Pyramid Training - Effective or Not?

A form of training that isn't as common now a days compared to it's popularity in the past is pyramid training.  For anyone that wants to build lean mass and have explosive power... this is one of the most effective ways to accomplish that.
 
Your core 4 lifts ( benchpress, squat, deadlift, overhead press) are perfect compound movements to incorporate the pyramid on.  You are going to start off with a light weight with higher reps and each set get progressively heavier while dropping the reps.
 
I personally like to use a 12,9,6,3 rep scheme to build my pyramids up but you can use any rep scheme you want as long as you are progressing from lighter to heavier weights.
 
The reason this is so effective is you are not only training pure power but also muscular endurance which is an often over looked aspect of building strength. 
 
When you build endurance, you can handle those heavier weights without getting gassed out over a longer period of time.  We all know time under tension at high intensity leads to greater muscle and strength gains.  The pyramid is the perfect blend to accomplish both of these goals

Keep in mind that this is just ONE form of training that we recommend. This will build endurance and really grow the slow twitch muscle fibers as you're doing multiple sets with variable weights. Once you're comfortable with this style of training, you should upgrade your training scheme and try REVERSE PYRAMID Training.

The concept is the exact same, except you start with a heavier weight and work your way down to lighter weight. I personally like to warm up with three sets:

Warmup-set 1 : 50% of Working set Weight - 5 Reps
Warmup-set 2 - 70% of Working Set Weight - 3 Reps
Warm-up set 3 - 85% of Working Set Weight - 1 Rep

After this, I'm ready to go into my heaviest set which I will try to get atleast 6 repetitions on. I know that If I can't even get 4 repetitions that the weight is too heavy and I need to dial it back some. The rep scheme I follow for my working weight is usually 6,6,8,10 but it varies. As long as you're pyramiding down, you're utlizing reverse pyramid training to its maximum advantage.

Now, if this all sounds very complicated to you - we understand. But trust us, it's really simple once our trainers at Rochester NY Personal Trainer are working with you face to face.