When you hear “drop set” what do you think?

Most likely you would first think about the classic style of drop set. This involves you performing a standard working set until intra set fatigue onset forces you to end the working set. Yet with a drop set you are able to extend the set and add more reps by simply dropping the load down, even though major fatigue is present.

Yet this isn’t the only form of drop set available to us – we can also use Mechanical Drop Sets. This method is an alternative variation and a different intensity technique we can strategically add into our program design at key times.

Like the classic drop set, a Mechanical Drop Set also allows you to extend your working set despite fatigue onset. 

The key difference with a mechanical drop doesn’t involve a drop in load, but rather a shift in exercise set up.

So, with the mechanical drop set, you still perform max reps possible at a certain loading intensity until fatigue forces you to stop the set. Yet to continue the working set you shift to a more advantageous position and use an alternative of the 1st exercise performed, then perform max reps possible with this new variation. This little set up shift allows you to have a brief period of rest which allows more work to be performed.

Yet the key with the mechanical drop set is you would re-start the working set after the mechanical drop by using a stronger variation of the 1st exercise performed. This may appear to an outsider watching that you are simply performing two different exercises, and whilst you are indeed doing this, you are also still performing the same foundational movement too.

To illustrate this method in action, here I am performing the DB Y Raise for the medial deltoids.

First, I perform a Y Raise using a 30° Incline for 8 reps and a pause is added too, but then I quickly change the bench angle to perform the mechanical drop, then I do max reps possible with a Y Raise using a 60° bench angle. Once I can no longer do any more reps, I would then rest for the prescribed rest period, e.g., 90-120 seconds.

Whilst not all exercises will be well suited to this technique, some exercises can work brilliantly with this method. 

Potential examples include:

• BB Quad Squat (20° heel elevation) + BB High Bar Squat (feet flat) 
• DB 45° Incline Press + DB Flat Press   
• 45° Back Extension with hands overhead + 45° Back Extension with hands by your torso 

Whilst you don’t always want to use this special intensity technique method, the mechanical drop set does have a few key benefits which are: 

1. Allows more training volume to be acquired to aid progressive overload

2. The additional reps performed will require a very high effort due to the fatigue present and these reps can be very stimulatory for hypertrophy. This is because fatigue onset intra set can allow for high motor unit recruitment to occur with more individual muscle fibres recruited to contribute to force output. Crucially though, these additional fast twitch fibres which are recruited are more sensitive to hypertrophy potential.

3. Like the classic drop set option, the mechanical drop set is also a time efficient way to accumulate more volume.

4. The mechanical drop set allows for subtle exercise variation which allows for different muscle fibres to potentially be recruited too. A great example of this would be a mechanical drop from a DB 45° Incline Press to a DB Flat Press, with different muscle fibre divisions of the chest better recruited with different variations of the same base press motion.

5. No change in loading is needed to execute the mechanical drop. This can be extremely helpful if you’re training in a commercial gym, and you’re limited by equipment. 

Want to learn more great training techniques? Then you’ll love our Program Design course as we dive deeply into multiple special methods you can add into your programming.

Thanks for reading,

Glen Carroll