[quote]mertdawg wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
mertdawg wrote:
There seems to be a split among trainees who use a traditional pyramid-type arrangement of sets, and those who do the minimum necessary warmup and then multiple sets with their work weight.
CW, and Poliqiun and really a lot of others would use something like arrangement 1:
OPTION 1
1-2 moderate warmups
6 x 6 at a work weight (3 x 10, 4 x 8, 8 x 3 whatever)
But the BIGGEST guys I know still use a pyramid system more like this:
OPTION 2
Easy 15 reps
15 reps at a work weight
10 reps at about 20% more weight
4-8 reps with 20% more
Sounds like you got things a little wrong?
BB ramping/pyramiding up example:
Bench
1358
2258
3158 (or less reps, depends on the trainee… Some keep reps the same on all warm-ups, others do less and less reps before their top-set to save energy for it)
405as many as you get (your “work set” basically, where you constantly try to get more reps/weight)
That’s what you see 99 percent of pro’s etc do.
I don’t see any really big people go to failure on three ramping sets.
What’s the point?
Some do a 8-12 rep set after their top-set, but that’s very rare. (in that case, they usually try to progress on both their top-set and their 8-12 rep set every time they train)
Which do you think is ideal as a normal rep scheme?
If you can handle high volume (actually manage to gain strength at a good pace while doing stuff like 4 sets of 12 with the same weight or whatever… Well, then you probably wouldn’t ask questions on this forum, anyway.
Regular people generally make faster progress with 1-2 heavy sets per exercise instead of… A lot.
Warmup followed by several same-load work sets?
Another thing to consider: If you do low reps and especially when staying a rep or two short of failure, like many powerlifters do on their main exercises, then multiple sets at working weight are usually needed.
But 4*10-12 at the same weight is usually just going to hold people’s strength progression back.
Pyramid with at least 3 sets at different loads pushed to fatigu , say 12-15; 8-10; 4-6. If you want to pyramid/ramp up, then look at my example above again and read this thread:
http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding/professor_x_a_request
From start to finish.
(that’s pretty much the standard system in use for bodybuilding today)
Your response does clear up some things in my mind. I remember reading a post from Prof X about 3 years ago where he said that he pyramided up but he felt that all 3-4 sets were “working” sets, yet his weight jumps were pretty large. I think his point was though that those sets were done as seriously as the hard set-that you still practice intensity and concentration.
I know about the ramping system, but you still see Ronnie Coleman Ramp up with sets of 12-15 (and huge jumps) but then he’ll still do a max set of 8, and possibly a real heavy double on something like squats or deadlifts, or maybe 4-6 on presses. [/quote] He doesn’t necessarily go to failure on all these extra sets though (usually just on the last, and even there he stays short of failure on squats etc so he can walk the weight back to the rack. Also, most of them he does simply for the camera. His normal training, by his own admission, is usually within the 12-15 rep range… High for a pro, but well…).
As for doing lower reps on his last bench set(s): His vids are usually shot during contest prep, so when he gets 495*6 or whatever in a vid, he’d be doing that weight for 10 or so in the off-season. [quote]
Ramping up to a baseline weight is a given (although if I was going to try to hit a work set of 10-12, I would probably ramp up with sets of 4-6. Why isn’t that better? [/quote]? Do you mean do less reps on warm-ups to save energy? (like 8, 5, 3, work set)
Many now do it, some pros go 12, 8, 6, (6), work set or so.