Pyramid , Reverse Pyramid or Straight?

Gavin "shels"

Any more beneficial than the other? Google throws up a lot of stuff and a lot of contrasting stuff.

I do Pyramid at present for no other reason than I like going up the sets and lower the reps...

Any insight?

Alf Veedersane

What's the goal? Purely building muscle...purely strength or a combination?

Since you'll probably say the combo, I'm not a big fan of pyramid because you're getting less out of the heavy top set because of an element of fatigue.

Both of the others warm up to the heavy top set(s) and then get the workload volume in.

I've been using a combo of working up to a heavy top set and getting the volume in at a percentage of the top set (75-85%).

So its not 'straight' as it's not multiple working sets at top weight and not reverse pyramid in that the weight/reps changes with each set after the top set.

Gavin "shels"

Cheers for the response. I suppose muscle > strength would be the primarily goal, with that in mind, I'd imagine straight sets?

10-12 reps? 4-5 sets?

Alf Veedersane

Gavin "shels" wrote: »

Cheers for the response. I suppose muscle > strength would be the primarily goal, with that in mind, I'd imagine straight sets?

10-12 reps? 4-5 sets?

Volume drives muscle growth. So yeah something of the order of 8-12 reps per set for 5 sets. See how it goes in terms of the level of volume on any compounds because they'll be the most taking and it will depend on the frequency of that movement across a week. If that makes sense...

Gavin "shels"

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Volume drives muscle growth. So yeah something of the order of 8-12 reps per set for 5 sets. See how it goes in terms of the level of volume on any compounds because they'll be the most taking and it will depend on the frequency of that movement across a week. If that makes sense...

Does indeed - cheers!

Alf Veedersane

Gavin shels wrote: »

Does indeed - cheers!

Probably a little bit clearer to just say that if you run with higher volume on a given day, just make sure it doesn't have a negative impact on the volume you can do on subsequent training days. Find a balance that maximises the volume but allows you to recover in time for the next day you're training those muscle groups.

Brian?

Gavin "shels" wrote: »

Cheers for the response. I suppose muscle > strength would be the primarily goal, with that in mind, I'd imagine straight sets?

10-12 reps? 4-5 sets?

If you’re determined to work in volume:

5 sets. But not 5 working sets, is what I’d recommend.

So 2 warm up sets at lighter weights, you can easily complete 10-12 reps with.

Then 3x8-10 reps with a weight you’ll struggle to finish all your reps with. I don’t like reps over 10. People tend to cheat and lose form more, the more reps they do. Personally I work in the 3-8 rep range for most movements and 8-10 for isolation stuff like curls.

If you hit all your reps today, next session you add more weight.


What I’d actually recommend though:

Do a linear progression, beginners strength program. Max out the strength gains and eat cows. If you start hitting decent numbers then specialise in hypertropy, if you’re still into that.