Building strength and muscle with a pyramid

Pyramid training is one of the fundamental and most effective methods for developing the volume and strength of the muscles. Use this guide to create your own ascending, descending and triangular pyramid training system!

Author: Bill Geiger

The history of Western civilization is rooted in Ancient Egypt and is counted over thousands of years. The heritage of Egypt has given us many things, including affection for cats. And if you are a bodybuilder, even your training program can be influenced by the architecture of Ancient Egypt, especially if you follow the pyramid principle.

Pyramid training is one of the basic and most effective training schemes. If you are confused by its intricacies, this material will help you transform any set of exercises, sets and reps into a pyramid!

Building a pyramid

In strength training, the pyramid is considered the fundamental structure that you create by distributing sets and reps for each exercise. It implies an easy start with a systematic increase in working weight in subsequent approaches. With increasing working weight, the number of repetitions decreases, which illustrates the inverse relationship between the two components of the training process. The classic pyramid training, also called the ascending pyramid, is not too difficult a science. Below we will consider the ascending pyramid using an example of one exercise -.

Pyramid training is fraught with many advantages for the development of mass and strength indicators, but, alas, it is not perfect, which was the reason for the appearance of a couple of interesting variations. Let’s take a close look at some of the pros and cons of an ascending pyramid.

The virtues of the pyramid

1. Warm-up included

One of the main advantages of the ascending pyramid is that warm-up sets are present by default. You start small and gradually build up the load, which heats up the target muscles and makes them flexible. If you’ve ever walked into a gym and tried to lift a heavy barbell without a warm-up, you know that you can’t get close to maximum weights this way. You will be able to lift significantly more loads and reduce the risk of injury if you include a gradual warm-up in your plan.

“When I first started out in strength training, I didn’t know anything about the pyramid principle, but I used this methodology in my workouts,” says Abby Barrows, IFBB Professional Fitness Bikini and BPI Sports Brand Representative. “I always started small to warm up my muscles and ended up with the heaviest weight I could lift (ascending pyramid). The system helps warm up the muscles and reduces the risk of injury, while preparing the target muscles for the forthcoming extreme stress. “

Warming up muscles with low weight will prepare you for lifting real weights

2. Maximum increase in strength

The ascending pyramid is ideal for those looking for strength gains. Athletes looking to maximize strength should not come close to doing as many sets before as bodybuilders aiming to increase muscle volume, limiting themselves to only 1-2 sets per exercise.

This allows them to generate maximum power in the last 1-2 sets where they have to lift the heaviest weight. All previous approaches act as a warm-up. However, it should be noted that none of these warm-up sets should be performed to muscle failure.

3. Large load volume

In the very nature of the pyramid, there is a large training volume. By sticking to an upward pattern and increasing the working weight in each successive set, you inevitably perform many sets, which guarantees a high volume of work – a marker of muscle growth.

In terms of stimulation (muscle mass gain), training systems with multiple sets are preferable to low-volume programs.

Disadvantages of the pyramid

It’s time to say that this training system has two significant drawbacks. First, the warm-up is never done to failure – not even close. The sheer number of sets can be a big problem, especially when you’re full of energy at the start of your workout.

It is tempting to perform a set to muscle failure, but the payback for this will be a slight drop in strength indicators in subsequent approaches. If you hit a few easy sets to failure, you will drift away from your goals, whether it be to gain strength or muscle mass. You want your muscles to be fresh on your hardest (last) set. If you are too tired during the previous sets, they will definitely not be full of energy. Therefore, all warm-up sets should be completed shortly before muscle failure.

Secondly, the aspect mentioned above forces you to get to muscle failure only in the last set, and this is not always enough if your goal is maximum muscle size. Muscle failure is important in terms of stimulating growth processes. For muscles to grow, they need to be subjected to significant stress. One set to failure may not provide the growth momentum you need.

In short, the ascending pyramid is well suited for those who crave an increase in strength and power, but it is not as effective when the maximum increase in muscle size is at stake. This feature is important.

Inverted pyramids

So, if an ascending pyramid is not the ideal choice for mass work, what is it? Take the descending pyramid, sometimes called the inverted pyramid. The name very accurately conveys the essence of the technique: you start with maximum weight, do several reps, then decrease the weight and do more and more reps in subsequent sets. This is just an inverted copy of the bench press pyramid discussed earlier.

With a reverse pyramid, you are more likely to achieve muscle failure, which means you gain more mass.

I propose to dwell on some of the advantages that the use of an inverted pyramid is fraught with.

1. You start with the hardest

In an inverted pyramid, you maximize the load on the target muscle in the first sets when it is still full of energy. With fewer sets that consume your strength before lifting the maximum weight, in the heaviest set, you use the maximum number of muscle fibers, which leads to more growth.

Burrows notes that the descending pyramid is better suited for serious muscle development tasks. “I really love the top-down pyramid because it allows you to start with the hardest without the sets that build up fatigue,” she says. “Today I train on an inverted pyramid with at least four different weights. I get tired the most when I train like this. ”

2. Maximum muscle growth

The inverted pyramid is ideal for bulking work because you are more likely to experience muscle failure. When you are working for strength, you don’t want to train to failure as often, but working for the mass requires a different approach. With this type of pyramid, you hit failure from the very first set, and you hit it much more often. From the first to the last set, you can work to failure, and this is important when stimulating the mechanisms responsible for muscle growth is at stake.

“Exercising to failure is important for building muscle because you are tearing muscle cords,” says Burrows. “By training this way, you get more muscle micro-tears.”

3. Volume and intensity

The descending pyramid guarantees a high training volume, but it also allows you to train with more intensity and load. By adding up the total amount of work – sets and reps – in each exercise, you get a greater degree of intensity and stress for the target group with an inverted pyramid.

“I try to train with this method as often as possible,” adds Burrows. “This is influenced by the degree of muscle soreness. I usually use this approach for the lion’s share of the upper body muscles, especially the shoulders. I love to squat on a pyramid too, but after that it is too hard to walk for the next week! “

If you’ve been careful, you’ll remember that lifting heavy weights requires a thorough warm-up. Obviously, the descending pyramid does not provide for warm-up approaches.

While there is no warm-up in the classic inverted pyramid, ignoring it would be a big mistake. As with the ascending pyramid, the warm-up is never done to muscle failure. Immediately after warming up, move to maximum working weight and then stick to the inverted pyramid pattern.

Triangle – the union of two pyramids

It might seem to you that it is unfair to do warm-up sets, but not include them in the main program. I cannot agree with you. It’s just that in this case, you follow a technique called the “triangle” and combines the signs of an ascending and descending pyramid.

With triangles, you do a couple of warm-up sets, each with increasing weights and decreasing reps, but without reaching muscle failure. After maximum weight, you switch to a descending pyramid and work with decreasing weights and increasing reps in subsequent sets, each of which is performed to muscle failure.

This technique provides the volume and intensity needed to gain muscle mass. After the first two exercises for each target group, you can drop all warm-up sets and go straight to the descending pyramid. For those looking to build muscle, this type of pyramid is one of the best training techniques out there.

Pyramid training without problems

Ready to integrate pyramid training, in all its variations, into your strength training program? Take a few simple tips, and then put them into practice in one of the suggested workout examples!

• When training in an ascending pyramid, never do warm-up sets to muscle failure. A warm-up is any set in which you continue to increase your working weight, which means that the number of repetitions decreases with each subsequent workout set.
  
  
• Once you reach the maximum weight – indicated in each exercise for the minimum number of repetitions – work to muscle failure.
  
  
• Bodybuilders and individuals striving for maximum muscle volume should perform several approaches to failure, and therefore the descending pyramid and triangle are the most popular in this case.
  
  
• Note that the descending pyramid does not include warm-up sets. Do as many of them as you think are necessary, but never bring the warm-up set to muscle failure.

A few examples of training programs

Pyramid on the chest

Reverse pyramid on legs

Back triangle

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