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 increasing
poundages that your muscles may not be used to, even
though you do fewer reps. It prepares your body for
these heavier weights the next time.
The idea being that in order to build muscle and increase
your strength you must constantly increase the stress on
your muscles. Then you must give your muscles adequate
time to recover and rebuild so that you can again increase
the overload and continue to build muscle.
Clearly, to make great muscle building gains, you can't
get complacent in your weight lifting workouts. You need
to constantly strive to do more.
And, as stated above,
this does not mean working out more often or making your
workouts longer. You must make your workouts progressively
harder and more intense.
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Almost every bodybuilder has used the weight lifting
pyramid 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 pyramid
has you starting with high repetitions. As each set
is performed, more weight is added and you do fewer
repetitions. A typical pyramid could
look 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 that
you 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 overloadind the
muscles.
One way to circumvent this problem in your weight lifting
routine is to use what is called the reverse weight lifting
pyramid. This allows you to use a heavier weight on your
top 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 overload
your muscles by using heavier weights than they are accustomed
to with the typical pyramid training routine.
You must make sure you get enough
rest between workouts to allow the muscle building process
to take place. Otherwise, you end up overtraining and
instead of bigger muscles, your muscles will get smaller
and weaker.
When training this intensely, it's very important to take
time off from your workouts. You should consider taking
a week to ten days off every four to eight weeks to keep
your mind and body fresh.
If you don't recover from using the weight lifting pyramid
training routines,
you overtrain. And if you overtrain, you don't get stronger
and your muscles don't get bigger.
In order to design an effective weight lifting program or split, including
making these free weighlifting workouts work for you, it's important to understand
the fundamentals
of weight lifting
And check out our other weightlifting articles.
weight lifting pyramid - back to top

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