How you can use reverse pyramid training to give your training a boost

After years of training and working with thousands of clients, I've learned a simple lesson: building muscle and strength isn't that complicated. You just need to follow a handful of rules and your body will respond by becoming more muscular and stronger.

Here are a few things that aren't necessary:

• You don't have to constantly change your exercise program to "confuse" your muscles
• You don't have to focus on fancy, trendy repetition schemes or intensity techniques like supersets, descending sets, mega sets, etc.
• You don't have to spend hours in the gym every day torturing yourself with 20+ sets per muscle group.

Instead, you need to focus on heavy multi-joint exercises, progressive muscle overload, adequate nutrition (especially adequate protein) and adequate rest and recovery.

If this was all you already knew and followed, then you would be better informed than 95% of gym goers and would achieve better results than them. Depending on your goals, this might be all you need.

However, if your goal is to fully realize your genetic potential for muscle mass and strength, then there is a little more you should know. One of the things you should learn about is training periodization and reverse pyramid training in particular.

In this article, we'll talk about both: what training periodization and reverse pyramid training are, how they both work, who they're for, and how to put them into practice.

Let's get started...

What is training periodization?

"Periodization" is a fancy word that describes methodical variations of training that include things like changes in work volume (number of sets performed), intensity (percentage of 1RM weight used in work sets), exercises performed, rest periods, etc.

There are three primary periodization models:

1. Linear periodization
2. Non-linear periodization
3. Simultaneous periodization

Linear periodization

Linear periodization is probably the most commonly used variant of periodization and it is basically quite simple. It starts with a high volume, low intensity phase and gradually works its way up to a lower volume of high intensity training or vice versa.

Over the course of several months, a simple linear periodization training program might take you from training with a repetition range of 12 to 15 repetitions per set to a repetition range of 10 to 12 repetitions to a repetition range of 8 to 10 repetitions to a repetition range of 6 to 8 repetitions and so on until you eventually arrive at heavy sets of 2 repetitions or heavy single repetitions.

Another common model of linear periodization found in bodybuilding is an 8-week cycle consisting of 2 weeks of submaximal effort training followed by 6 weeks of maximal intensity training.

The problem with many mainstream programs with linear periodization is that if you train too long in one repetition range, you will only develop one biomechanical capacity (muscle endurance with high repetitions, pure strength with low repetitions, etc.) while getting worse at others (1).

For example, if a trainee performs pure strength training (1 to 3 repetitions with heavy weights) for 2 to 3 months, then at the end of this phase they will probably have increased their strength, while at the same time their muscle endurance will have decreased. If he then trains for 2 to 3 months with 10 to 12 repetitions per set, this would have a positive effect on his muscle endurance, but at the same time his strength would decrease.

One way to overcome this limitation is to use shorter phases of one type of training (e.g. 2 to 3 weeks) or non-linear periodization, which brings us to the next variation of periodization...

Non-linear periodization

In non-linear periodization, the training variables are changed less sequentially and over shorter periods of time. For example, one type of non-linear periodization involves focusing on training in a specific repetition range for 2 to 3 weeks while continuing to train the other repetition ranges at a maintenance level:

• 2 to 3 weeks focusing on 10 to 12 repetitions with simultaneous maintenance training in the repetition ranges of 1 to 3 and 4 to 6 repetitions
• 2 to 3 weeks with a focus on 4 to 6 repetitions with simultaneous maintenance training in the repetition ranges of 1 to 3 and 10 to 12 repetitions
• 2 to 3 weeks with a focus on 1 to 3 repetitions with simultaneous maintenance training in the repetition ranges of 4 to 6 and 10 to 12 repetitions

Etc.

Simultaneous (or conjugated) periodization

Simultaneous or conjugate periodization is a variant of non-linear periodization in which you train each biomechanical capacity (each repetition range) during each training session.

This method was developed in Russia and is propagated by many weight training and bodybuilding experts (such as Louie Simmons from Westside Barbell) as the optimal way to periodize your training. It could look like this, for example:

• Sets 1 to 3: 1 to 3 repetitions
• Sets 4 to 7: 4 to 6 repetitions
• Sets 8 to 10: 10 to 12 repetitions
• Sets 11 and 12: 20 to 30 repetitions

This periodization model is also known as reverse pyramid training. This model is so named because it is the opposite of traditional pyramid training, where you start a training session with lighter weights and more repetitions and gradually increase the weight over the course of the training session.

Of all the types of periodization I've tried, simultaneous periodization is my favourite. It's extremely effective for building strength and muscle mass, it's relatively easy to plan and the workouts are challenging and enjoyable at the same time.

Before we start describing how you can use reverse pyramid training in practice, let's first talk about why training periodization works and why you should use periodization in the first place.

Why should you periodize your workouts?

There are three primary factors involved in stimulating muscle growth (2):

• Progressive tension overload
• Muscle damage
• Muscle fatigue

Progressive tension overload is, in my opinion, the most important of these three factors (3). This term refers to a progressive increase in tension levels in the muscle fibers over time, which in practice means moving heavier and heavier weights.

Muscle damage refers to what the name sounds like - damage to the muscle fibers caused by high levels of tension. This damage requires repair, and if the body is provided with sufficient nutrients and rest, it will rebuild these muscle fibers stronger so that they will be better able to handle future stresses.

Cellular exhaustion refers to pushing the muscle fibers to their metabolic limits through repetitive actions until muscle failure.

You can think of these three factors as separate growth pathways, meaning that you can target each of these in your training and will stimulate varying degrees of hypertrophy stimulation as a result.

You may have noticed that natural exercisers who focus on high repetition training with little or no heavy training that gets heavier and heavier over time do not make significant progress. They do induce a lot of muscle damage at the cellular level - especially if they use supersets, descending sets and other fad training methods - but in the absence of progressive tension overload, muscle growth will be very slow.

These "pumpers" also often focus on isolation exercises, which further reduces the effectiveness of their training sessions, as the number of muscle fibers you activate during a training session greatly affects overall muscle growth (4).

And what does all this have to do with training periodization? Well, good periodization lets you cover all three pathways of hypertrophy:

• Progressive overload
• Muscle damage
• Metabolic stress/metabolic exhaustion

As you may have guessed correctly, this is used by using different repetition ranges. For example, a periodization program could have you perform sets in the repetition ranges of 1 to 3 repetitions, 4 to 6 repetitions and 8 to 10 repetitions.

By emphasizing heavy training, you emphasize progressive overload and muscle damage, and by adding sets in higher repetition ranges, you add metabolic stress and fatigue. The result of this is maximum stimulation of both strength gains and hypertrophy.

But as great as training periodization may be, it is not suitable for everyone....

Who should periodize their training - and who shouldn't?

There is no question that somewhat advanced and more advanced exercisers who want to maximize strength, muscle mass and performance should periodize their workouts, but I would not recommend periodization for beginners. (I would define a beginner as an exerciser with less than 1 to 1.5 years of training experience, a male exerciser who has gained less than 10 kilos of muscle mass since starting to train, or a female exerciser who has gained less than 5 kilos of muscle mass since starting to train). There are several reasons for this:

You shouldn't make your training more complex and complicated than necessary

One of the reasons I wouldn't recommend periodization to beginners is that it just adds unnecessary complexity to their training. If you are an exerciser, then you can expect to gain 5 to 10 kilos of muscle during your first year of training - for female exercisers this is about half that amount. No matter what you do with your training and diet, you simply won't be able to build more without the use of performance-enhancing compounds or exceptional genetic predispositions.

You can achieve these levels without any periodization - so why worry about it?

An unnecessary increase in the risk of injury

A well-designed periodization training program will have you moving really heavy weights on exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses and shoulder presses - and as a beginner, you'll be begging for injuries.

Before you start training with really heavy weights and heavy sets of 2 or 3 repetitions or heavy single repetitions, make sure you are comfortable with each exercise and are able to maintain correct form as the weights increase. This means that you need to build up a certain strength base, which is best achieved without periodization - and will take time.

As a beginner, you will not be able to use higher repetition ranges effectively.

As you know, you begin to emphasize the growth pathway of metabolic loading when you reduce the weights and increase the number of repetitions. The problem here is that this pathway provides the weakest impetus for hypertrophy. If you can't progressively overload and damage your muscles at the same time, then training with high reps simply won't do much for your muscle growth.

And how do you achieve overload and muscle damage with high repetition training? Well, you need to be able to do higher reps with moderately heavy weights - and if you're just starting out, you'll be too weak to do this. It's as simple as that.

As you become more muscular and stronger, your muscular endurance will increase. Eventually you will be able to use a respectable amount of weight for higher repetitions. And that's when it becomes profitable to work with higher reps. Until you get to that point, you're better off focusing on getting to that point by using heavier weights.

Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to look at how reverse pyramid training works and how you can incorporate it into your training.

How reverse pyramid training works

A reverse pyramid looks like this:

1. You warm up to prepare your muscles for the heavy weights.
2. You start with your heaviest exercises.
3. You progressively move on to higher repetition ranges.

An example could look something like this:

• Warm up your muscles with several sets to prepare them for what is to come, without exhausting them in the process
• Bench press: 2 sets of 2 to 3 repetitions (approx. 90% of the 1RM)
• Incline bench press: 3 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions (approx. 85% of the 1RM)
• Dumbbell incline bench press: 3 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions
• Dips: 2 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (approx. 75% of the 1RM)

If this workout seems too short and easy, rest assured that it is much harder and more effective than you think.

Here is an example of how I would periodize a lower body workout for a woman:

• Warm-up sets
• Squats: 2 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions
• Front squats: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions
• Romanian deadlift: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions
• Bulgarian split squats: 2 sets of 13 to 15 repetitions
• Hip thrusts: 2 sets of 13 to 15 repetitions

If you are wondering why the sets for women involve a higher number of repetitions, it should be mentioned that women do not respond as well as men to very heavy training. I would also incorporate some very heavy training into a periodization training program for women, but this would only be once every 4 to 5 weeks.

After experimenting with quite a few different models of periodization, the following basic principles have emerged for me:

You should emphasize moderately heavy workouts and round them out with very heavy and lighter workouts

As you can see in the examples above, you start your training with 2 sets of very heavy training, then move on to 6 sets of moderately heavy training and finish your training with 2 sets of lighter weights. This works quite well.

You don't do so much heavy training that you run the risk of overtraining or running out of juice in the middle of your training session. At the same time, you do enough lighter training to give your body a hypertrophy boost without chasing the pump for longer than necessary.

Your heaviest workout should always be performed with multi-joint exercises

This is a key aspect of this form of training. With the exception of arm training, you should always start your workouts with heavy multi-joint exercises regardless of whether you use periodization. These would be deadlifts, squats, bench presses and standing shoulder presses. (There is no equivalent for the arms for these exercises).

You should do these exercises first as they will give you the most overall body development and also require the most energy. Also, don't try to perform flying movements with dumbbells or side raises with 90% of your maximum weight, as this will likely cause your shoulders to explode.

As a general rule of thumb, if you are using weights beyond 80% of your 1RM weight, you should limit your exercise selection to multi-joint exercises. Thus, your periodization training sessions should always start with heavy multi-joint exercises.

You should use the higher repetition ranges to perform support and isolation exercises

Training programs that focus on isolation exercises are becoming increasingly unpopular these days, which is all in all a positive thing. You can waste a lot of time with such programs without achieving any significant results. However, in a well-designed training program, training with high repetitions and isolation exercises also has its place.

These workouts are great for helping to develop the smaller, stubborn muscles such as shoulders, biceps, triceps and calves. The truth is, it's hard to balance the proportions of your body with multi-joint exercises alone. It is unlikely that you will develop shoulders, arms and calves that really stand out, which will be detrimental to your overall physical appearance.

You should unload every 4 to 6 weeks

Unloading is an intentional reduction in training intensity to give your muscles and central nervous system a break from heavy training. This is not necessary if your training sessions consist mainly of light isolation exercises, but it is very necessary if you do a lot of heavy multi-joint exercises. If you neglect this, then you can easily get into a state of overtraining.

My favorite method of unloading is simple. Here is an example:

Unload Push

• Barbell shoulder press: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps (50% 1RM)
• Incline bench press: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps (50% 1RM)
• Close bench press: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Dips: 2 sets with body weight until muscle failure

Unload pull

• Deadlift: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Barbell rowing: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Single-arm dumbbell rowing: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Pull-ups: 2 sets with your own body weight until muscle failure

Emtladen legs

• Squats: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Front squats: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Leg presses: 3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions (50% 1RM)
• Pistol squats: 2 sets with your own body weight until muscle failure

The bottom line on reverse pyramid training

Unlike many training gimmicks and schemes, reverse pyramid training is a proven training methodology that works well for slightly advanced and more advanced exercisers. If you have a few years of training experience and feel like you're getting stuck, or if you want to build as much strength and muscle mass as your genetics allow, then reverse pyramid training can help you.

Follow the guidelines in this article and you'll avoid the pitfalls of this style of training and have no trouble putting together effective workouts that are also fun.

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2585297
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847704
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/128681
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18787090/

Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/reverse-pyramid-training-workout/

By: Michael Matthews