Training Styles: Pyramid Training
What is it?
It is a style of training used primarily in the weights and resistance section of your workout. It is called pyramid because of the way you increase the weights and decrease the repetitions (not because it was invented by Egyptians – Beeble). If you look at the picture it explains why it is called pyramid training.
How is it Done?
It is a simple idea that I use a lot in my own training and it can be adapted to any exercise. Careful weight selection is a must and you will probably find the first few times are going to be practices before you learn which weights to use.
The first set is going to be 15 repetitions and the weight selection should be based on whatever you can complete 15 repetitions while maintaining a good technique, but it needs to be tough (life is never easy – Beeble). Now rest for 1 minute. You can change your rest period and some people leave no rest period but my advice is give yourself 1 minute just to recharge before the next exercise.
Now for the next set: we are looking at completing 12 repetitions with a heavier weight than you used for 15 repetitions. Weight selection rules are the same: a weight that you can complete for 12 repetitions with good technique and it should still be tough to do. Rest for another minute. (I bet you can guess what is coming next – Beeble) Now it is 10 repetitions with a heavier weight than you completed with 12 repetitions. Using the same rules as before and follow it with a 1 min rest. Then finally 8 repetitions with a heavier weight than used for the 10 repetitions.
Work Your Way Back Down Again…
You can leave it there and it is a perfectly good training style. However to complete a true pyramid you have to work your way back down again. (Oh no! – Beeble) So using the same weights you used for all the repetitions going up in weight, you now complete 10 reps, 12 reps, 15 reps with a minute rest between each one. You need only complete 1 of the heaviest 8 rep exercise.
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An Example
(Another one! – Beeble)
The exercise we will choose is the Bench Press.
15 repetitions
Weight = 20kg
1 minute rest
12 repetitions
Weight = 22kg
1 minute rest
10 repetitions
Weight = 24kg
1 minute rest
8 repetitions
Weight = 26kg
Take a 1 minute rest and now work back up this list, but don’t do 8 reps twice. As you can see from the weight selection there is not a huge increase in the weight every time. This is because you need to be able to complete the set amount of repetitions with a good technique. If you find that your weights go in much bigger increments (stages) then you were probably not doing heavier enough weights on the previous set.
Introducing it to a Whole Workout
You can adapt this training into the program you are already doing, although as you can see there are quite a lot of sets so it could take a long time to complete.
If you are doing an all over body workout I would select maybe 4 exercises on top of your cardio-vascular workout in order to adapt to this style of training. You should then be able to squeeze that into one hour. Ideally though I would train your body slightly differently and split it into a legs day, a chest and back day and a shoulders and arms day. That is if you train 3 times per week. If you can manage more then I would split the chest and back up to their own days. If you can split your training up like this then 2 – 3 exercises per body part is all that is needed.
What is it Good For?
If you follow the rule in your training that you have to push yourself to get the development and change in your body that you desire, then you will find this style of training very beneficial when you reach those points where your training plateaus (where you stop seeing the changes and improvements – Beeble).
I personally use it when I am stuck on a weight and can’t seem to improve. By making the 8 repetitions heavier than I can normally do I help my body experience the weight, use it and with practice it allows me to move up to the next level. Part of it is training the muscle to use that weight and the other part is to get your mind used to it. You see if you have a mental block on a weight you will never be able to move it. The mind plays a vital role in how far you can take your exercise. This type of training shows the brain that you can achieve that weight and so in turn this speeds up the process.
Recommendations
With this type of training you could stick to the 2 month rule where after 2 months you need to change your style of training to maintain the maximum improvements. However it is my personal belief that this type of training has one goal and that is to get you out of a plateau. This should be achieved in 1 month and so because of this I would say any extra time spent on it could be wasted. After the 1 month take your improvements straight into your more standard routine. Then when you find yourself needing a push to improve that is the time to introduce your pyramid training again.
Warning!
I would not suggest that complete beginners to exercise should train in this style. However you can introduce it fairly early on as it can be adapted to your own abilities.
Quite a complicated training style this time but once you have tried it you should be able to adapt it to all your exercises. If you have any questions or comments on this training style or would like to know about any others that maybe able to help you achieve your goals then please contact me by leaving a comment below.
May 29th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Very interesting. Now, i happen to be trying to do my bodywt ex in sets also, and hv been trying an inverted pyramid similar to the one described for wts. Since one cant increase the wt as such, i’ve been trying increased reps with each set, e.g. 12-15-18. haven’t got around to working my way dn the pyramid, but would this be the way to pyramid one’s sets with bodywt ex?
June 1st, 2009 at 9:38 am
Yes it is difficult to actually perform pyramid training with just your body weight as each set has to be taken to near fatigue and the theory being that if on the first set you do 12 and then on the second you do 15 then surely you should have done 15 on the first set as the weight hasn’t changed. A good way to pyramid train the body weight exercises is to do just one side of the pyramid but to do the opposite direction that you have been doing. So the first set should be the most amount of reps then the second set should be less. So you could do 18-15-12 but with body weight exercises I wouldn’t be as structured as this. I would do as many as I could with perfect technique then rest for 30secs to 1min then perform as many as I could again (which should naturally be slightly less than the first set) maintaining good technique and so on until 3 to 5 sets have been completed. So the numbers may look less pretty (e.g. 23-22-17-11) but you will have got the most from the exercise.