By John Krueger (About the Author)
The only way your muscles change and adapt (getting bigger and stronger) is by adding the stress necessary to build them. One of the best ways to do this is time under tension (TUT), in other words, simply elongating the amount of time your body or certain muscles are working (under stress). This can be done in a multitude of ways that will be covered in later articles, but today we are going to focus on drop-sets. In the simplest form, a drop set is when after you complete a certain number of reps or reach failure during a movement/exercise you take a short rest to lower the weight and continue the set. For example on a Lat Pulldown: lets say you can hit 100 pounds for a set of 10, at the conclussion of the 10th rep you would immedietly lower the weight and then continue to hit as many reps as you can. You can add as many drops in a set as you would like to increase the TUT. More advanced forms of drop-sets would be "running the rack" where you start at a certain weight and continue lowering the weight after a certain number of reps until you reach the lowest amount of weight available. Another advanced version would be a reverse drop set in which you would raise the weight after a certain amount of reps rather than of lowering it.
NOTE: If you are working out alone, drop sets are easier done using machines or dumbbells. If you have a partner or a spotter feel free to try them using barbells or plate loaded machines.
If you have any more questions regarding drop-sets or would like to know more about how to program them into your workouts please shoot me an email. (JKFitness95@gmail.com)