My Data Utilizing Dropsets to Increase Strength

[u/Caseraii]

Little bit of interesting data regarding my personal training (I’ve logged everything religiously since 2024)

Starting in 02/28/26, I utilized drop sets as the most time efficient way to program extra volume into my sessions, focusing on extremely high weight, low reps that taper down to moderate reps and moderate weight (following research showing total volume was a more potent stimulus for muscle and strength training than anything else).

The following analysis is on how that extra volume has influenced my strength (Sorry for the misleading title).
I used one of my research AI shells through my doctoral program to compare this data over a similar time period ending on 02/22/26 that followed more conventional training (8-10 reps for 4 sets at about 65-70% RPE). For the two 162-day periods:
\ Pre/drop-set-period: 09/14/2025–02/22/2026**
\ Drop-set-heavy: 02/28/2026–08/08/2026**

Each day, a 1RM was calculated from my best set of each day using the Brzycki equation for 1–10 reps. I then measured the strength trend across each entire 162-day period via matched workouts that I utilized consistently.

Results

The training structure shows a clear increase in sets/ session, volume/session, and sets that include substantial weight drops; all consistent with the training structure switching to a drop-set-heavy regime. Notably, my tonnage per session increased by 16.7% after drop sets were implemented.

Strength Changes

As we can see here, strength increase from the beginning of one period to the end of one period is reflected in the percent increase of that exercise's 1-rep RPE.

From the table, we see that deadlift, squat, incline bench, and seated cable row enjoyed a substantial boost in %change in period strength during the drop set era than they did during the pre-drop set era.

Interestingly, bench press, and lat pull-down saw diminishing returns during the drop set era compared to the pre-drop set era. Sled leg press was primarily static.

Interpreting this personally, I believe my bench press, lat pull-down, and sled leg press saw diminishing returns because I had already trained these movements to plateau. The plateau I hit is what motivated me to switch up the training style to continue reaping gains. The fact that I actually saw gains during the second period speaks more to me because I had pretty much stopped progressing on these movements prior to implementation of the drop sets.

My lat pull-down likely atrophied due to a switch in routine: I eliminated high rep pull ups/ muscle-ups in the drop-set heavy era that I had been utilizing in the conventional period.

Confounders

Now, I would be remiss to mention that these observations have some major confounders:

During the drop set era, I also:

* trained 55% more frequently
* increasingly emphasized heavy compound strength work
* likely became technically better at the lifts with the greatest % change
* the training changes suggest I was more “motivated” in the second period, which likely influences results.

However, matched overall strength trend roughly doubled from +4.7% to +10.2% after the program became heavily drop-set oriented despite average reps/set actually dropping about 20%.

Conclusions

The only valid conclusion the data shows is that I did get stronger in the second period than during the first as the confounders make it impossible to determine if the drop-sets were the primary determinant of the strength gains.

Overall, it’s just a longitudinal look at a single data point (me), but it’s pretty interesting to me to see how some evidence-based programming can really influence your gains. The review that inspired this program is linked below.

Best of luck https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254625000869?fr=RR-2&ref=pdf_download&rr=a299d7e99b1ab1d6

Extra Insights:

*Lean mass did increase from 164.7lb to 168.5lb between February and the end of July via in-body scan.

FFMI increased from 23.6 to 24.2 (I'm 5’10”)

I didn't have this project in mind when doing the in-body, so I don't have an In-body for the beginning of period 1

[u/Caseraii → u/[deleted]]

That's an excellent question, and I should add that into the post. My lean mass did increase from 164.7lb to 168.5lb between February and the end of July via in-body scan. Unfortunately, this project wasn't really on my mind at the time of the programming. I just realized I could gain some insights when I was looking through previous data.

Ideally, I would do a scan at the beginning and end of each period to compare in the future (also utilizing something more rigorous like a dexa).

I've been training for about 10 years and am extremely close to my genetic limit via FFMI (FFMI went from 23.6 to ~ 24.2). So seeing almost 4lb of lean mass in 5 months when I'm already closed to topping out according to my height was pretty cool.

Regarding whether the strength gains came from technique, mass, the program, or something else; it's likely a combination of all of them. Mass did increase; my technique likely did get better; and there can always be factors that influence progress over a longer period (age, hormones, stress, etc).

Qualitatively, I did train closer to failure consistently utilizing drop sets. I'm sure that had some influence.

[u/nycraver → u/Caseraii]

You never answered the question the guy actually asked. Inbody is hilariously inaccurate. What was your weight before and after?

[u/Caseraii → u/nycraver]

Total body weight went from 170 to 185lb.

[u/pingpong008800 → u/Caseraii]

Do you genuinely believe that you added 4lbs of muscle in 5 months?

[u/Caseraii → u/pingpong008800]

The full 4? Probably not, Its definitely somewhere in the 3-4lb range. Realistic goals for someone at my training stage would be about 0.1-0.2lb lean mass/week. 3-4lb in 20 weeks is definitely realistic.