Defining Weight Training Protocols

In this post, I hope to break down typical muscle building protocols such as supersets, drop sets and pause sets in the simplest terms as possible to hopefully make weight training less intimidating for anyone who is looking to join the gym. There are so many ways of going about becoming strong, and I truly believe it’s finding a method that suits you. I hope this is helpful, and please enjoy!

Superset

In the simplest terms, super setting means to do consecutive exercises with minimal rest in-between. Typically, the two consecutive exercises involved will work antagonistic muscle pairs (aka pairs of muscles where if one muscle that contracts, the other remains relaxed). In any case, the two exercises should work different muscles, so one single muscle isn’t overworked, increasing the risk of injury. Doing supersets have various advantages, the most obvious being that significant time is saved as you’re training as many muscles as possible in the least amount of time. Secondly, super sets also improve your aerobic fitness since you are kept at a relatively high heart rate when resting minimally. Of course, this also means the added risk of excess fatigue, leading to improper technique, the further along the workout you are.

Personally, I like to take a small break (~2 minutes) after completing one pair of exercises. For example, I follow an upper-lower superset at least 2–3 times a week, where I’d complete one set of barbell squats (working my quadriceps and glutes), one set of shoulder press (working my deltoids and triceps) and then finally take a small break. There’s mainly two types of supersets: Either a push-pull superset, or an upper-lower superset because they both follow the same principle of working opposing muscle groups sequentially.

If you think about it, 3 pairs of such exercise pairs accumulates to 6 total worked muscle groups, which is more than enough for one workout session. Whenever I want the most effective workout for the least amount of time, I always opt for super setting. Quick, effective, and always manages to humble me!

Giant set

Similarly, giant sets are exactly what one would expect: A superset but just… bigger. Instead of doing two exercises consecutively, a person can choose to do three or more exercises in a row. From my perspective, this seems to diverge from the purpose of strength training, where you work with heavier loads and lower reps, and instead moves into the circuit training/high-intensity interval training territory. With one’s heart rate consistently elevated to a such a high level, it’s harder to push to the maximum weight in every exercise, which one should be aiming to do when building strength. For most amateur lifters like myself, I only end up running out of breadth and have no choice but to decrease my working load by the third or fourth exercise. So, from my own experience and what the American Sports & Fitness Association suggests, giant sets typically increase the risk of injury due to improper form (or one just ends up ‘going through the motions’ without truly challenging the muscles). Unless you’re really short on time, wants to exhaust a muscle group ASAP, or are a high-performing athlete with superb recovery, super sets are more commonly used than giant sets.

Drop set

Like the name suggests, drop sets involves working with lower loads immediately after reaching muscular failure at a higher weight. Doing so has been said to allow one to work the muscles continuously and stimulate hypertrophy through true muscular failure. However, according to this meta analysis, drops sets don’t seem to bring about significant muscular growth in comparison to typical hypertrophy protocols, but can be more time-efficient since there’s minimal rest before bringing your muscles to ultimate fatigue. Even though there aren’t many studies to suggest significant advantages to drop sets hypertrophy-wise, I’ve found in my own training that incorporating such protocols into my routine indeed makes my muscles feel extra sore the day after and keeps my training variety interesting, reducing the chance of tedium.

Rest-Pause set

This is an interesting one… A rest-pause set also relies on previous principles we’ve touched on previously, which is pushing your muscles beyond failure. This time, you can take a small 15-20 second break within a set after your muscles have reached muscular failure for the first time, trying to push for the extra 2–3 reps with the help of additional rest in-between. I’ve heard of another name for this rest-pause protocol, called a mini set or doing partials, which are all about squeezing the last bit of effort from your muscles to stimulate growth. The studies done on rest-pause sets are significantly fewer, but from this comparative study found on PubMed, the study indicated slightly better muscular endurance gains from doing rest-pause sets compared to traditional weight training, where one stops after initial muscular failure.

All in all, these four weight-training protocols are the most popular methods of stimulating hypertrophy and methods I have personally tried. Other than the potential benefits it might bring to my gains (more studies have yet to be done to confirm their effectiveness), I disperse each protocol into my weekly training program to spice things up! Doing only traditional kinds of training can become tedious quickly so changing the ways to push your muscles to grow stronger keeps things exciting.

I hope anyone reading this would be keen to give these protocols a try and again, please DON’T be afraid of getting started with the gym! I know how intimidating the gym bro community seems and the overwhelming amount of mixed information provided online. Stick to the fundamental lifts, principle of muscular hypertrophy and staying consistent will literally get you 70% towards your dream physique. I’ve learned this the hard way after finally taking the gym more seriously in the past year. If I can, anyone can.

Thanks for reading, and see you all in a bit.

-Winnie 15/06/2025