More About Pyramid Workouts

As you remember, last time I told you I reached 9 pull ups using the pyramid system. I did 1 pull up alternating with a 1 leg squat aka "pistol squat", then 2 pull ups,  and so on until I hit 9 pull ups, then down the pyramid with 8 pull ups and so on until I was back down to 1. I then did a second pyramid going up to 7 reps and down to 1, all alternating with a 1 leg squat.


    Well for the last two weeks I've been able to go up to 10 reps on the first pyramid,  7 reps on the second pyramid along with 2 pistol squats between each pull up. To round up the numbers I did an extra pull up along with two extra sets of pistol squats.

    Add it up. That's 150 pull ups and 70 one leg squats in a workout!  You read that right.


     While I did pull ups this system is good for most exercises. You could do a pyramid system with push ups,  sit ups, etc.


        Remember some guidelines. Don't go to failure. 75%  of your max is probably the most you want to go to and depending on the number of pyramids you do you may want to stop at 50 %. So if your max push ups is 20,  you could go 2,4,6,8,10 then down 8,6,4,2. That's 50 push ups. You could rest between each set or better yet do a different exercise. So you could do pull ups, sit ups, squats,etc as long as it works different muscles along with a different motion. By that I mean you want to alternate a pushing exercise with a pulling exercise or a squatting or hinging exercise. For the reps your other exercises could also be pyramided or just a constant number, ie sets of 5 squats.


         This method is a great way to get a high volume work without working to failure. By high volume we mean total high reps but using low - sub maximal reps over several sets. This method trains your central nervous system along with increasing difficulty  and fighting fatigue. It also allows for a warm up, sub max effort, as well as a cool down.


          Another thing to remember is make sure you have the time. Although the above example is relatively small if you were to go up to 20 push ups you would definitely need more rest between sets, thus more time. In my pull up pyramid above,  that took over an hour. So adjust to your own schedule.


      Also a pyramid workout shouldn't be done more than twice a week.  By that I mean you shouldn't do a pull up pyramid more than twice;  however you could do a push up pyramid with another exercise once or twice a week and then do a pull up pyramid once or twice a week. In fact, a couple of times I've done a pistol squat pyramid going 1,2,3,2,1 alternating each rep with 5 pull ups, over 4 pyramids, thus totaling 36 pistol squats and 100 pull ups. Notice that while the pistol squats increased the pull ups stayed relatively low, at just 5 reps. Then the next day or a couple of days later I'd do the pull up pyramid.


         If you wanted to round it off you could do an extra set or two. In fact, tonight I did my pull up pyramids up to 10 and back down , then up to 7 and back down but rather than stop at 150 pull ups I chose to go 160, so I did one more set of 10. Barely! That goes back to what I said earlier, about getting enough rest between sets. Although I made it was hardly perfect. In addition, I did an extra set of 2 pistol squats, then 3 sets of 3 , alternating each set with 25 reverse crunches. That's also a total of 75 one leg squats and 100 reverse crunches! And in case you're wondering, this workout took over an hour and a half.


         You could also do multiple pyramids with lower reps. What's possible for some isn't possible for others. So if you're max pull ups is 10, you could go 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 which equals 25 reps, then do 3 more pyramids. That's 100 pull ups, while at the same time avoiding failure.


         Pyramids are one excellent way to get a high rep workout in a workout. While there are other ways to get a high rep workout in ( which I'll go over in future posts ) pyramids allow you to reach your goals in a progressive, safe, manner.