In order to build stronger muscles you have to tear tissue.
Its as simple as that.
When you are just using bodyweight exercises however its often hard to do that.
That’s why in today’s Mad Monday I’m going to show you how to incorporate body weigh drop sets into your workout.
Drop sets are a very popular method of fatiguing muscles. You start off with a heavy weight and go to full fatigue. Then you immediately do another set with a lighter load and continue in this manner until you are doing reps with a very light weight.
How do you do this when you are only utilizing bodyweight exercises?
Do a Bodyweight Drop Set
Start off with a harder exercise and go to full fatigue. Then do an easier exercise that targets the same muscle group.
Continue exercising in this manner until all of the muscle fibers are fatigued.
Here is a list of which exercises to combine to create bodyweight drop sets..
Whole Body Drop Set Guide:
Chest Drop Set
Incline Push Ups
Regular Push Ups
Push Ups on Knees
Tricep Drop Set
Cross Over Push Ups
Half Plank Tiger Bends
Close Gripo Push Ups
Shoulder Drop Set
Handstand Push Ups
Decline One Arm Holds
Frog Push Ups
Bicep Drop Set
Chins
Hammer Chins
Supported Chins
Back Drop Set
Pull Ups
Upside Down Pull Ups
Supported Pull Ups
Ab Drop Set
V Ups
Legs Up Crunches
Normal Crunches
Hindu Squats
Isometric Squats
Kneeling Back Bend
Bear Squat
There are an endless combination of harder and easier exercises to combine. You can create drop sets for any area of your body and in tons of variations.
Start with the ones above then create your own!
-Todd
P.S. Hope you like the special guest that visited us in the video. 😉
How often do we do do drop sets for calisthenics? How many sets? How many days per week? Can I do drop sets and peerly drop sets for calisthenics?
Hi Tood, it’s my first post, i come from limogesin france.
If i understand well. My goal is hypertrophy, 8-12(20) reps.
I can do drop set in this rep range to build mass.
I try to fatigue my muscle in this rep range, using drop.
Is it Right ?
I was reading on drop-sets with weights when I realized I could do this with bodyweight exercises, just tried with push-ups two days ago. Love your ideas, too! Tweeted your post!
Thanks Jill, really appreciate it.
– Todd
Adorable pink weight you’ve have… distracted me from my mission.
Great post, love it!
Omg Tod you da man just did the whole body now i cant move thanks keep killing it
Hey mark, Awesome! Yes, it certainly is tough. 🙂
Hey Todd! Great piece of information. I came across your website about a month ago and I really like the content. I have another routine to build muscles that I learned from visiting Nick Nilsson’s website. It is call time/volumn density work. here is the skinny on it and it is soooooeffective:
Set a timer for 20 mins. (for larger muscle groups…..10 mins for smaller)
Example: Do three really slow and strict form push ups. Stop and count to 10. After the count, do three more. Continue this rep/time range until you can barely get the third rep. Do not go to muscle failure. Then start counting to 20. Three push ups then a count to twenty. When that last rep is tough again, then count to thirty…..forty…ect.
When the timer goes off, you are finished.
You will hurt for a few days agter this. Drink plenty of water!!!
I use this method for a few weeks to really tear down my muscles then I go back to a high rep scheme for a few weeks. Darn, am I stronger now….and bigger. I am 45 and I love pulling and pushing my body weight. Take care my friend and stay strong!
Sean
Hi Sean,
Love the idea! And actually I had never heard of this before. I think I’ll give it a try and then write about my experience. 🙂
Thanks for the tip!
Todd