A common exercise technique is to use the last set in a given session as a “burn out set.”

Essentially, everything goes into this last set to push your body to the limit using something like drop sets or rest-pause sets.

Generally, it’s a pretty good concept. The theory is that, after a full session of stressing your muscles, you put them over the limit so that they’re forced to respond and grow stronger for the next session.

But there’s a potential pitfall here.

A burn out set is guaranteed to make you tired. So it’s easy to feel like you had a good workout, even if that’s not the case.

One hard set is nowhere near enough to create meaningful results.

If it were, bodybuilders would be in and out of the weight room in 20 minutes and Olympic sprinters wouldn’t need to spend hardly any time on the track.

There’s a reason why we use intervals and multiple different sets. It’s more effective that way.

So sure, I still think that burn sets can be a useful tool at the end of a workout session.

But it’s important to remember that one good set at the end isn’t nearly enough to make up for an entire session of going through the motions.

-Brandon