say that “drop sets are no better than regular sets.”
- You heard drop sets are not good for strength, only for a pump.
- You might wonder if drop sets are just “bro science?”
- You want to try drop sets but like many others, you aren’t sure the best way to do them.
It’s a fact that most people do drop sets wrong and miss out on the best gains.
Learn How To Do Drop Sets Correctly – Based On Science
Modern exercise science has confirmed that this is an effective technique. (List of studies at bottom of page).
Drop sets are at least as effective for muscle growth as traditional sets. They also have some unique advantages that regular sets don’t have.
I recently spent two full days catching up on all the new drop set studies. (I nerd out on muscle-building research sometimes!)
Today, however, I didn’t want to write anything overly scientific. I simply wanted to answer all your questions, and give you a practical guide showing you how to do drop sets to build muscle in a way that’s supported by the science.
I created this guide after studying 11 of the most important studies on drop sets. I also added what I’ve learned from my own experience. I’ve been doing drop sets for more than 40 years. Ooops, just revealed my age.
But seriously, I love drop sets and having done them for so long, I know how well they work. I think drop sets, supersets, and rest pause sets make up a trifecta of the best specialized muscle building techniques.
Why Should You Use Drop Sets?
One thing the science confirms is that drop sets are not necessarily better than straight sets when the total volume of the workouts is the same. (Volume is also known as tonnage, which is the product of sets X reps X weight).
If that’s the case, why bother with them? The most cited reason is that drop sets can be a great efficiency technique if you want to use them to save time. It’s possibly the number one benefit.
Drop sets are also a superb way to apply progressive overload. I’m surprised at how few people use drop sets for overload.
Most experts only explain that “drop sets are a good way to increase volume in a time efficient manner.” But if you use drop sets for overload the right way, then this method can help you build a lot more muscle.
In addition, you can use drop sets for priority training to build more muscle right where you want it. Simply add drop sets for any body part you think is lagging behind others.
Need some work on your quads? Finish your leg day with leg extension drop sets. Sun’s out, but you’re embarrassed to get your guns out? Do some bicep curl drop sets down the dumbbell rack. You’ll be proudly going sleeveless in no time.
It will only take you about 5 or 6 minutes to read my tutorial below about how to do drop sets to gain more muscle. It’s in an FAQ format so you can skim through it quickly, and with this info, you’ll be ready to go straight to the gym and try this.
Tom Venuto’s Scientific Guide To Drop Sets
1. What Are Drop Sets?
Drop sets are an advanced training technique designed to build muscle, increase muscular endurance, give you a great pump, save time, and increase volume in an efficient manner.
Drop sets also go by different names including descending sets, strip sets (or stripping sets), extended sets, breakdowns, running the rack, down the rack, up the stack, the multi-poundage system, or burnouts.
A little-known fact is that you can also use drop sets as a form of progressive overload when you add them on top of your current lifting volume.
2. What’s An Example Of A Drop Set Step By Step?
Here’s how the technique works:
You start your set of weight training or resistance exercise like a normal set with a moderately heavy weight you can lift about 8 to 12 times. Carry out the set as usual to failure or very close to it (within 1 to 2 reps of failure).
Instead of stopping and taking a rest period for recovery, at this point you reduce the weight and then keep going for even more reps. Usually it’s 6 to 12 more, but this number of additional reps may vary depending on the size of the drop and how fatigued you are.
3. Do Drop Sets Work Better Than Regular Sets (Straight Sets)?
Drop sets probably do not build more muscle than traditional (straight) sets if the volume is equalized.
However, studies have shown that drop sets can build the same amount of muscle in half the time or less. One drop set with 3 weight drops is the equivalent of 3 traditional sets. Use drop sets this way if you want to save time.
4. How Can You Use Drop Sets For Progressive Overload?
This technique can also allow a time efficient increase in volume (progressive overload) by adding drop sets on top of your current workload.
For example, add one additional drop set each week for several weeks and you have achieved progressive overload all month long even if you didn’t lift any more weight.
Use drop sets this way if you want to guarantee progressive overload with a minimum of extra time involved.
5. How Many Weight Reductions Should You Do?
When doing drop sets, you can reduce the weight only once, or it’s also popular to drop the weight again up to 3 more times. The “triple drop” is a very popular technique.
If you try doing more than 3 weight drops, your form could deteriorate, you could overtrain, and you might only get diminishing returns. It’s more effective to really blast it hard for 2 or 3 weight drops.
6. How Much Do You Reduce The Poundage In Each Drop?
The amount of weight reduced is usually 20% to 25%, but it could range anywhere from 10% to 30%.
For example, if you were doing barbell curls starting with 100 pounds, a 20% reduction would be dropping to 80 pounds. Then dropping to 60 pounds would be a 25% reduction.
These are approximate numbers because how much you can reduce the weight may depend on the size of the weight plate. Also, some people choose to take a larger weight reduction and do a single “burnout set” or “finisher set” for high reps. (More than 12).
7. How Long Should You Rest Between Weight Drops?
When you do drop sets, take no rest between weight reductions, or as little rest as possible (sometimes it takes several seconds to remove weight from a bar or machine).
Occasionally you might need a few seconds rest for the burn and fatigue to dissipate. However, taking long rests between weight drops is cheating and means it’s no longer a drop set – it becomes more like a regular set with a short rest interval.
8. What Exercises Are Best For Drop Sets? Are Drops Sets Only For Curls?
Arnold made bicep curl drop sets famous, but you can do them on any exercises. That said, they are used more often on isolation exercises or machines.
Doing drop sets on large muscle compound exercises like squats and deadlifts is less popular because it’s so fatiguing and demands increased recovery time.
Some people do drops sets for bench presses, but you must always use a spotter for safety.
9. What Equipment Do You Need For Drop Sets?
Drop sets can be done with barbells using small plates, dumbbells, plate loaded machines, or weight stack machines. Weight stack machines are popular for drop sets because it’s so fast and easy to reduce the weight simply by pulling the pin and re-inserting it. (“Up the stack”).
10. Is It Ok To Do Drop Sets On Every Exercise?
Drop sets are almost never done for every set of every exercise in a workout session. This would cause large amounts of muscle damage, high amounts of fatigue and increased recovery time.
Drop sets are usually implemented sparingly, in a similar way as training to failure. Too much can lead to overtraining.
11. Should You Do A Drop Set On The First Exercise When You Are Strongest?
Drop sets are most often done only on the last set of each exercise. Doing drop sets on the first set of the workout is too fatiguing and reduces performance in subsequent sets.
When you’re doing multiple exercises for a single body part, the typical method is to save the drop set for the last set of the last exercise. (Use the drop set as a “finisher”).
12. Is It Ok To Do Just One High Rep Drop Set?
Many bodybuilders do a high rep drop set for their last exercise on a particular muscle as a way to finish with a huge pump. This is sometimes also known as a “burnout set.”
13. Will Drop Sets Build Strength As Well As Muscle?
Scientific research is mixed, but most of it confirms that drop sets are at least as effective for building muscle as traditional sets and are more time efficient. Drop sets can build more muscle if they result in more volume.
Some studies suggest drop sets are not as effective for building strength as other advanced high-intensity techniques like rest pause training.
Many lifters whose priority is strength only do straight sets with the heaviest weights they can handle. However, if your goal is strength and muscle, adding a drop set near the end of a workout may help boost muscle size gains.
14. Is It Safe For Older Men And Women To Do Drop Sets?
We need more research to confirm whether drop sets are as effective for women and for older adults. Anecdotal evidence suggests the answer is yes, but most of the research was performed on men in their twenties.
Older adults may not recover as well as younger people, so over-using high-intensity techniques like drop sets and failure training might be more likely to lead to overtraining. If you’re middle-aged or beyond, use drops sets with caution, and introduce them slowly.
The Bottom Line
Drop sets are one of the most efficient muscle-building methods you can use – they let you build the same amount of muscle in less time.
You can use them as a progressive overload technique, and they add intensity without increasing injury risk.
Use drop sets strategically, not randomly or excessively, and you will be very happy with the results.
Until next time, train hard and expect success!
-Tom Venuto,
Founder of:
Burn the Fat Inner Circle
Author of:
Extreme Fat Loss: Contoversial Diet And Training Tactics Reviewed And Rated (NEW Bestseller!)
Video Demos
Leg Extension Machine Drop Set (Three Weight Drops… Looks like it burns!)
Dumbbell Curls Drop Set Down The Rack (Quadruple Drop!!!)
How Drop Sets Can Even Be Used On Body Weight Exercises (Pull Up Single Drop Set)
About Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilding and fat loss coach with 35 years of experience. He holds a degree in exercise science and has trained hundreds of clients in person. He is also a recipe creator specializing in fat-burning, muscle-building cooking.
A former competitive bodybuilder, Tom is now a full-time evidence-based fitness writer, blogger, and author. His classic book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is an international bestseller, first as an ebook and later as a hardcover and audiobook. His newest book. Extreme Fat Loss, which analyzes controversial diet and training programs, became an instant bestseller in 2025.
Tom’s work has been featured in Men’s Fitness, Oprah Magazine and dozens of other major publications. He is best known for his no-BS, evidence based approach to natural fat loss.
Tom is also the founder of Burn the Fat Inner Circle, a fitness support community with more than 53,000 members worldwide since 2006.
Scientific references:
Coleman M et al, Muscular adaptations in drop set vs traditional training, a meta-analysis, International Journal of Strength And Conditioning, 2022.
Costa B et al, Acute effect of drop-set, traditional, and pyramidal systems in resistance training on neuromuscular performance in trained adults, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 35(4), 991-996, 2021.
Enes A et al, Muscular adaptations and psychophysiological responses in resistance training, Research Quarterly For Exercise And Sport, 1-8, 2022
Enes A, et al, Rest pause and drop set training elicit similar strength and hypertrophy adaptations compared with traditional sets in resistance trained males, Applied nutrition, physiology and metabolism. 2021.
Fink J, Schoenfeld B, et al Effects of drop set resistance training on acute stress indicators and long-term muscle hypertrophy and strength. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2017.
Goto K et al, Muscular adaptations to combinations of high and low intensity resistance exercise, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 18, 730-737, 2004.
Goto K et al, Effects of drop set and reverse drop set methods on the muscle activity and intramuscular oxygenation of the triceps among trained and untrained individuals, Journal of Sports Medicine, 15, 562-568, 2016.
Ozaki H et al, Effects of drop sets with resistance training on increases in muscle CSA, strength and endurance, Journal of Sports Science, 1-6, 2017.
Schoenfeld, B, Grgic J, can drop set training enhance muscle growth? Strength And Conditioning Journal, 40: 95-98.
Varovic D, et al, Drop set training elicits differential increases in non-uniform hypertrophy of the quadriceps in leg extension exercise, Sports, 9:119, 2021.
Willardson J, The application of training to failure in periodized multiple set resistance exercise programs. Journal of Strength And Conditioning Research: 628-631, 2007.
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