Straight sets or Pyramid style?

Which produces better results?

5 sets of 8 reps using the same weight or 5 sets going from 10 reps to 4 reps added more weight everytime, then a finishing set using lighter weight?

 

Depends on your goals. If you want to bulk up then pyramids. IF you want lean defined muscles then straight sets. Option B is my goal as I am already big enough.

 

depends on the muscle too...calves and abs won't respond well to pyramids, hamstrings respond well to heavy low rep straight sets...i could go on and on.

depends on the person too. some have more high twitch muscle fiber...some have more low twitch....for me, doing straight sets, drops sets, and compound sets works better....haven't done a pyramid in years.

 

Re: Re: Straight sets or Pyramid style?

i think any weight training bulks your up while creating lean muscle mass. what i am curious about is which style or what type of training optimizes each rep and exercize. going to failure is going to failure anyway you look at but what achieves optimun failure?

 

which ever one helps you hit a softball further than shortstop will be best for you, bill.

 

i always hit it farther than the shortstop.

 

He didn't mean our shortstop in the dugout

 

Boo, please explain. I know what straight and pyramid sets are, but not these.

 

Re: Re: Re: Straight sets or Pyramid style?

to a degree this is true. Any lifting will create muscle mass, even ligh high reps. There are different techniques for strength building and for body building. Most of the Justin Timberlake wannabees at the gym want a body builders body but do strength training....IMO, this is probably the number one mistake men make at the gym. I think it has something to do with ego....for body building you have to check your ego at the door and use less weight with proper form.

It goes back to what sly said...depends what your goals are. I body build because for every pound of muscle you put on requires 50 calories/day just to maintain normal body temp. Put on ten pounds and you've got 500 calories/day...3,500 per week which is a pound of fat. Someday I'll be able to eat pizza and donuts and not get fat.

 

drop sets are when you start with heavy weight...whatever you can do 3-5 times. Then you drop 50% of the weight and go til failure. You get the benefit of the muscle tissue damage heavy weight will do plus the burn/cutting up that high reps will do.

Compound sets are when you isolate a muscle to fatigue it, then you immediately start doing a compound movement (movement that involves other muscle groups) until failure. For chest for example, you'd start with dumb bell flies and upon failure immediately start doing dumb bell presses until failure. You fatigue the muscle with the flies and then really fatigue it with help from the tris and delts from the press movement. This is an exellent way to build muscle but not strength.

Another variation would be to do preacher curls to failure then immediately start doing dumb bell curls. There are probably hundreds of variations...this is what make it a hobby, trying different shit keeps it interesting.