Burnouts?

[argent]

A drop set is indeed what was described. If you meant a drop set disregard the following paragraph. If you meant doing a shitload of reps as a last set read on:


The principle of specificity states that if you train a specific way, you will get a result specific to what the training was. So for instance, a marathon runner (focusing on cardiovascular endurance) would not see a huge amount of benefit by running 100m sprints. Conversely the sprinter would not shave many seconds of his 100m time by training like a marathoner and running 7 miles a day. To relate this to weight training, muscular strength is defined by how much you can exert in a 1RM. You can gain strength by training in the 1-10 rep range, maybe 12 reps. But if you start doing many more reps than that per set, you are no longer training for muscular strength, but muscular endurance. So it really won't make you any stronger per se to do a "burnout".

 

[Lee]

ok my bad, i always called em burnouts. i meant drop sets.

 

[argent]

Drop sets could give you some strength gains.

 

[mrzap]

I thought it would be considered a drop set if you rerack the weight then like recover for a minute or so and hit it again. <shrug> You guys know more than me and I concede to your experience hehe

 

[FatRat]

I thought it would be considered a drop set if you rerack the weight then like recover for a minute or so and hit it again. <shrug> You guys know more than me and I concede to your experience hehe

I think you are talking about Rest / Pause

I put Drop sets in the same category as a spotter giving you forced reps. Perhaps good to do sparingly on the last set of big exercises, but not to be overused. After all, what you are basically doing on both occasions is lightening the weight in order to get one or two more reps out past failure.

 

[casualbb]

Drop sets are a great way to fatigue the muscle. For people who do exclusively low reps, drop sets will definitely help. Doing a drop set to get a lactic acid burn conveys some of the same benefits as doing higher rep work, namely
1) Good for joints and connective tissue
2) Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy -- increased glycogen, more mitochondria, etc. It actually facilitates sarcomere hypertrophy, the kind we're all going for.

So to get that effect, right after your last work set, just drop the weight to where you can get 12-15 reps, and pump reps until you feel a burn (not necessarily until failure).

-casualbb