Drop Sets on Day 33

Two things are super special today. First, it’s FRIDAY!!! Happy Friday! Second, I just realized I’ve now posted 100 posts to my blog! I appreciate anyone who is reading. I feel like it’s a big accomplishment for a blogger 🙂 Hopefully I’ll have many, many more.

Yesterday I completed Day 33 of JE LiveFit trainer.  It was a shoulders and cardio day.  My shoulders were burning after doing all 7 shoulder exercises for the day.  I can’t wait to start seeing some definition in my shoulders.  I still don’t see much there.  When I got to the end of the workout, I noticed two of the sets are supposed to use Drop Sets. 

I had no idea what a drop set was so I started to do some research.

Drop Sets:

A drop set is when you lift until failure, decrease the weight until failure, and decrease the weight again until failure. For example, if you are doing lat raises with a 10lb weight and do 10 reps and feel like you can’t possibly do anymore, drop your weight down to 8lb dumbells. After a few more reps, if you feel like you can’t do anymore, drop it down again to 5lb dumbells until you can’t do anymore. It is recommended to do no more than 3 “drops” in weight.

It is possible to overtrain your muscles by doing drop sets. Make sure to only do one or two drop sets PER MUSCLE GROUP in any given workout. Drop Sets are used to shock the muscles by adding stress.

Drop sets are also referred to as breakdowns, descending sets, triple downs, down the rack or running the rack.

Source

So for lateral raises, I did my first two sets normally.  For the third set, I laid out 3 sets of weights in front of my feet (8’s, 5’s and 2’s).  I NEVER thought I’d ever pick up a 2lb dubmbell..but here I was with those wimpy two’s beside my feet.

I started my set by doing 10 reps with 8lb, quickly dropped to the 5lb dumbells to do 5 reps ( until failure) and then picked up the 2lb dumbells and did 6 reps (until failure).  I know my numbers are weak but dannnng it had my shoulders burning!  Those dropsets are no joke!

After my workout I continued to the cardio portion.  Remember, always do cardio after lifting!

I did 5 minute intervals on the treadmill of walking and jogging (between 5 and 5.7 mph) and tried to keep my heart rate down to stay in the fat burning stage.

After my workout I had a nice grilled chicken ceasar salad and a protein shake. 

I don’t have much planned for the weekend besides a wedding on Saturday during the day.  It’s for my boyfriend’s family member who I don’t know.  Hopefully Saturday night we can go out and enjoy some nightlife.  I need some fun after all these intense workouts for the week!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!

I’ll leave you with this picture of my boyfriend and I after the Warrior Dash mud run this year.  I can’t wait to do that again 🙂  This was AFTER we were cleaned up from the mud.  I looked like a monster after the race.  I didn’t have a single part of my body that wasn’t covered in mud!  It was about time for a celebratory brewski!

**Erin**