The Study
Effects of drop set resistance training on acute stress indicators and long-term muscle hypertrophy and strength.
This study saw that two groups of young men lifted weights differently for six weeks, and one group’s arms got a little bigger. But we don’t know if they were randomly assigned, so we can’t say the way they lifted made the difference — maybe one group just happened to be more active outside the gym.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Two groups trained their triceps for 6 weeks—one did one super-tough set, the other did three normal sets.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 545 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—tough set built more muscle with less work, but normal sets made people stronger.
- 2Feeling tired doesn’t always mean better results.
- 3Tough set group: arms grew 10% bigger, felt way more tired (RPE 7.7), lost 13% strength right after.
- 4Normal group: arms grew 5%, felt less tired (RPE 5.3), got 25% stronger overall.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness
Year
2018
Authors
J. Fink, B. Schoenfeld, N. Kikuchi, K. Nakazato
Related Content
Claims (10)
If you lift weights until your muscles can't do another rep, pushing fast on the way up and slowing down on the way back, it helps your muscles grow bigger.
Doing more reps until you're almost too tired to finish makes your muscles grow just as much with less overall work.
Even though guys doing drop sets did only one set instead of three, their muscles grew just as much or more than those who did three sets.
After one workout, guys who did drop sets were temporarily weaker than before, more so than those who did regular sets.
Even though both groups trained the same amount of time, the regular three-set group got stronger faster than the drop set group.
This study only looked at young men doing triceps exercises, so we don’t know if these results apply to anyone else.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.