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It's unknown to me if I got a bastardized version of the Armstrong Pull-up program or I bastardized it in my own, twisted head. Either way, that was my first exposure to the notion of a pyramid set way back in 2006-2007. Pyramid sets seem to be used in two ways. The first uses weights and involves using lighter weights for higher reps. Then, you increase the weight and drop the number of reps. The bodyweight version is simply to increase the reps in the set until you fail to hit the last number of reps in the last set. I used it back in 2007 frequently with pull-ups. While I didn't dramatically increase my single-set rep count, I did manage to maintain as I bulked up from 157 lbs to 180 lbs.
So, where did I bastardize the Armstrong thing (and pyramid setting)? I added a drop set to the fun. In other words, when I hit my max set, I would work my way back down doing the same sets that I used to work up to the max set. I've done this with weights before as well just BW. The latter formed one of my favorite, pressed-for-time and short on equipment that can be found here.
Like I said, I don't know if this was innocent, bad recollection or my training-obsessed mind just looking to squeeze a lot of work into a bit of time. Neither would surprise me
So, the Armstrong Program has been floating around for so long that it got its own web site not too long ago. It seems to be that popular. Other than that, pyramid setting seems to be relegated to the dust bin of the training universe, along with lat pull-overs and hyperextensions. Like these two, there doesn't seem to be a good answer as to why.
Florida's Strongest Man...and Deadlifts
Just like The Dungeon Spring Break Classic, Brevard, and the Bacon Beatdown strongman competitions, I had to forego doing Florida's Strongest Man. Work and my body don't cooperate very often. I suspected that this could happen but I trained for this competition as though I was going to do it just the same. Among the events was a 325 lbs axle deadlift, for most reps, in one minute. My previous deadlifting prowess was abysmal. I just don't get much opportunity to train this lift. So, I had to build up my numbers, and fast. This show was only two months after my first show, and it was a heavy one. So, I elected to pull the idea of pyramid-drop set hybrid out of my bag of tricks, turning my sunday in to my deadlift training days.
Am I really going to Blog about DEADLIFTING???
Yeah, I know, by blogging about what amounts to my deadlift program, I'm about to jump into such crowded, mucky swamp of vanilla-like uniformity with the rest of the mostly-shitty strength training sites. Just about all of them have a deadlift program. Plus, I've generally sworn to not be like everyone else. Still, I'm going there because:
- I tried it.
- It worked.
- I appears that nobody else did it like this
So, the first thing I found out in those seven weeks was that the total volume worked best if kept to a total of 40-50 reps of deadlifting (excluding some warm-up sets; of which I don't do many). I don't know why that was. It just worked out ridiculously well. I made very regular progress. I don't keep records either. I do remember that the pyramid-drop sets looked something like this:
- 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
- 2-4-6-8-10-8-6-4-2
- 3-6-9-12-9-6-3
"Rabbi"...Nice job, chico! |
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