Brehs, school me on pyramid workouts

[Black Ball]

You stay at 225 lbs for all sets?

Naw I pyramid.

225 12reps
245 10reps
275 6reps
295 4reps
315 3-4reps
315 3-4reps
275 8reps
245 12reps
225 17-20reps

 

[unit321]

Naw I pyramid.

225 12reps
245 10reps
275 6reps
295 4reps
315 3-4reps
315 3-4reps
275 8reps
245 12reps
225 17-20reps

Wow. You're strong.
After I peak and start going down in weight every set, the number of reps I can do is usually lower than when I was going up.

 

[Black Ball]

Wow. You're strong.
After I peak and start going down in weight every set, the number of reps I can do is usually lower than when I was going up.

This like the weakest I've ever been to be honest.

If I'm lifting heavy like this I'm resting good in between sets though. Probably like 2-5mins.

 

[The ADD]

Reverse.

Ramp-up pyramid sets are bottom tier. Essentially a long, fatiguing warmup.

Any suggestions on how to approach weight increases week to week or session to session?

 

[Spliff]

Any suggestions on how to approach weight increases week to week or session to session?

My bad was in Vegas earlier in the week. Still recouping

Anyway,

Choose your rep range, when you hit the top of that rep range, increase the weight next session. Could be 5lbs or 10 lbs, depending on the exercise and how strong you felt at the end of the set. Set #1 is the focus.

Here's the RPT post when it was gaining traction again when Leangains was the rage.

How to progress with RPT

The top set should be your main focus and the one you should continually strive to increase with 2,5% or add another rep to. Add weight when you hit the upper range of the rep interval you wan't to work in; for example, deads in the above example would call for upping weight when you hit 5 reps. If you only got 3 reps, you'd be better off trying to stay with the current weight for next workout and try to add another rep.

In the chins example, you'd wait until you got 6 reps in the first set before upping weight.

The other 1-2 sets which are done with a lower weight, should be increased independently. For example, progressing in the chins example might look like this

Week 1, chins

Body weight + 100 x 4
Body weight + 70 x 5
Body weight + 50 x 6 (the last two sets weren't that hard so let's increase them for next week)

Week 2, chins

Body weight + 100 x 4
Body weight + 75 x 5
Body weight + 55 x 6

Week 3, chins

Body weight + 100 x 5
Body weight + 75 x 6
Body weight + 60 x 6

Week 4, chins

Body weight + 100 x 5
Body weight + 80 x 5
Body weight + 65 x 5

Something like that.


Random notes

- Remember, the first set should be max effort; but try doing all sets like this and you risk a burnout.

- You can work in a tight range (i.e 3-5 reps) or a wider range (i.e 6-12 reps) and it's all a question of how much you drop the weight in between sets. If you went all out in the first set, lowering the weight by 5% will get you about the same reps as the first set, lowering the weight with 10% and you get about +1-2 reps, by 15% you get +3-4 reps and so forth. Some individual factors play into this, which calls for some experimentation.

- Rest at least 2-3 mins in between movemenst and sets; this is especially important after the top set.

- Mix it up, there is no need to do all movements RPT style. RPT can be quite draining on your nervous system, assuming you go all out on the top set.

http://www.leangains.com/2008/12/reverse-pyramid-revisited.html/QUOTE]

 

[The ADD]

My bad was in Vegas earlier in the week. Still recouping

Anyway,

Choose your rep range, when you hit the top of that rep range, increase the weight next session. Could be 5lbs or 10 lbs, depending on the exercise and how strong you felt at the end of the set. Set #1 is the focus.

Here's the RPT post when it was gaining traction again when Leangains was the rage.

Thanks

I'm using this for BB Flat Bench, Front and Back squats starting from 2 reps at the highest weight to finishing with 12 reps.