Using the Weight Lifting Pyramid for Building Muscle and Strength

The weight lifting pyramid is a technique you can use to help overload your muscles.

Weight lifting programs and bodybuilding are based around the idea of progressive resistance or overload.

The weight lifting pyramid is a way to use increasingpoundages that your muscles may not be used to, eventhough you do fewer reps.

It prepares your body forthese heavier weights the next time.

The idea being that in order to build muscle and increaseyour strength you must constantly increase the stress onyour muscles.

Then you must give your muscles adequatetime to recover and rebuild so that you can again increasethe overload and continue to build muscle.

Clearly, to make great muscle building gains, you can'tget complacent in your weight lifting workouts.

You needto constantly strive to do more.

And, as stated above,this does not mean working out more often or making yourworkouts longer. You must make your workouts progressivelyharder and more intense.

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Almost every bodybuilder has used the weight liftingpyramid in their lifting program at one point. The pyramid is usually done in one of two ways - the most popular way and the most effective way.

The most popular version of the weight lifting pyramidhas you starting with high repetitions. As each setis performed, more weight is added and you do fewer repetitions. A typical pyramid couldlook like this:

Set 1

140 x 15

Set 2

155 x 12

Set 3

170 x 10

Set 4

185 x 8

Set 5

195 x 6

Set 6

205 x 4

The problem with this type of pyramid is thatyou grow tired from the lighter sets and can't truly

maximize the amount you can lift in the heavier sets.In other words you might not truly be overloading themuscles.

One way to circumvent this problem in your weight lifting routine is to use what is called the reverse weight liftingpyramid. This allows you to use a heavier weight on yourtop sets.

A reverse weight lifting pyramid might look like this:

Warm up 90 x 10

Warm up 140 x 3

Warm up 170 x 2

Set 1

235 x 4

Set 2

225 x 6

Set 3

205 x 8

Set 4

195 x 10

Consider using the reverse weight lifting pyramid to overloadyour muscles by using heavier weights than they are accustomedto with the typical pyramid training routine.

You must make sure you get enoughrest between workouts to allow the muscle building processto take place. Otherwise, you end up over training andinstead of bigger muscles, your muscles will get smallerand weaker.

When training this intensely, it's very important to taketime off from your workouts. You should consider takinga week to ten days off every four to eight weeks to keepyour mind and body fresh.

If you don't recover from using the weight lifting pyramidtraining routines,you over train. And if you over train, you don't get strongerand your muscles don't get bigger.

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