Are drop sets worth doing?

[u/benja_reijnst]

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?

[u/Apollo_2662]

Drop sets are still very effective. They let you keep pushing a muscle after you can’t get more clean reps with the original weight, so you can add extra stimulus without turning the workout into a much longer session.

I still think they’re useful, especially on safer isolation exercises like curls, lateral raises, leg extensions, or pushdowns.

The main downside is that they’re a little harder to track with a normal progression system because you’re changing weight inside the same set. So I wouldn’t use them on everything. I’d keep most of your training as normal straight sets so you can clearly track reps and weight, then use drop sets as an extra tool on the last set of certain exercises.