PYRAMIDING IN BODYBUILDING- pyramid sets!

Pyramid training is one of the most basic and effective methods for building muscle and strength. If you are fuzzy on the details, this article will help you turn any pile of exercises, sets, and reps into your very own muscle-building pyramid plan.

Designing a pyramid:

In resistance training, a pyramid is a basic structure that you create when arranging your sets and reps of a given exercise. It entails starting out light and steeping up the weight  you use on successive sets. As you keep adding weight, the number of reps you can do goes down, which illustrates the inverse relationship between the two variables.

Pyramid training-also called ascending pyramids-is not terribly complex. Below is an ascending pyramid built on a sample exercise, the barbell bench press.


Sample Bench Press Pyramid
- Set 1: 135 lbs, 15 reps
- Set 2: 185 lbs, 12 reps
- Set 3: 205 lbs, 10 reps
- Set 4: 225 lbs, 8 reps
- Set 5: 245 lbs, 6 reps

There are a number of advantages to pyramid training for building size and strength, but alas, it's not perfect, so it has spawned a couple of interesting variations. Here's a closer look at some of the pros and cons of following an ascending pyramid.


Advantages of Pyramiding:

1. Warm-ups included:
One of the chief advantages of an ascending pyramid is that it includes warn-up sets. You start out light and keep adding weight, which gets the target muscles warm and pliable.

If you have ever gone to the gym and tried to lift a heavy weight without warming up, you know you ca't get anywhere near your max weights. You'll be able to lift far more weights and reduce your risk of injury by including a progressive scheme of warm-ups.


2. Strong to the core:
Ascending pyramids are best suited for those seeking strength gains. Many power-lifters and other athletes seeking absolute max strength don't take nearly as many sets to muscle failure as bodybuilders do-maybe only 1-2 per exercise.

This allows them to generate maximal power on those last 1-2 sets in which they need to move the heaviest weights. All the preceding sets are just warm-ups. The important caveat, however, is that none of those warm-up sets can be taken to muscle failure.

3. Turn up the volume:
Pyramids naturally include a lot of volume. When following as  ascending pyramid scheme and increasing the weight on successive sets, you ultimately do a lot of sets, ensuring that you do a high volume of work-a marker for growth. Multiple set training systems are superior to really low-volume work for inducing hypertrophy.

Drawbacks of Pyramiding:

That being said, there are two main drawbacks for this kind of training. First, warm-ups should never be done to muscle failure-or anywhere close-but that's a real concern when doing so many sets, especially when you are strong early in your workout.

Its tempting to take a set to muscle failure, but the penalty for doing so is that your strength is compromised on the sets that follow. And if you take several lighter sets to failure, you have just undetermined what you are trying to achieve, whether its building strength or size. You want your muscles to be fresh on your heaviest set; if you have overly fatigued them on the preceding sets, you surely won't be. Hence, those warm up sets must stop well short of muscle failure.

Second, the above worry may lead you to reach muscle failure on just your last set, which often isn't enough if you are training for maximal muscle size. Reaching muscle failure is important to initiate growth processes. For muscles to grow, they need to undergo a significant amount of stress. One set to failure may not provide the growth stimulus you're looking for.

So while the ascending pyramid works well seeking strength gains, it doesn't work as well for anyone who wants to maximize muscle size. That distinction is important.

SOURCE: www.bodybuilding.com