How to build strength and mass with reverse pyramid training Part 1

It seems like every day a new training protocol or program sees the light of day. There are so many training styles out there that most of us end up spending more time and effort trying to figure out how to train than we actually spend on our training.

Everywhere you look, someone is trying to impose their "superior" way of training on you. And the bad news?

Most of these programs out there have major flaws or problems. They are often very complicated, very demanding and only usable in the short term. Not to mention the countless programs that are pure garbage. But I digress.

Today we're going to take a look at an old, simple and very effective style of training that has proven itself time and time again - reverse pyramid training.

What is reverse pyramid training and what is the logic behind this style of training?

For the sake of simplicity (and my desire to avoid boring you to death), I'll try to keep it simple. Reverse pyramid training is a training style where you start your training sessions with heavier and more challenging sets when you are still fresh and rested. As the training session progresses, you gradually reduce the weight in favor of performing more repetitions.

Here is an example of what it might look like if you perform the first exercise of the day in this way:

• 2 to 4 warm-up sets, working your way up to your working weight
• Set 1: A weight with which you can perform 4 to 8 repetitions
• Set 2: Reduce the weight by 10% and perform additional repetitions
• Set 3: Reduce the weight by 10% again and perform additional repetitions

Example:

• 2 to 4 warm-up sets working your way up to 375 pounds on the deadlift
• Set 1: 375 pounds for 5 repetitions
• Set 2: 335 pounds for 6 to 7 repetitions
• Set 3: 305 pounds for 8 to 9 reps

Perform your warm-up sets as usual. Perform a few progressively heavier sets of a few reps and don't put too much effort into this. The goal is to work your way up to your working weight and not exhaust yourself before performing your heaviest set.

Anecdotally, this style of training makes a lot of sense. You're fresh and refreshed at the start of your workouts, which means you can put a lot of effort into the first few sets of your workout, forcing a stronger response from your body and building more strength (1).

How to train in reverse pyramid training style

Part of the reason I like reverse pyramid training is that it's very simple to understand and easy to perform.

1. Perform a few warm-up sets and slowly work your way up to 75-85% of the weight of your heaviest set.
2. Load the bar with the weight for your heaviest set. For deadlifts, this is usually a weight with which you can perform 3 to 6 repetitions. For other multi-joint exercises (bench press, squats, rowing, shoulder press, pull-ups, etc.), slightly higher repetitions (6 to 8 repetitions) are recommended.
3. Reduce the weight by 10%, pause and perform a second set, aiming to perform 1 to 2 repetitions more.
4. Reduce the weight by 10% again, pause and perform a final set aiming to perform 1 to 2 more repetitions.
5. Continue with the next exercise.

You should put a lot of effort into each set and perform as many repetitions as possible without reaching the point of muscle failure. If you start to reduce the range of motion or your technique starts to deteriorate, you should end the set.

This is the essence of reverse pyramid training in action. Once you understand this, you can integrate reverse pyramid training into your training in many different ways.

You can do this for the sets of a given exercise as described above, but you can also do this on an exercise-by-exercise basis:

• Exercise 1 (e.g. deadlift): 4 sets of 4 to 8 repetitions
• Exercise 2 (e.g. barbell rows): 4 sets of 6 to 10 repetitions each
• Exercise 3 (e.g. pull-ups): 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions
• Exercise 4 (e.g. seated rowing): 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions

As you can see, we gradually reduce the weight and increase the number of repetitions during the training session as we fatigue. The only difference is that we do this on a larger scale.

You can also use this style of training with any exercise and work your way down from the top, but you should also be aware that this style of training is very demanding and the risk of overtraining or injury will be much higher (2).

Here is an example:

• Exercise 1 (bench press): Set 1 - 6 to 8 repetitions ⇒ Set 2 (reduce the weight by 10%) - 8 to 10 repetitions ⇒ Set 3 (reduce the weight by another 10%) 10 to 12 repetitions
• Exercise 2 (incline bench press): Set 1 - 6 to 8 repetitions ⇒ Set 2 (reduce the weight by 10%) - 8 to 10 repetitions ⇒ Set 3 (reduce the weight by a further 10%) 10 to 12 repetitions
• Exercise 3 (chest press on the machine): Set 1 - 6 to 8 repetitions ⇒ Set 2 (reduce the weight by 10%) - 8 to 10 repetitions ⇒ Set 3 (reduce the weight by a further 10%) 10 to 12 repetitions

etc., etc.

As I said, I do not recommend this as it is very demanding. For the later sets, I recommend either switching to straight sets (e.g. 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps), or using reverse pyramid training in the context of the entire training session (i.e. you reduce the weight overall in favor of more reps).

How you ultimately use reverse pyramid training is entirely up to you. However, you should only use it for multi-joint exercises on a set-by-set basis, preferably at the beginning of the training session. This should be followed by supportive training with lighter weights and more repetitions (8+).

To avoid injury, it is important to have good form for heavy exercises such as deadlifts.

How to build strength with reverse pyramid training

How good a training program is can largely be determined by its progression style. Many programs out there use no progression at all on a weekly or monthly basis, and yet people wonder why they aren't getting useful results from their 2-set workouts.

Here's why:

If you want to see continuous improvements in terms of your body development and performance, then you need to do more over time (3). This is what training means. If you do the same thing over and over again, you're just maintaining the status quo. You will not get stronger or more muscular.

This is why progressive overload is a key requirement, and getting stronger as a natural trainee is the most reliable and efficient way to get more muscular.

Reverse pyramid training uses a double progression system. This means that your goal should be to increase the weight you move or the number of repetitions you perform, or both on a good day, on a weekly basis. This works as follows:

1. during the first week or two, you will need to guess your starting weight so that your sets performed to near muscle failure fall within the specified repetition ranges.

For example, if you start with 120 kilos for squats and do 8 reps on your heaviest set, then you should start with 125 kilos the following week. If, on the other hand, you are unable to perform at least 6 repetitions with 120 kilos, then you should start with 115 kilos the following week.

2 Once you have determined your starting weight, set yourself goals for each exercise. For example, for squats, set a goal of 8 reps on your heaviest set, 10 reps on your second set and 12 reps on your third set. Once you have reached your repetition goals with a given weight, increase the weight the following week.

Here is an example:

Week 1

• Targets: 8, 10, 12
• Set 1: 100 kg x 8
• Set 2: 90 kg x 10
• Set 3: 80 kg x 12

You have achieved all three goals and can increase the weight for all three sets.

Week 2

• Goals: 8, 10, 12
• Set 1: 102.5 kg x 6
• Set 2: 92.5 kg x 9
• Set 3: 82.5 kg x 12

This week you have only reached your 12 repetition goal, so the following week you will use 85 kg for the third set while maintaining the weight for sets 1 and 2. You will increase the weight on these sets once you have reached your repetition goals.

This is the most satisfying progression style in my opinion, as even if you don't progress on your top set, you still have the chance to earn the "right" to use heavier weights on sets 2 and 3 the following week (if you reach your goals, of course).

You can, of course, increase the weight once you have achieved all three goals, but you should be prepared to use the same weights for a few weeks in a row. With the independent style described above, you can increase the weight more frequently as you work your way up to achieve your three individual goals.

You can also use a linear progression style where you increase the weight by 2.5 kilos each week. The problem, however, is that once you get past the beginner stage, no one will achieve such consistent gains on a weekly basis and you will eventually reach a point where you can only do 2 to 3 reps on your heaviest set (or your training partner reaches their max weight on rowing upright). This is the perfect way to injure yourself.

In the second part of this article, we'll take a look at how reverse pyramid training can be used to build muscle mass and then look at the pros and cons of this training approach.

Source: https://pumpsomeiron.com/how-to-gain-strength-with-reverse-pyramid-training/