Sorry for the long absence, guys, but I was doing some work in the Northern territories, where the law needs a helping hand every now and then so my office sent me there to check up and clean things up, keep things running smoothly, you know?
downside of the trip: there wasn?t a decent gym, just a bench, 4 pairs of dumbbells, none of which was more than 45 pounds heavy, one barbell and just a dozen plates which put all in the barbell don?t sum up to more than 250 pounds, but at least there were fixed bars and parallel bars and I had my weight belt to hook the plates to it and exercise.
The upside is that the jericoacoara beaches and other desolates areas are preferred for models to take sun baths?with no bikinis on, and I certainly enjoy the fact that I can walk up to them and get cozy. Thank God for that, for creatine, and protein shakes and exercise programs, drop setting and such.
Now let?s get to business as usual. First of all, this one?s for Lou:
I feel a tear of pride run down my cheek, Lou?.honest to God. You seem to have learned your lessons in what refers to bodybuilding, and yes, you are ready for the big leagues.
You are right with drop sets and pre-exhaustion, but conceptually. They are two different ways to work the muscle, but all in all, it is about adapting to the stress and compensate for the energy expenditure.
The best exercises in which 21?s can be used are triceps and biceps exercises, also partials. In the case of larger muscles, 1-and-1/2?s work fine, and also partials, but for the larger muscles, it is also good to do some extreme stretching under tension, like what DoggCrapp advises in his wacky routine. I think that one is responsible for 30% of the growth that some trainees get out of that program.
A surefire way to do a workout of pre-exhaustion and/or drop-setting is the following: load the bar heavy, try to shoot for a set of 8-10 reps, and don?t use more than 2 weight reductions.
Noiw, Lou’s private message to me before I left for my job trip was informative…it was an article on bodybuilding.com that spoke about “creative drop-setting” by a dude Tom Venuto. Here’s a condensation of the different ways to drop set, in case nobody wants to pop open a new window.
Here are the ways in which you can do drop sets:
An ascending rep drop set means that you decrease the weight substantially enough so you can increase the number of reps you perform with each weight reduction. For example, if you’re doing triceps pushdowns and 100 pounds is your six rep max, you would start with 100 pounds, then pull the pin and go to 75 pounds (twenty five percent reduction), which is a wide enough drop so you can hit ten to twelve reps on the next round.
Then you’d finish by pulling the pin and going to 50 (thirty three percent reduction), which is very light, allowing you to “rep out” and perform fifteen to twenty reps on the final drop.
Descending drop sets are when you perform a very tight drop set, so your reps actually decrease with each weight reduction. For example, if you’re doing bench presses with 225 pounds for twelve reps, you’d strip off a small amount of weight (five to ten percent), then continue for six to eight more reps. Then you’d pull off a little more weight and shoot for four to six reps. You’d then finish by dropping a small amount of weight again and doing two final reps.
Just remember the basics of drop setting: Usually, the time between weight drops ranges from zero to ten seconds. You can really go “crazy” with drop sets and reduce the weight as many times as you want. However, there seems to be a point of diminishing returns after two or three weight reductions. The most common drop set method is a triple drop, where you use three weights and two weight reductions.
The “halving method” is a wide drop set that allows you to use two totally opposite rep ranges, each of which will attack a different aspect of the muscle cell. This allows excellent muscle growth plus an incredible pump!
After warming up, begin by choosing the heaviest weight you can handle for six reps with strict form. Perform six reps, then without resting, reduce the weight by exactly fifty percent and continue for twenty repetitions with the lighter weight. Let’s use one arm dumbbell rows as an example.
If your six rep max is 110 pounds, start with six reps with the 110’s, then immediately grab the 55’s and bang out twenty good reps. You’ll be winded and you’ll feel something in your lats you’ve never felt before!
Now, you can drop the sets in 2 ways, wide or tight. A tight drop set would include any weight reduction between five and twenty percent. Tight drop sets are more often performed on small muscle groups and isolation exercises. For example, if you’re going down the rack on dumbbell curls, you might start with 50 pounders and drop to the 45’s, then the 40’s - a ten percent decrease per drop.
A wide drop set refers to a larger weight decrease between reps. Wide drops sets are easier than tight drop sets and they allow you do higher repetitions. Because of cardiovascular fatigue, wide drops are often used on large muscle group exercises like squats, bent over rows and leg presses. For example, in the squat you might begin with 315 lbs on the bar, then strip an entire 45 pound plate from each side and go on to 225 lbs, nearly a 30% drop in poundage.
Then you might strip another 45 pound plate off each side and go with 135 pounds (a 40% drop). Believe me, 135 pounds never felt so heavy!
If drop sets are the number one high intensity bodybuilding technique, then what’s the number two technique? In my opinion, it’s supersets. And what could possibly be better than combining the two most effective bodybuilding techniques in one; a “drop-superset.”
Here’s how it works:
First select the two exercises for your superset. If it’s shoulder day, it might be dumbbell lateral raises and dumbbell presses - a pre-exhaust superset. Start with lateral raises using you regular 8-12 rep max, let’s say 35 lbs for this example. Then go right into dumbbell presses with as little rest as possible and a little less weight as your usual 8-12 rep max - 65 lbs or so should do the trick.
Now, continue with no rest to a lighter set of dumbbells (25 lbs) for another set of side laterals. Then pick up the 55 lbs dumbbells and go into another set of shoulder presses. Finally, drop down to the 15 lbs dumbbells for the last set of lateral raises, then go straight into presses with 45 pounders. That’s ONE drop-superset. This is an extremely intense technique, so use these sparingly.
I did say that my idea was to do chest flyes and use 2 or 3 weight reductions and then moving on to bench press with wide drops, instead of alternating pairings, but it can work both ways, I guess there?s more ways than one to get there, al roads lead to Rome and such.
Let?s summarize:
1-) Tight drop sets are good for isolation exercises and small muscles, likes biceps or triceps. For the bigger muscles, they only work for strength, so don?t go nuts.
2-) Ascending drop sets are also cool for small muscles, it works like the halving method works for the bigger ones, which brings me to the next point?
3-) The halving method is great for large muscles done strictly as prescribed here, don?t get confused with the wide drop sets, which come next, you only get one reduction.
4-) Wide drop sets are great for larger muscles too, but the idea isn?t to rep out on each load drop, you just drop 25% off the initial load on each reduction and then try to do your best, not try to maximize the yield of the load used, so increasing on 2-3 reps per load won?t be bad, as long as you do stay 3 or 2 reps under the point of failure, or maximum productivity per load, which is different from maxing out because the weight goes down, reps don?t go up necessarily, just become easier, but not that easy as to add more than 2 reps to the bracket you used in the previous attempt, and I wouldn?t even try to do that myself.
These are pretty much the best ways to use drop setting there are. Trust me, you?ll find that this information is vital, and by the way: one method of overload is to tighten the drops, so you may start with wide drop sets for a muscle group, and tighten up the drops as a way to create overload. It makes this method last longer and produce more results on a longer period of time.
After this, chance to supersets and pre-exhaustion for a couple weeks and then return to it, or try a high-volume or high-frequency program, or a strength program of low rep sets before going back at it?that way it won?t stop giving results.
