TXARMYGUY
your instincts serve you well.
3 sets is perfect
first set should be about 15-20 reps just to establish a great mind muscle connection, and plus it serves as a good warm up.
second set should be about 12 reps with a medium weight. go to about 2 to 3 reps before failure.
third and last set should be done with delibrate intensiety but you MUST stop just before failure. if your dieting at this point there really is no need to go further, you just want to preserve things, and develop muscle qaulity, not mass.
on th fist compound exercises, doing a pyramid is fine, but you may find that when you get into it and warmed up, isolation exercises may require just conventional straight sets, (no pyramiding)
as for frequency
2 days on 1 day off is fine, but the mininumum
I personally do 4 days on 1 day off, or even 6 days on 1 day off.......it depends really if I went out the night before =)
one thing that I want to make clear. since there are not that many exercises involved, make the ones you do count!
for me it all about the contracted position in a exercise that leads to that hard as nails feel and look. So in other words make sure every exercise is done with intesity, but focus on that contraction to really bring things out.
this means full contraction of pecs, quads, bis, tris, calves, abs, lats, the whole thing.
I am glad your trying it, I think you'll be happy
one more thing remember in the end if you have more juice you can throw in some extra exercises to finish things off
Good luck