Reflection...results vs science.

[naturally anabolic]

I have had some time to find and reread alot of my training journal notes and work outs and a pretty weird anomoly is apparent to me. When i did pyramid lifting my weight always benefited and i was constantly improving every week. Now i have read on here and many other forums that pyramids are not a good lifting idea for one reason or another...yet if this is true how does it explain the gains i made week to week?

 

[gymtime]

I still do a basic pyramid workout, although that's a bit of a misnomer. IMO, none of the workouts you see advocated on this board are inherently better than another, the credible ones anyway such as WS, GVT, DC, 5x5, etc.

I think it's the switch itself that provides the benefit. Any workout will become stagnant after a while. I've been doing pyramid for years now, with periodic change ups. I've been doing the same exact workout now for almost four months, which is a long time for me, but I'm still adding weight as I go, so until that changes, I'm sticking with it.

But I'll hit a wall eventually. At that point I'll likely try the 5x5.

 

[bignate73]

pyramiding just makes you work through many different rep ranges/muscular energetic types. higher reps working the endurance portion down to a lower strength oriented rep range. you progressed because your body naturally adapts and you continually pushed. there are many rep shemes to volumize a muscle, and its not always white fiber growth. keep in mind though, as you used pyramids, did you use them as warmups? do you think those warmups were actually the productive sets? or the ones where you were putting forth alot of effort early on in the set?

final question, did you grow?

 

[naturally anabolic]

i would use a method like such:

Bench Press
warm up x 10
165 x 8
185 x 6
205 x 3
220 x 1
205 x 3
185 x 6
165 x 8

I would say i really felt it when i reached the 1RM and then came back down.

grew like a weed.

 

[PolishHammer1977]

I had my first experiences with weight training using the pyramid principles. Solid gains.
Sounds to me that you have had positive experiences as well.
Physiologically we all react differently to methods of weight training.