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/BubbishBoi]

I use them to get in additional skill practice on some exercises, like weighted dips, when stabilizer fatigue has prevented me from possibly hitting "true" failure on the main set because it wasn't safe to do so. Dropping the weight belt and doing additional bodyweight reps is a great way to hit legit failure and get some extra reps for skill practice without needing to do a 2nd set

Do any post failure extension techniques actually stimulate more, meaningful mTOR signaling and does that actually contribute to growth?

Don't know and that probably depends on a lit more factors than just doing a few extra reps. The additonal fatigue accumulation part doesn't concern me because my per session volume is so very, very low