If you have been working out for some time, you might have heard the terms drop set, superset, and giant set. These are techniques for increasing the intensity of the workout.
These techniques fall under advanced techniques, so if you are a beginner, you do not need to implement them right away. However, learning about them at an early stage will help you to plan your workouts for the future, incorporating these advanced techniques.
Drop sets, supersets, and giant sets help build endurance and push your body harder, which promotes muscular growth. They also increase blood flow to your muscles, which helps to carry out nutrients and promote muscular hypertrophy. These techniques are also great for breaking the plateau.
These are advanced techniques, so you should be careful when using them. Overdoing them can cause more fatigue.
Learning about these advanced techniques will help you to utilize them effectively and avoid overusing them.
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What is Drop set?
The drop set is an extension of standard working sets, which we know as straight sets. In a drop set, after completing an exercise, you should immediately lower the weight without taking any rest, and perform a few additional reps.
It is considered a drop set when the weight drops after a regular set. For example, if you are performing squats with 100 pounds and could do 12 reps with it, in a drop set, you will immediately drop the weight to 70 or 80 pounds and perform an additional 5 to 10 reps with that weight.
How to perform
You can perform a drop set in every set or save it for the last set. The popular way of performing the drop set is in the last set. You can reduce the weight once or multiple times. Usually, people lower their weight once or twice to reach complete muscular failure or close to failure.
Suppose you are doing shoulder presses with 80 pounds and have done ten reps. Then you dropped the weight to 60 pounds and did an additional 8 reps. After that, you again dropped it to 40 pounds. It would help if you did as many reps as possible to get at least close to failure.
I prefer lowering the weight by 20% and aiming for 5 to 8 more reps when performing drop sets.
Benefits of drop-set
- It pushes the muscles to failure.
- It helps to maintain good form throughout the exercise.
- Even though you push to failure, the chance of getting injured is relatively low as you lower the weight when muscles are fatigued.
When to perform a drop set
I recommend doing drop sets on the last set of any given exercise, as performing them on each set generates a lot of fatigue.
You do not need to perform a drop set for every muscle group; you can, but it is unnecessary. Do drop sets for lagging muscle groups.
A drop set is a volume-intensive technique; it will most benefit those who train 3 to 4 days a week. If you train 5 to 6 days a week, you will already have sufficient training volume for each muscle group unless your workout routine is not designed correctly.
So, if you work 5 to 6 days a week, you do not need to incorporate a drop set. If you want to include it, do not perform drop sets for every exercise and perform it on alternate days; otherwise, it can hamper your recovery.
What is Superset?
A superset is a technique in which you perform two exercises back to back without taking any rest in between. Supersets can be performed for the same muscle group or opposing muscle groups.
This intensity-heavy technique pushes your workout for maximum gains or to put it simply promotes muscle growth.
Suppose you are doing lateral raises, and after finishing one set of lateral raises, you immediately start doing upright rows. Together, they will be considered one super set.
How to perform
As I mentioned earlier supersets can be of the same muscle group or performed for opposing muscle groups.
When performing a superset for the same muscle groups, one exercise is done to train the overall muscle group or the larger muscle of that group, which is followed up by an isolation exercise of the same muscle group. Doing the isolation movement in the fatigue state puts the muscle very close to failure.
Suppose you are performing squats, a relatively hard compound exercise, and you superset them with leg extension, which is more of an isolation exercise for quads. By performing squats, your quads will already be fatigued, so you will not have to push very hard in leg extension to reach muscular failure.
When performing supersets for opposing muscle groups, you can choose an exercise that is convenient for you. As you train opposing muscle groups, each muscle will be relatively fresh before the next working set.
Suppose you are doing a close grip bench press and superset it with a lat pulldown or biceps curl. As they are opposing muscles, you can push harder in every set.
After every superset, take at least a 2 or 3-minute break.
Benefits of superset
- Supersets are very time-efficient. The gym session is shortened as multiple exercises are performed back-to-back.
- It can easily increase the intensity of the workouts.
- It promotes hypertrophy as you push your muscles very close to failure.
When to perform a superset
If you have limited time for exercise and need to make your workout more intense, a superset is a great option, as it maximizes your time utilization.
The superset is designed to promote muscular hypertrophy, not strength. If you do strength training, the superset will not be optimal for you as heavy lifting requires a good amount of rest between sets, which the superset cuts.
Only when you have some lifting experience should you use this technique. The intensity is high, and it is hard to maintain strict form throughout the exercises, which may cause recovery issues for beginners.
What is Giant Set?
The giant set is an extended version of a superset. You will perform three back-to-back exercises in a giant set without resting in between.
However, unlike a superset, a giant set requires three exercises of the same muscle group. For example, if you are doing chest training, you might do an inclined dumbbell press followed by a peck deck fly and decline barbell press. Together, these three exercises will be considered one giant set.
This overloading technique helps in pushing the same muscle groups with different exercises to their limit.
How to perform
Performing a giant set is similar to performing a superset. You need to perform three exercises of the same muscle group sequentially.
As the exercises are performed back to back, it will make the muscle very fatigued, so it is always recommended to use a moderate weight when performing giant sets.
Suppose you are doing a giant set of legs. Then, you should do squats followed by leg curls, glute bridges, or calf raises.
You can mix and match exercises of the same muscle group to overload the muscle or push it to its limit.
Benefits of giant set
- It helps stimulate the weaker muscle group.
- It saves a lot of time.
- It helps in breaking the muscular plateau.
When to perform a giant set
Giant sets are fatiguing, so if you are a beginner who does not have proper lifting experience, you should avoid performing them.
Giant sets should only be performed when you have good form in the exercises but have trouble providing enough stimuli to lagging muscle groups. They are an excellent technique for breaking the plateau as they force muscles to grow stronger.
If you are doing hypertrophy-based training only, you should incorporate giant sets; never perform giant sets if your training style is strength-based. If you do not know what hypertrophy and strength training are, check out the following article.
