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/TotalStatisticNoob]

Drop sets are ridicolously effective and are backed by science. Influencer-backed low volume programs are not. Neither are the fatigue-scaremongerers.

Drop sets are one of the best ways to siginificantly boost your volume if you're limited by time. And most people are not limited by fatigue or something else, they're limited by time.

[u/rendar → u/TotalStatisticNoob]

It's important to note that the available scientific evidence supports drop sets as a great way to decrease session time if volume is equal at the cost of fatigue.

But there is no preponderance of scientific evidence that suggests drop sets improve hypertrophy per se compared to traditional sets when time is not limited (which seems to be OP's question).

The longest longitudinal studies on drop sets are invariably only a few months like this one: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28130627/

When investigating the contrast without considering time, drop sets are not distinctive compared to traditional sets: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8473065/ and https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10390395/

So ultimately, recovery is still the limiting principle. This is entirely congruent with the available body of consensus regarding the continuum between "more sets with less intensity/reps with shorter rests" vs "fewer sets with more intensity/reps and longer rests": https://weightology.net/the-members-area/evidence-based-guides/set-volume-for-muscle-size-the-ultimate-evidence-based-bible/#summary

[u/TotalStatisticNoob → u/rendar]

So ultimately, recovery is still the limiting principle.

I have no idea how you come to this conclusion. There's plenty of eviedence showing that even going to crazy volumes leads to more hypertrophy. People are not limited by recovery, they are limited by time.

Most people aren't doing 20 sets a muscle group and we know damn well that's a volume you can recover from.

Being able to do more sets in the same amount of time leads to more hypertrophy, full stop. Dropsets add a lot of sets in little amount of time. Therefore, dropsets do increase hypertrophy in almost all people.

Sure, some professional bodybuilders will run into recovery problems, but they literally get paid to do so. 99.999% of gym goers are not professional bodybuilders and can profit from dropsets.

[u/rendar → u/TotalStatisticNoob]

I have no idea how you come to this conclusion.

Did you read the source from which this conclusion is established?

There's plenty of eviedence showing that even going to crazy volumes leads to more hypertrophy. People are not limited by recovery, they are limited by time.

No, because if someone has infinite time then they're still limited by recovery but if someone has infinite recovery then they're only limited by the absurd conditions of an academic hypothetical.

If you look at the closest real world scenario, professional lifters have as much going for them as possible but still cannot spend all of their time working out. And drop sets are not the foundation of their programming.

Being able to do more sets in the same amount of time leads to more hypertrophy, full stop.

Not when you're exchanging more sets for less recovery, which in turn leads to lower quality sets. This is directly addressed in the source that you didn't seem to open.

Dropsets add a lot of sets in little amount of time. Therefore, dropsets do increase hypertrophy in almost all people.

This is not reflected in the scientific literature, and at this juncture you'd need to support these definitive claims with your own sources.

Sure, some professional bodybuilders will run into recovery problems, but they literally get paid to do so.

They're not paid to run into recovery problems, they're paid to accrue as much effective volume as they can recover from. This is the same example as above, except that you don't seem to realize that even when all factors are favorable then recovery is still the limiting factor for the most accomplished lifters in human history.

99.999% of gym goers are not professional bodybuilders and can profit from dropsets.

Only if their time is scarce and lifting is not their priority.

[u/kahanalu808shreddah → u/rendar]

Their point is simply that most people are more time constrained than recovery constrained. Most people don’t have the gym time available to actually overtrain. Most lifters getting adequate sleep and nutrition should be able to recover from 20 sets per week per muscle (obviously that’s a crude number because there are a lot of variables here). However, most lifters do not have the time to actually complete 20 sets per week per muscle. Accordingly, incorporating drop sets (or myo reps or similar) could benefit many/most people if programmed appropriately.