What would be the best way pyramid for someone (me) whose 5RM is 405 lbs in the squat? Should I be using largish jumps in weight with only the last set being an all out “balls to the wall” type effort or use smaller jumps of 10 lbs to reach the final set?
jumps of 12.5% your 1RM
If you are squatting 3x’s a week (M,W,F). You would use on day for a 5x5 (same weight each set, in your case 405) then on Wednesday 5x5 with a 20% lighter weight), then on Friday either do a “Westside” DE method SQ, with progressivily heavier singles each week (week 1: one single, week 2: two singles and so on until you get to a near max single on your fifth rep on week 5 ).
Or fridays rep scheme could be 5x5, but this time you only do one all out set. So your sets might be something like 315x5, 365x5, 385x5, 405x5 and 410x5. This is a lot of “Quad” work so on friday you might ewant to through in some RDL’s or GHR’s. Of course after this inital 4/5 week phase you would de-load and then destroy your PR’s with a 3x3 phase for a few weeks (3/4) , and then go back to the 5x5.
I really like the 5x5 split, but it is a little hard to SQ 3x’s a week, and do an event day on Saturday. Also you might want to check out midwestbarbell.com, Glen P knows his shit when it comes to 5x5.
Hope This helps
Will42