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  • Have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) used this program?
  • What are your favorite resources, spreadsheets, calculators, etc?
  • What tweaks, changes, or extra assistance work have you found to be beneficial to your training on this program?
  • Do you have any questions, comments, or advice to give about the program?
 
Reverse Pyramid Training

I would not recommend it based on its premise. It's main premise is basically this: lifting big when at your strongest. Now if you subscribe to that (false) premise, that muscles are best built by using heavy loads, then by all means, go ahead and follow such a method. I however do not subscribe to the more weight I can lift the better it is for my muscles to grow type of mentality. After all, we don't build in the gym, we break down in the gym and build outside of it. Furthermore, a load on the bar is relative rather than actual. By that I mean, it's the effect of more than one factor (and not just the weight on the bar) that determines the outcome of your muscle fiber stimulation. If your main goal is muscle fiber recruitment instead of muscle fiber exhaustion, then be my guest and jump right into this reverse pyramid training methodology. As a bodybuilder, I know it's all about muscle fiber exhaustion through proper muscle fiber stimulation. Muscle fiber exhaustion has never been about, hey look how much I can lift bro! That would be moving (encouraging/emphasising) more focus towards a sport of CNS adaptation and less muscle stimulation as far as I am concerned. And that to me, distracts (if not confuses) what bodybuilding is all about. I think we've got enough of that in the sport as it is wouldn't you agree?

Please note, muscle fatigue is not restricted to a bodybuilder performing everything in one go to create the fatigue we're discussing here. I say that because fatigue can also be achieved through an accumulative process.

Some may say but Fadi, nowhere does this reverse pyramid method suggests the omitting of the higher repetition set/s. And that would be correct however, what this method is telling the bodybuilder is that your emphasis ought to be on lifting the heaviest weight possible (when fresh). My question of why that is however, has not been addressed by the premise of this method, instead, it has taken a back seat to placing maximum emphasis on load rather than muscle fatigue, i.e. muscle fiber recruitment instead of muscle fiber exhaustion, i.e., strength sports (Olympic weightlifting/powerlifting) instead of muscle hypertrophy sport (bodybuilding). Been there done that... (please stop the confusion people)!

Having written the above, I can think of one exercise that all of us have done at one time or another in the reverse pyramid style, with great results. I'm referring to the d/bell side laterals descending sets/down the rack style. On the surface, you might think it's actually comparable with this reverse pyramid style, but it's not. Furthermore, last year I think, I wrote a shoulder routine where you would blast your side delts by performing ascending sets before immediately going down the rack for a totally different (and very deep) kind of a muscle pump.

Edit: Left out one of the most important aspect to this whole method, and possibly its weakest link: the stress it places on your joints! Common sense tells me that my joints would be a hell of a lot warmer and ready for a heavier weight after performing few sets leading up to my maximum weight, rather than hastily jumping into it after warming up my muscles and superficially warming up my joints. And for what?
 
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Reading fadi's thoughts crystallizes mine.

Find what works for you keeping in mind a muscle recovers 50% of its fresh strength in 3 seconds after a set going to negative fatigue.

it appears to me that a variety of methods must be used throughout one lifting life, this is why and let's use the lower back as an example here, because 80 % will have a lower back issue if not now later, whether that is muscular or nerve.

as we know muscle fibre are a mixture of fast and slow twitch fibre, we all have different ratios, and to make that even more complex the distribution and % throughout the body will differ from one peroson to another.

Measuring the rate of muscular fatigue:
Subjects were strapped in to the Medx lower back machine
test revealed a number of things one of the most interesting here is muscle fibre type and the risk of back problems.

the test revealed that stronger individuals possessed an abundance of fast twitch (fast fatigu) that tired rapidly when faced with repetitive tasks

On the other hand the weaker individuals had an abundance of slow twitch an inbuilt advantage during prolonged work.

if you understand what I'm getting at here you will understand that you will need to find exercises that equally fatigue the agonist and antagoninst and:
* vary the time under load over time
* use the heaviest weight possible in the time the muscle/s under load
* make the workout safe
* reduce the time between sets and exercises, they *must* be kept to a minimum if you want to recruit ALL MUSCLE FIBRE SLOW AND FAST.

seeing as there are no true isolatory exercises you must choose exersises that are productive and stimulate the maximum amount of muscle tissue in one session.

no

Just
Squat
bench and press is not the answer.
 
I don't believe there is such thing as reverse pyramid training anyway - how can you start at a X heavy weight without 1st performing warm up sets - so straight away this means you are not doing reverse pyramid - you are still pyramiding up to a heavy weight - most of my training is working up to a heavy 3-6 and then doing acouple of sets of lighter weight of 10-20 - I think alot of people do this naturally anyway. As mentioned I don't think there is such a thing as reverse pyramid training as it would be impossible to start at a "ture" working/heavy set without warm up.

[h=2][/h]
 
Yep, so in reality its a forward reverse pyramid, which is a fancy poncy name to describe most training programs and is what most lifters do anyway.

Pyramid method, cube method.. wow it's getting really geometrical in here! What's next inverted isosceles octagonal hologram method?
 
Yep, so in reality its a forward reverse pyramid, which is a fancy poncy name to describe most training programs and is what most lifters do anyway.

Pyramid method, cube method.. wow it's getting really geometrical in here! What's next inverted isosceles octagonal hologram method?


I am really into the Upside Down Triangle Poptart Shitting Out Rainbows While Flying Through The Galaxy - MX 69er method at the moment (OR the shortened name of - UDTPSORWFTTG - MX 69er) - really brings out the striations in my toes.....
 
I use it for weighted chins. Works great for that compared to typical 5x5 or 3x10-12 for me. I just aim to increase weekly volume. Hit top of rep range twice in a row means I up the weight a bit.
 
I don't believe there is such thing as reverse pyramid training anyway - how can you start at a X heavy weight without 1st performing warm up sets - so straight away this means you are not doing reverse pyramid - you are still pyramiding up to a heavy weight - most of my training is working up to a heavy 3-6 and then doing acouple of sets of lighter weight of 10-20 - I think alot of people do this naturally anyway. As mentioned I don't think there is such a thing as reverse pyramid training as it would be impossible to start at a "ture" working/heavy set without warm up.

Like any protocol it takes time to work, not just a couple of weeks.

it could work like this;

using the the barbell curl as an example, in fact this would be a great way to really make this exercise worthwhile, as most don't work this hard enough.

(it'd take a while to find the optimum weights and rep scheme before you could think about progression)

60kg x 10
-5% x 10
-5% x 10

I believe more than 3 sets would not be worthwhile, if you could do more you wouldn't be working hard enough.
you get a little creative and include some *cheat reps at the end.

*swing the weight up, then real slow, lower the weight and repeat until you are unable to control the lowering.

to really make this productive, a maximum of 5 seconds between sets.
 
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  • Have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) used this program?
  • What are your favorite resources, spreadsheets, calculators, etc?
  • What tweaks, changes, or extra assistance work have you found to be beneficial to your training on this program?
  • Do you have any questions, comments, or advice to give about the program?

Never used the program and i have no questions, comments or advice to give about the program.
 
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