Pyramid principle Stacking of weights - advice please

[marty 600]

Hiya All,

Another question:

RE:Hard gainers
"Loads of warm up sets needed. Pyramid principle wrt to increasing the weights. then do 4 sets at max weight. Do AT LEAST 8 reps for best muscle growth effect - as opposed to strength gains......."


Right, thats what I read.... However....

Coming back to weights after Long layoff.... I'm running out of steam quite early. (Especially with regards to Bench Press and Barlbell press.)


Onto the last one or 2 sets, I'm not able to knock out 8 reps.....


What Should i do about this?:
1. Reduce my MAX WEIGHT, and adjust my pyramid warmups accordingly
2. Keep at that MAX WEIGHT, for max effort during session, and just reduce my last 2 sets accordingly - to push out at least 8 reps?


I've discovered that if I do reduce my weight for the last one or 2 sets, I get a really good set in. Max effort, keeping good form, and I can feel the exercised muscles burn!


Is this reducing of Max weight, for the last 2 sets, a false economy and just bit of an ego boost? Or is it a standard body building technique?


Pleae advise if I'm wasting my time with this idea.... and what I should be doing - as a hard gainer...


Cheers Guys
Martin

 

[sabre81]

What body parts are we talking about? How many sets total are you doing?

 

[Saturday Fever]

Statistics and science would dictate that the greatest gains in both hypertrophy and strength are made when doing heavy sets first. The margin of difference is almost negligible, but it is there nonetheless.

As someone who took a year off weights, my advice to you would be to do your heavy sets of the more important lifts FIRST. If you run out of steam on lighter sets of accessory lifts, it will have much less an impact on you than if you were to burnout before ever reaching your big lifts. Food for thought.

 

[marty 600]

Hiya Sabre,

I'm doing:
5 warm up sets
4 max sets


Warm up:
Zero on Bar (15), Zero on Bar (15)
13 reps, 12 reps, 10 reps

Max Sets:
8 reps, 8 reps
8 reps, 8 reps



The Exercises I'm having problems with are:
Flat Bench press
Barbell overhead presses

 

[marty 600]

Hiya saturday,

Good point. heavier = more strain = more gain.



However, the layoff has been 6 years! I'm a bit concerned about going to heavy too quickly,. and casuing a muscle strain - like I did back in '98. That shoulder niggle stayed with me throught my 2 month stint....


PS:
Man, Had to hit the web dictionary with your comment! 8)

"hypertrophy"
nontumorous enlargement of an organ or a tissue as a result of an increase in the size rather than the number of constituent cells: muscle hypertrophy.

 

[sabre81]

I always use the max amount of weight i can, while keeping in mind how many sets i am going to do for a given exercise so that i can finish all the sets without dropping the weight. I would kill a few of those warmup sets, probably 4 out of the 5. Not a bad idea to start off slow after a big layoff, but your going to want to lift as heavy as you can to maximize gains. Obviously gauge what you feel you can do to prevent a strain or a torn muscle. In my opinion, you last set should be as heavy as you can go, doing no more than 6 reps. If you can do more than 6 on you last set, i believe you not using enough weight.