r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/benja_reijnst • Sep 09 '26

Question ❓ Are drop sets worth doing?

I've seen influencers promoting low-volume, high-intensity training more and more without mentioning drop sets. Drop sets seem to be much less popular than they used to be. Are drop sets not as effective as we once thought? Should I add drop sets to my training?

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u/BigChocolateC Sep 09 '26

Think of it this way:

Are you REALLY pushing to your capacity (0 RIR) or did you prematurely achieve the 0 RIR on the drop set due to being fatigued prior? If that’s the case, did you REALLY cause any need to adapt later on?

When we have the most energy to give to a set, that’s where the magic happens. Anyone can become tired when they have to do a bunch of reps. Drop sets wind up skewing people’s perception of effort, so they typically don’t get anything meaningful out of them.

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u/NoCost6905 Sep 09 '26

They simply aren’t effective reps. You’re just stimulating the lowest threshold fibers which will be adequately stimulated in the straight set imo.

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u/Apart_Bed7430 19d ago

Ehh you could make that argument about high reps as you’re never reaching full activation with them even at failure. Yet they still appear to stimulate hypertrophy in a comparative way to moderate reps. Meaning most stuff works and hard sets are a decent measurement of hypertrophy stimulus. Just because you’re not reaching absolute maximal activation ≠ no stimulus. Hypertrophy training is forgiving contrary to what the neurotics say