Mechanical Drop Sets work by moving from mechanically-disadvantaged variations of an exercise, to progessively more mechanically-advantaged variations.
A great example of this is a set the goes from incline bench press to flat bench press to decline bench press.
With this exercise, you're moving between incline dumbbell curls and seated dumbbell curls WHILE you're in the process of performing the rep, which is why I call these "Mechanical Reps."
Incline curls put more emphasis on the stretch position of the biceps while seated curl focus more on the middle to top/peak contraction, without much stretch.
When you put the two together, you're taking the best parts of each exercise and getting the benefits of both in each rep.
The goal here is not to make the exercise easier...it's to make it more effective.
How To Do Incline to Seated Dumbbell Curls
To do this one, you'll need some form of incline bench. I'm using a decline bench, sitting on the face of it because I was doing some other decline bench work at the time I tried this one. You can absolutely use a regular incline bench instead and it'll work exactly the same.
Lie back on the bench with a pair of moderate-weight dumbbells in each hand. I'm using 35's here. You're doing to curling both up at the same time.
Let the shoulders and arms come back into a good stretch on the biceps.
Now starting curling up. Don't jerk the weight out of the bottom. Engage the biceps then squeeze them hard as you curl up.
As you start the curl and get past the initial stretch positon in the bottom, engage the core and gradually move to a seated, upright position. As you're getting close to the mid-point, you should be almost vertical.
Finish the curl to the top, squeezing the biceps hard. I like to bring the elbows forward a bit. You can absolutely keep the upper arms vertical and go no higher than that, too. You can even lean your torso forward a bit to get an even greater contraction.
Now bring the dumbbells back and down in a controlled negative, focusing on feeling the tension in the biceps all the way down. Lie back into the incline curl position as you bring the dumbbells down.
Again, the key here is CONTROL. You want to be feeling the biceps working from start to finish.
Get a good stretch at the bottom, then repeat.
I recommend performing 3 sets of 5-8 reps on this one. When done with tight form and a focus on bicep contraction, you'll get a lot of growth stimulation from it.
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