I just read about Drop Sets earlier today and it seems that the first Mr. Olympia as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger used this method to bulk up. It seems very VERY stressful, I was wondering if someone could explain to me the best technique to this when you go to the gym alone.

Say I start doing biceps with 40 pounds dumb bells, then i fail with those at around 6 reps, then How much weight should I drop & how much time should I wait between the change in weight, and how many reps should I be aiming for when this lesser weight?

Drop sets are just a tool in the tool box that Arnold used for bulking. Bulking required calories; how much you eat will have the impact you're looking for over drop sets, forced reps, angles of impact, and other neat terms.

But if you want some guidance on drop sets themselves, well its upto you how you do them you can play about with them.

Personally when i do a drop set ill first do something like 2 sets of 8 with a weight that really pushes me, and then for the final set ill put more weight on so that i manage around 4-5 reps with a spotter and then knock the weight down a bit so i can then push a further 10 reps or so out. Its a ****ing awful feeling when doing it.....but i love it

Usually you're dropping at least 10% of the weight for each subsequent drop-set, but it really depends on the individual.

also remember that Arnold used anabolic steroids to pack on some of his muscle.

Drop sets are simply another method of adding extra intensity to your weight training session. As we all know, intensity is the secret ingredient to building strength and muscle mass. Intensity, is the measure of how hard we work at something IE: weight training.

The more intensity you introduce to your body, the harder your force it to work. To compensate, the body will adapt to this stress by: 1) Getting stronger; And 2) Building Larger Muscles.

Drop sets, like adding more weight to the bar, is another way of forcing your body to work harder - Increasing the intensity. Personally, I do drop sets with dumbbells because I usually workout alone. For example, on the shoulder press, I'll start out with about 80% of my maximum and do 8 repetitions. I never go to failure on this first set. I'll do another 4 sets afterwards, dropping 15% of my weight with each progressive set.

In your case, you might want to lighten your initial load to 35 pounds and do 8 repetitions. From there, drop 5 pounds until you are at 10 pounds.

Here's a tip: take a 5 second rest in between sets - Sort of a combination of rest/pause and drop sets - Works great.

Here's a tip: On your last set, aim to go to failure. This is a tough set but it's worth it.

Check out this web page for more information on drop sets - It goes into a lot more detail.

building-muscle101.com/drop-sets-for-muscle-growth.html

Also, you may want to take a look at the giant set, which is basically "down the racks" with dumbbells.

building-muscle101.com/dumbbell-shoulder-workout.html

All the best,

Blake