COMPLETE MUSCLE DESTRUCTION WITH PYRAMID TRAINING: BEHIND THE BLOCK
The cover of Bill Stars book, “Defying Gravity.”
Here we go again: Accumulation!!!!
Complete muscle destruction! Pyramid training: 12, 10, 8, 10 ,12 with a 2/3/1/0 tempo. This timeless protocol has been used in strength training since the dawn of time. It is simple, not easy.
The most important premise is that there is an inverted relationship between repetitions and intensity: reps go down - weight goes up, reps go up - weight goes down.
The idea is that we leverage this ascending and descending weight to garner more direct effect for hypertrophy. This can come from multiple reasons - total volume, tension within the muscle, general fatigue. The most important is probably the Size Principle - recruiting more motor units and muscle fiber to meet the demands of the task it's asked to do. What is amazing is we’re building fatigue, breaking down muscle, and we still have this built-in mechanism to meet the demands placed on it.
One thing we want to get across to all members is that the best-case scenario is getting all 12 workouts over the course of the block.
Week four of an Accumulation block, we usually see a huge drop in attendance. We can trace this back to one key attribute: workload.
Workload is the Rate of Perceived Exertion number we collect at the end of the workout multiplied by the length of time of the workout. For example a 5 on the RPE post workout would be a 300 (5 x 60 minutes) workload. We can take that number and multiply by the number of workouts in a week to get what we call Acute Load (Sum Weekly Workload).
How is this relevant? Week four drop-off is because of the sum of the workloads, called Acute Chronic. We take that weekly sum (Acute) and compare it to the average sum we hit every week (Chronic). We are looking to stay in this sweet spot of .8-1.3. If we are below that, we are not working hard enough. If we are above that we are going to reach a point of diminishing returns of overtraining or injury.
The variables that have the biggest impact on this are not high individual workout RPEs, but back-to-back-to-back days. We preach training three-four times a week is because we are running a fine line of overreaching when we go back to back days. This creates a huge spike in Acute Workload. We always see the second day of back-to-back training with lower Wellness (Pre Class) and higher RPE (Post Class). This aggregates out to higher Acute Loads.
The way to counter this? Reduce frequency the following week. Accumulating high acute workloads creates a natural response to cut frequency the following week. This creates a substantial second-order consequence of losing rhythm or routine and responding poorly the next week to training. The outcome? Reduced performance.
The solution? Three workouts a week, twelve workouts a training block, and manage workloads.
Set up getting all twelve workouts in a training block by training every other day. Choose appropriate weights early (keeping bar speed above .3m/s and below .5m/s). Get in on time and do the movement prep. Possibly foam rolling beforehand. Stay to the end and going through the post workout each class.
Sleeping, drinking water, eating vegetables, and being mindful of eating every day.
That's how we get the most from the training blocks.