What is pyramid training?
Pyramid training can help you progress with your workouts or get past a plateau in your training whilst adding variety to your workout routines. Essentially, the basic way to look at this technique is that you will start with a lighter weight for more reps and build your way up to heavier weights with less reps. This can also be flipped into a 'reverse pyramid' where you will do the same, just the opposite way around, heavier first with less reps, to lighter with more reps. Benefits of pyramid training
Efficient workout You will automatically include a warm up, with ascending pyramid training, you will start with a lower weight, this, in turn, warming up the muscles ready for the heavier sets.
High volume= Hypertrophy A pyramid set will give you a high volume workout. You will end up doing more and more reps/sets as you change the load and add further reps to a descending pyramid, similar to the ascending pyramid.
Change is fun! Doing the same 3 sets of 10 reps week in week out can get really really boring, mixing it up with different techniques helps to keep motivation high and allows you to avoid the dreaded plateau.
What does a pyramid plan look like? So, lets take bench press for example. With an ascending pyramid, the workout would look something like this. Set 1- Light weight: 12 reps Set 2- Light/Medium weight: 10 reps Set 3- Medium weight: 8 reps Set 4- Heavy weight: 6 reps With a descending pyramid, the workout would look something like this. Set 1- Heavy weight: 6 reps Set 2- Medium weight: 8 reps Set 3- Light/Medium weight: 10 reps Set 4- Light weight: 12 reps You could also use the diamond pyramid, this makes use of both of the above, and adds extra sets therefore extra reps to your workout to utilise the high volume workout even more. Below, is how this would be set out: Set 1- Light weight: 12 reps Set 2- Light/Medium weight: 10 reps Set 3- Medium weight: 8 reps Set 4- Heavy weight: 6 reps Set 5- Medium weight: 8 reps Set 6- Light/Medium weight: 10 reps Set 7- Light weight: 12 reps