In today’s age of science-based lifters, fitness influencers, and even the misinformation of “bro science,” choosing a set and rep scheme often appears more complicated than it should be. Fortunately, six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates recently gave his take on how to setup your sets and reps, sharing his hard-earned wisdom on Instagram so that you can follow in his lofty footsteps.
“Drop sets and supersets… I often get asked my opinion on the above and if I ever did them,” wrote the British bodybuilding icon, as class got in session for Yates’ two million Instagram followers.
First things first: For the uninitiated, the drop set approach requires that an individual performs the first set to, or close to failure, and then drops the weight on subsequent sets, by around 10 to 30% each set. With drop sets, the number of reps can go up as the weight decreases, so if you do 6 to 8 reps in the first set, you can increase to 10 to 12 reps in the second set, and 12 to 15 reps in the third set, and so on. The idea behind drop sets is that they help to exhaust the muscles through prolonged effort, leading to greater hypertrophy.
On the other hand, Supersets occur when two difference exercises are performed with little to no rest between them, boosting intensity by working various muscle groups in a short span of time.
What Dorian Yates Says About Drop Sets and Supersets?
“I didn’t feel the need to consistently perform them,” explained the buff Brit, who notes that he only used supersets as a way of pre-exhausting his muscles, giving the example of a superset that combines pullovers with underhand pulldowns. “But like I said, I didn’t do them consistently,” added Yates. “My game was to fully focus on the target muscles and give it everything in that one set.”
Why Dorian Yates Prefers Straight Sets to Failure
There’s a reason that the Olympia icon didn’t become bogged down in the technicalities of different rep and set protocols, instead preferring straight, and often single sets that tested his mettle. “If you know in the back of your mind that you’ve got another exercise to follow straight after, it might be off-putting to give the first exercise truly everything,” he suggested. “With drop sets, I did them occasionally but only really ever on dumbbell lateral raises as far as I can remember,” recalled the bodybuilding legend, who won every Olympia from 1992 to 1997. Dorian Yates also explained that neither drop sets or supersets were part of his methods when filming his famed “Blood & Guts” training video in 2003.
What Are the Best Sets To Use for Muscle Growth According to Science
In terms of peer reviewed science, the truth is that straight, drop, and supersets are all methods that lead to muscle gain. While drop sets have been shown to build muscle in less time, there is no significant difference in terms of gains made from session to session. The jury is a little further out on super sets however, because the increased fatigue from little rest between exercises can create additional cardiovascular demands that could lower the lifting performance.
There’s no doubt that the simplicity of straight sets to failure makes for an uncomplicated choice, which allows full focus on the set being executed. Still, recent studies suggest that absolute failure is not necessary. Evidence suggests that hypertrophy increases as you get closer to failure because heavy reps accumulate a higher total volume of load, firing more motor units and recruiting type II muscle fibers. This process increases mechanical tension in the muscle, forcing them to build back stronger, but this effect may plateau once failure is achieved, meaning that intense, focused reps that are close to failure are more worthwhile than overdoing lifts to diminishing returns.
So, choosing a rep and set scheme can depend on what phase of training you are in and how much time you have, but Yates maintains that straight sets are still very much in his sights when eying up failure. “I don’t really do (drop sets or supersets) with clients either,” he explained, noting that the total effort given is more important to his gameplan than overcomplicating the journey that leads to results.
To follow Dorian Yates on Instagram, click here.
