Thread: question

I'm sorry bro but I'm not tracking. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to do drop sets? Let me know and I'll try to help.

thjats the thing i really dont know. i have been lifting for a long time but was never really shown how. the gym i attend when im not on the tugboat i work on is in a small town in mo. the guy that owns it says he has never lifted in his life so no help there . the good thing is we are able to use the place 24/7 as we all have keys the bad thing is we are left to learn on our own. what im doing above is loading the bar for my bench and removing 10 lbs every 3 sets of 6 reps. my bench press has been going up and im getting stronger, i just want to make sure im not doing something wrong.

so how many sets total you do?

I suppose you are doing reverse pyramids. Never really heard many guys using this. Most just pyramid up but, if you are getting stronger...you know what they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Why don't you put up your stats and goals and we could help you more.

to bonesaw:on my bench press it comes to 13 sets total but every 3rd set is lessweight. predator my stats : age 42 weight 193 height 5' 11" . bodyfat around 12% max press 260 goal : press 300 by june and to stay healthy. is there any thing else i should add to this?

im sorry thats 13 drops in weight, 3 sets at each weight level 6 reps each set

yea like someone said most people pyramid up. I typically go from 150x10 155x8 160x6 on big lifts that I pyramid.

I'd ask why you are doing this?

I used to do drop sets, but only after pyramiding up in weight to my max working weight. So lets use bench press as example with the weights being hypothetical,

Set 1- 135x15
Set 2- 165x12
Set 3- 185x10
Set 4- 225x8
Set 5- 255x6

Now I do 2-3 drop sets. So off my weight of 255, I drop to 225 and do as many reps as possible, rack the weight, strip it to 205 lets say, max reps and either do one more set at lets say 185, or I stop at the 205 drop.

I never liked just doing reverse pyramids although some people do. But for me, just never liked that many drops.

Just my opinion.

Originally Posted by Anabolic5150

I'd ask why you are doing this?

I used to do drop sets, but only after pyramiding up in weight to my max working weight. So lets use bench press as example with the weights being hypothetical,

Set 1- 135x15
Set 2- 165x12
Set 3- 185x10
Set 4- 225x8
Set 5- 255x6

Now I do 2-3 drop sets. So off my weight of 255, I drop to 225 and do as many reps as possible, rack the weight, strip it to 205 lets say, max reps and either do one more set at lets say 185, or I stop at the 205 drop.

I never liked just doing reverse pyramids although some people do. But for me, just never liked that many drops.

Just my opinion.

my main reason for the way i do it
1. i do most of my lifting on a tug boat and dont have a partner so by the time im at the bottom of my sets although im exausted i feel saferwith the less weight.

Originally Posted by so1970

my main reason for the way i do it
1. i do most of my lifting on a tug boat and dont have a partner so by the time im at the bottom of my sets although im exausted i feel saferwith the less weight.

That's a good reason, and as long as it works just keep on doing it. Sometimes we have to adapt our training to fit our situation, seems like that is what you are doing.

Good luck!!!

i guess the question i have is am i over doing it and is there anything i can do to be more productive without putting myself in danger?

Originally Posted by so1970

i guess the question i have is am i over doing it and is there anything i can do to be more productive without putting myself in danger?

I don't think anyone can really answer that for you. Just try to use a bit more weight every session, that way there is load progression. It's not the perfect way to train in my opinion, but it's all you have and there is no perfect way LOL.

will do thanks

Originally Posted by so1970

will do thanks

You're welcome.

I assume being on a tugboat equipment is limited. Let us know what you have. Another good thing to help with bench strength is floor presses. You truly don't need a spotter with this unless you are going super heavy. Just when you are done with your set kind of drop the weight behind your head. If that is to much for you the set up a couple 45's a little behind were you will be pressing and then when you are done GENTLY put the weights on that and make sure they don't roll off. Then just slide out. That is what I did in afghanistan. It sucked but worked. Let us know about the equipment though.

I have a video example of my drop set method in the 400lbs bench thread. check it out.
Drop sets can be very effective for building strength / endurance. But they are a double edge sword (they wear you down very quickly). Definitely don't recommend doing them on a weekly basis.