How Drop Sets Affect Strength and Hypertrophy

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What is a Drop Set?​

With drop sets, you do several sets without rest where you reduce the weight between each set.
Learn how to do drop sets. You can run the racks, up the stacks, and more!

How Drop Sets Affect Strength and Hypertrophy​

Studies suggest that drop sets are equivalent to regular sets for gaining muscle mass. In terms of increasing strength, drop sets might not be ideal. More research is needed for stronger conclusions.

Benefits of Drop Sets​

Drop sets are an efficient way to make progress while spending little time in the gym. You can also combine it with other time-saving methods such as super sets. Drop sets lead to similar levels of exertion and fatigue as other types of training.

“[Drop set] training might be an efficient way to increase muscle mass with minimal time spent training.”
- Fink et al., 2017

Drawbacks of Drop Sets​

If you use drop sets excessively, you might become fatigued and possibly injured. As with all types of training, excessive workloads can lead to overreaching and overtraining.

Methodology​

We searched scientific databases for studies on drop sets, and analyzed their data. Read more about how we found and analyzed the studies in our methodology section.

What Are Drop Sets?​

Drop sets involve doing many sets in a row where you (reduce) the weight between each set.
Note that failure is traditionally used in drop sets, but is not required (learn more about training to failure). You can use machines, dumbbells, and barbells for drop sets. Barbell drop sets can be tricky because you need to rerack the barbell and remove plates between each set. This can be dangerous if done quickly, as in the example of the bench press.
It is easier with dumbbells and machines. In the case of running the rack, you move down the dumbbell rack and pick lighter dumbbells for each set. This is very quick for exercises like biceps curls.
Quotes: What is a Drop-set?

How to do drop sets​

Here is how you do a drop set:

1. Lift a weight until you reach muscular failure
2. Reduce the weight and continue your second drop set without any rest
3. Do as many sets as you prefer

You can do drop sets with machines, dumbbells, barbells, and even your own body weight. we will cover the first three methods in our guide. It is practical and safe to do drop sets with machines and dumbbells, but barbell exercises require more planning. You might need a spotter to help you drop the weight.

Running the rack / Down the rack (dumbbells)​

This is when you work your way down a rack of dumbbells while continuing the same exercise. Bicep curls and shoulder flys are traditionally used with this method.
If you are in a hurry, you may want to do run the rack like this:

Exercise	Set	Weight/reps
Biceps curl	1	Choose a weight you can do 12 reps to failure with
Biceps curl	2	No breaks! Move down the rack and choose a lower weight that allows you to do 10-14 reps
Biceps curl	3	Keep moving down the rack. Choose a weight that allows you to do 10-14 reps
Biceps curl	4	Keep moving down the rack. Choose a weight that allows you to do 10-14 reps, and so on.

As you can see, you need to experiment with drop sets to figure out the right weight and reps. Also, you should be mindful of other people who are exercising with dumbbells so that you don’t run into them on your way down the racks.

Strip sets (barbell)​

This is when you strip plates off of a barbell between each set. For example, if you have 175lb on a barbell, on the next set you could remove 10lb from each side and continue doing reps with little to no rest. A training partner can speed up the process and help you strip plates between each set.

Up the stack / Run the stack (weight machine)​

With this drop set, you move the pin upwards for every set. This is very easy and allows you to do many drop sets on your own. It’s generally safer to have muscular failure on machines such as chest presses, because they won’t crush you under their weight compared to how a barbell bench press would.

Other types of drop sets​

We have described the most commonly used types of drop sets above. But if you’re interested, there are other types as well:

• Tight drop set: When you decrease the weight by a small amount (5-10%) in a drop set.
• Wide drop set: When you decrease the weight by a large amount (10%+) in a drop set.
• Drop super-set: When you add drop sets to a super-set. For example, on your last set of leg extension and leg curl super-set you use one of the above methods to decrease the weight.
• Rest-pause set: When you pause for an extended period of time (10-30 seconds) while continuing to decrease the weight.
• Halving method: When you decrease the weight by half on a drop set.

As you can tell, there are an endless amount of ways to incorporate drop sets into your workout.

Do Drop Sets Maximize Hypertrophy?​

Why drop sets should work - hypotheses and mechanisms​

If we look at the scientific literature, there are two main hypotheses:

1. Even if you train to muscle failure, there are still muscle fibers that are not entirely fatigued. Drop sets could hypothetically fatigue the muscle to a greater extent. (Schoenfeld & Grgic 2017; Howe and Waldron 2017).
2. Drop sets increase time under tension, which could increase hypertrophy (Schoenfeld & Grgic 2017; Howe and Waldron 2017).

Muscle failure, fatigue, and time under tension should increase metabolic stress (Schoenfeld & Grgic 2017; Howe and Waldron 2017). You can also do more volume quickly with drop sets. This is the rationale for why drop sets could maximize hypertrophy. On the other hand, it should be said that going to failure won’t necessarily give greater hypertrophy.
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Information about the drop set studies​

From our literature search, we identified five studies with hypertrophy data. Two of the studies used a within-subject design (i.e. Ozaki et al., 2018, Angleri et al., 2017). What that means is that they randomized the arms or legs of the participants. One arm/leg trained with traditional sets, while the other trained using drop sets. Here’s some key data about how the studies were structured:

Study	Training Program	Training Experiencen
Angleri et al., 2017 12 weeks Within-subject design, unilateral	Leg extension and leg press. 2x per week	6.4 ± 2.0 years
Ozaki et al., 2018 8 weeks Within-subject design, unilateral	Dumbbell curl. 2-3x per week.	Untrained for ≥ 1 year
Fink et al., 2017 6 weeks Between-subject design, RCT	Tricep pushdown. 2x per week	Recreationally trained for ≤ 1 year
Fisher et al., 2016 12 weeks, Between-subject design, RCT	Full body training. 2x per week.	Trained with 6 months of experience
Goto et al., 2004 10 weeks	Leg press and leg extension. 2x per week	Recreationally active, no RT for ≥ 6 months

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Drop set hypertrophy graph​

The drop set literature is small. Four studies measure muscle hypertrophy directly by MRI or ultrasound (Fink et al., 2017, Angleri et al., 2017, Ozaki et al., 2018, Goto et al., 2004) and one measures muscle hypertrophy indirectly by bod pod (Fisher et al., 2016). We extracted and analyzed the data from the studies that measure muscle size directly.

[Advanced discussion]
In two studies, Angleri and Ozaki, participants increased their CSA by a mean of 2.16 cm² to 2.43 cm². The between-group effect sizes were tiny ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 and the confidence intervals were wide and non-significant. Mean changes were neither statistically significant nor clinically significant between groups. Both of these studies used within-subject design where each limb was randomized to drop set or traditional training.
The Fink study had a much smaller absolute gains in muscle cross-sectional area (0.35 to 0.7 cm²). It’s unclear why, perhaps the training protocol wasn’t challenging enough. It is also the study with the largest between-group effect size (0.26 favouring drop set group). But the CI for the ES is wide and so is the significance test for the mean between-group change (p=0.577, as reported by the authors).

Drop set hypertrophy statistics​

Note: the ES’ and CIs were calculated by Sci-Fit based on the reported means, standard deviations, and participant numbers (more details in the method section).

Study	Mean change (muscle CSA)	Effect size (ES) and 95% confidence interval (CI)
Angleri et al., 2017 12 weeks, thigh ultrasound CSA	Traditional group: +2.33 cm² Drop set group: +2.43 cm²	ES = 0.02 favouring drop set CI = -0.58 to 0.62 Common language effect size: 50.6% (0.6% favouring drop set)
Ozaki et al., 2018 8 weeks, biceps MRI CSA	High load* group: +2.26 cm² Drop set group: +2.16 cm²	ES = 0.05 favouring high load CI = -1.09 to 1.17 Common language effect size: 51.3% (1.3% favouring traditional)
Fink et al., 2017 6 weeks, triceps MRI CSA	Traditional group: +0.35 cm² Drop set group: +0.7 cm²	ES = 0.26 favouring drop set CI = -0.74 to 1.23 Common language effect size: 57.3% (7.3% favouring drop set)
Goto et al., 2004 10 weeks, MRI	Traditional group: NA Drop set group: NA	Unable to calculate, lacking data

*Ozaki had three groups, low load (30% 1RM), high load (80% 1RM), and drop set. The high load group was most similar to traditional training, therefore we compared it to the drop set.
An important difference between the studies was the muscle group used during training. Fink et al., used the triceps, Angleri et al., used the thigh and Ozaki et al., used the biceps.
The final study, Goto et al., 2004, used a traditional design for 6 weeks of training, then split the groups in two during the final 4 weeks. During those four weeks one group completed five traditional sets and the other group completed the same but with an extra drop-set at the end. The drop-set group continued to gain a significant amount of the muscle while the traditional group did not (Goto et al., 2004). This could be due to the drop-set group completing 23% more volume than the traditional group.
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Hypertrophy Conclusion​

There is only one study indicating drop sets might be better than traditional sets when volume is equated. Our current conclusion is that drop sets are as good as regular sets for hypertrophy. More research is needed to determine if drop sets can be beneficial for specific muscle groups or if it should be used for certain exercises.

Do Drop Sets Maximize Strength?​

Drop set strength graph​

Drop set strength statistics​

The effect sizes for strength are larger compared to hypertrophy. Both Fink and Ozaki have a between-group ES of ~0.6. Let’s say we picked one participant at random from both groups in these two studies. We’d have a 66-67% chance of picking someone who made greater gains from the traditional groups versus the drop set groups.

Study	Mean change	Effect size and 95% CI
Angleri et al., 2017 12 weeks Leg press, 1RM	Traditional group: +57.5 kg Drop set group: +55.7 kg	ES = 0.04 favouring traditional CI = -0.56 to 0.64 Common language effect size: 51.13 % (0.1% favouring traditional)
Ozaki et al., 2018 8 weeks Dumbbell curl, 1RM	High load group: +3.4 kg Drop set group: +1.8 kg	ES = 0.64 favouring traditional CI = -0.57 to 1.75 Common language effect size: 67.4% (17.4% favouring traditional)
Fink et al., 2017 6 weeks Triceps pushdown, 12RM	Traditional group: +25.0 lbs Drop set group: +16.4 lbs	ES = 0.59, favouring traditional CI = -0.44 to 1.56 Common language effect size: 66.2% (16.2% favouring traditional)
Goto et al., 2004 10 weeks	Traditional group: NA Drop set group: NA	Unable to calculate, lacking data

Drop set strength conclusion​

One study supports drop sets for strength (Goto et al., 2004). But it was not volume equated. The small amount of literature seems to suggest that training with drop sets is not ideal for increasing strength. This is assuming that you’re not doing more volume with drop sets. Drop sets might help if they allow you to do more volume. Still, due to the diversity in study designs, it is difficult to make any firm conclusions if drop sets are superior or inferior to other types of training.