Drop sets

Gearing up for next semester and keeping up my weight training (at least to some degree), I tried out a new workout today that I planned last week. To continue getting stronger and more toned I decided to incorporate drop sets into my lifting to challenge my muscles more but without causing me to bulk up. For example, for the past 3-4 weeks I've been doing 3 sets of bicep curls, each with 15 reps, with 12-pound dumbbells in each hand. Today I still did 3 sets of bicep curls, but I did 15 reps with 10 pounds in each hand, 13 reps with 12 pounds in each hand, and 11 reps with 15 in each hand. I applied this general concept to my hamstring, triceps, shoulder, and quad exercises.

It's a little awkward because they just don't make dumbbells with certain weights, so I may need to switch to using a bar for some of my exercises. I would have preferred to do 12/10/8 reps with 12/15/18 pound weights or something, because there's no way I can do 20 pounds with bicep curls, but oh well, I guess the stars won't align for that. The idea is that you challenge your muscles the most when they are already tired, and I can definitely feel it already, especially in my poor little triceps.

I kept all of my actual exercises the same, and I just varied the weights and reps, but I have already picked my new exercises that I will probably start to incorporate in Thursday's class. I'm going to start do lat pull-downs instead of the lat rows, and there's a slightly intimidating V-machine that I'm going to use for my quads/hamstrings as opposed to the lunges, split squats, and straight leg deadlifts I'm doing now. I'm also going to try to do some rear deltoid raises and maybe throw some push ups in there too. We'll see how I feel I guess :-)