What is a pyramid in bodybuilding?

Pyramid in bodybuilding is one of the most popular methods of intensification. Some people say you can’t train like that; Teaching in a different way would be heresy and less effective for building muscle. Never being a particularly fan of the bodybuilding pyramid, I will allow myself in this article to summarize once and for all, objectively about this technique. Is it effective? Is this a must or can we do better? If so, how?

– What is a pyramid in bodybuilding?

The pyramid in bodybuilding is to increase load with each set while decreasing the number of reps. This is for a example : 12 reps of 60 kg for the first set, then 10 reps of 65 kg per second, and finally 8 reps of 70 kg, based on what you do 3.

These streaks are made with a recovery time in between to be restful enough so you can heavier and not experience the fatigue of previous episodes (you can read this article on recovery time in bodybuilding).

Unlike “traditional” workouts, we do not perform all series of work with the same weight. But the question that comes up, besides looking pretty on paper, is: Does it have any particular interest for muscle building and development?

– What are the benefits of a pyramid in bodybuilding?

Pyramid resistance training is great a way to train the nervous system to lift harder. Remember, this is the main limiting factor for our progress in our bars. It is he who limits the weights that we put, and “reduces” the effort (most involved) in front of other factors, which are our muscles or our stores of energy.

So “improving” it, or at least using it better, is important in our quest to gain muscle mass in order to push back certain limitations and achieve more effective efforts (harder or more reps).

By giving more weight to each episode, we “ make it ” send more nerve impulses that “should” have consequences for future sessions.

When you start or resume an exercise after a period of stopping, you don’t know what kind of load to use to plan these progression cycles (you will find more information on their subjects in this article), this is a great intensification technique to quickly (re) gain strength with good technique.

Because “nerve gain”, although it happens first when we start strength training, is also the first to “go away” at the slightest stop.

This is why the pyramid in bodybuilding is a excellent technique in these two cases to “quickly” perform nerve optimization, that is, progress (or progress) in internal and intramuscular synchronization, that is, between different the muscles involved during our exercises, as well as between the various muscle fibers that interfere with our muscles.

De, the pyramid in bodybuilding reduces the risk of injury because you only put heavy ones when you’re really hot. This is useful to point out as heating is often neglected.

But doesn’t that limit the weights we use and the number of reps we do in a set?

– What are the disadvantages of the pyramid in bodybuilding?

The real problem concerns the first series of pyramids in bodybuilding .

Indeed, we can do this without any coercion at all, in which case they will serve as a series of warm-ups that will not cause a little fatigue or cause fatigue for a heavier series (in which case they will not be counted). as effective series) or vice versa, plan a progression from session to session, trying to put more weight without decreasing the number of repetitions, and then quickly realize that the first series greatly affects our ability to put more weight on the series with sufficient repetitions planned.

This is called Inroad (see more explanation), which is an encroachment on our forces. The more we impose the first episode, the more they negatively affect the next.

The more sessions are linked each week and the less productive the last episodes are, if you don’t take the recovery time between each of several tens of minutes so as not to leave any traces, which is completely unrealistic.

This is why, once you know your workload, the bodybuilding pyramid loses interest. What is the use of a tedious series of “warm-ups” before his actual work? My experience makes me think that if you don’t start or start over, creating permanent classic episodes will be much more effective in terms of progression over the medium to long term.

– What about a descending pyramid?

Another different way to think about pyramid in bodybuilding is to get the heaviest and shortest streaks first, before doing the longer and lighter streaks.

Instead of doing 12 reps first, then 10 heavier reps, and finally 8 heavier reps (basic pyramid example), the idea is to do 8 reps first, then 10 reps with lighter and finally 12 reps with even lighter ones.

Fatigue caused by longer streaks will not affect shorter, heavier streaks, which will then be productive . Otherwise, this is a more interesting way of using the pyramid in bodybuilding, and I don’t see any particular drawbacks, especially since it can be used with Progression Loops.

Finally, I do not recommend the simultaneous use of an ascending pyramid (classic) and a descending pyramid, which have different audiences.

– An example of a program using the pyramid in bodybuilding

This is an example of a session for ovens using the pyramid in bodybuilding. This is not to be followed as is, but serves to illustrate the needs of the article. If you want to customize it, it must take into account your morpho-anatomy as well as your capabilities and limitations, the ideal program for everyone is a history of understanding. If you want to know how to do this, I can only invite you to read my book on this topic. You can get it here.

– Conclusion

The Bodybuilding Pyramid is a workout that is perfect for beginners who need to rapidly progress in strength and perfect their performance techniques. It is also useful for people who resume training or certain exercises after a long break.

Apart from these two cases, the pyramid is a method of reinforcing forget in its classic form, as it does not effectively utilize the progression loops required for non-doping strength training practitioners to be able to progress beyond a level plateau.

Then you can think about using a top-down pyramid, if this way of learning “you like”, learning should be fun to have results in the long term. I hope I have enlightened you about the pyramid in bodybuilding. This should help you progress better.