Your original post is full of retardedly specific questions.
You ‘ramp’ so that you can ultimately use more weight and greatly reduce the chances of seriously injuring yourself. The specifics vary from person to person, some will take larger weight jumps, others smaller, some will perform as few reps as possible while ramping to increase performance on the top set, others will perform more reps to get more volume. Some will work down again and others wont. It’s just a common and sensible way to lift, it’s not magical. It’s definitely less retarded than walking into the gym and going for a max bench press, having not even benched the bar that day.
This is all obvious stuff and if unclear, easily findable, hence the flaming.
I like reverse pyramid too, and have used that approach most of my life, just because it felt right to me. Now I’m trying a 5x5 routine where I ramp up to the max weight on the last set. It feels strange to make the hardest set the very last one, when I’m already somewhat fatigued. I’m assuming that over the next few months I’ll adapt. But anyway, reverse pyramid is totally valid, assuming your warmup is sensible.
ok now fellas don’t rip me to shreds just yet…i just wanted to clarify this whole pyramid set thing to make sure I’m doing it correctly, for hypertrophy as the primary goal.
say for dead lifts my 1 rep max is 300 pounds.
my pyramid goes as:
set 1: 15reps x 135 (45% of RM)
set 2: 12reps x 165 (55% of RM)
set 3: 10reps x 195 (65% of RM)
set 4: 8reps x 225 (75% of RM)
set 5: 6+reps x 240 (85% of RM)
Questions:
Does this resemble a typical pyramid? Are there any changes anyone would recommend?
When do I increase the weight on the 5th set? (currently i am adding weight each time i can do 8 reps)
When i increase the weight to the final set, should the weight increase for the other 4 sets by the same amount?
Are any of the first 4 sets supposed to go near-failure?
Should i increase the % of RM by 5% or leave it as is?
Anyway i know this topic has been debated to death, but whats common sense to the vets might not be to the newish lifters.
[quote]akram.mohamed wrote:
You don’t do any warm up for your CNS? [/quote]
WTF!!??
THIS right here is why I do not like how so many of you who clearly have no clue what you are talking about go running around using it as if your “CNS” has a light switch.
Your “CNS” is your FUCKING BRAIN AND NERVES. In effect, it is YOU. How the FUCK can you lift weights and not “warm up your CNS”?
Are you lifting while in a coma?
Are you lifting while frozen in deep space?
Do YOU understand now why you are using that word wrong?
And no, it isn’t just you. That rant above is because of the other 5 millions newbs using it the same way.[/quote]
This made me laugh and made me think why the FUCK I used to think that shit.
I ramp up with a flat pyramid on my first exercise for a muscle. After that, everything only gets 1 or 2 warmup sets, and sometimes none, depending on how different the next exercise is or how big the muscle I’m working is.
Here’s how I start off with 120s for dumbbell bench press:
25s x 15 - 20
60s x 12
75s x 10
90s x 8
105s x 6
Main work sets: 2 sets of 120s x 6 - 8
Let’s say I move onto incline dumbbell presses with 100s after. This is how it looks:
85s x 6
Main work sets: 2 sets of 100s x 6 - 8
[quote]akram.mohamed wrote:
You don’t do any warm up for your CNS? [/quote]
WTF!!??
THIS right here is why I do not like how so many of you who clearly have no clue what you are talking about go running around using it as if your “CNS” has a light switch.
Your “CNS” is your FUCKING BRAIN AND NERVES. In effect, it is YOU. How the FUCK can you lift weights and not “warm up your CNS”?
Are you lifting while in a coma?
Are you lifting while frozen in deep space?
Do YOU understand now why you are using that word wrong?
And no, it isn’t just you. That rant above is because of the other 5 millions newbs using it the same way.[/quote]
This made me laugh and made me think why the FUCK I used to think that shit.
The first things I kept seeing was CNS…CNS…CNS.
It gets VERY bothersome after a while.[/quote]
Dude, watch for all da sets wit low reps. If ya do too many a dem, ya CNS gon b fried! Watch out fa da speed work 2! And all da plyoz! Don’t want ta cum down wit ovatrainin!
I used to warm up too much I think. I’d do 8 reps for 3 or 4 sets of steadily increasing weight. No wonder I was tired by the time I got to my so-called work set.
Now, for a 275lb 5X5 bench I’d do 135 X 8, 185 X 3, 225 X 2, maybe 245 for a single, and then do the 5X5.