by Joseph Regan, M.S.
March 2011
One of the major problems with pyramid schemes (uniform training programs) is that athletes start out with too many reps when the load is very minimal (50-60% 1 RM (Repetition Maximum). Secondly, they decrease the number of sets that are used as the load gets heavier. This is where athletes butter their bread; the majority of effort should be placed in physiological zones that elicit gains in strength and power.
Athletes in Russia and other Eastern bloc nations use significantly less reps, even on their warm-up sets. This allows athletes to effectively warm up their Central Nervous System (CNS) without inducing fatigue, allowing them to recover quicker, and make better use of frequent workouts. Athletes spend too much time stimulating muscular hypertrophy (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy). The last thing you want to do is produce too much lactic acid acid in your warm-up sets. If your goal is to be fast and explosive (think Jordan Burroughs), don’t accumulate too much lactic acid early in your workouts. Lactic acid turns fast-twitch muscle fibers slow.
Fast-twitch muscle fibers have the greatest potential for growth, and are only stimulated when the load is heavy. Type IIb fibers (for relative strength) 1-5 reps. Type IIa fibers (hypertrophy) 6-12 reps. Generally during a workout the repetition scheme should not have more than ten percent variation in intensity (based on 1 RM). This is in contrast to the common pyramid protocols that progress from ten reps down to a single rep. The old standard, a wide pyramid of training 15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 is still advocated in most college strength programs for gaining mass and is probably the least effective, because it doesn’t provide enough repeated work at given intensities.
A repetition scheme that is all over the map, will confuse the body’s ability to adapt to a certain stimulus. Furthermore, it cannot recognize which stimulus it is supposed to adapt to. A great reference on the subject of muscle fiber types is La Forza Muscolace by Carmelo Bosco, PhD.More times than not the pyramid schemes are not performed properly. Athletes spend far too much time, and energy on sets/reps well below their percent of 1RM, where the strength, and motor unit connections are made. It’s crucial to spend the majority of training time and effort using loads and rep schemes that will increase strength and power, not emphasizing “the pump.”
Diversify your repetition schemes and emphasize heavier load, lower rep sets. Athletes need to use different concurrent schemes to develop all goals at the same time (and time is a very relative term, as Einstein once said). Another critical point here is this: Athletes typically stick to a specific training routine for too long. The concept of progressive overload must always be applied to make gains. The muscles quickly adapt to the predictable loads and movements, also known as plateauing. Changing the specific movements for specific muscles should occur every six workouts or so.
Assuming you’ve had decent level of strength and training experience, here is how to find your maximum amount for a specified lift or movement (1 RM). Wait 10 minutes and then use 85% of that max and do as many reps as you can. The “normal person” will average five reps, meaning that they have a normal distribution of fast, intermediate and slow-twitch fibers. But a fast-twitch individual will go as low as 2 reps, and a predominantly slow-twitch person will go from as many as 12-20 reps. World class rowers can do as many as 12 reps at 97% of their 1 RM! Think about that for second. This is exactly what I explained to Hodge Trophy Winner, and 2X NCAA Wrestling Champion, Jordan Burroughs, when we were introduced through mutual friend, and I reviewed and discussed his training routines. Jordan’s strength and conditioning program at Nebraska at that time is exactly what you see in almost all the collegiate strength programs. It’s one size fits all, and it is a big mistake. Jordan is a fast-twitch athlete, and this article, in so many words, is what I told him two years ago. This approach will help prevent uniform training programs where what works for one guy/gal doesn’t work for another. For most athletes, a rep range of 9-12 reps is optimal for hypertrophy (muscle size) gains. But if you have a primarily fast-twitch individual, you’ll need to work at a lower rep range for more strength and size.
Typical pyramid schemes and “one size fits all” programs are counter-productive. Best results occur when intensity is spread 10-12% of 1 RM over all sets, with the bottom range no lower than 70% 1 RM.
