Pyramid sets vs reverse pyramid sets vs rest pause sets

[u_e_s_i]

Which is your favourite and why?

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I like them all for variety. Currently doing a variation of rest-pause where I take 80% of my 1 rep max and perform 25 reps within 5 minutes. Naturally, I have to take a break between reps and I take in 5-10 gulps of air and then I try to lift 2-3 reps and pause again. You can also do 50 reps within 10 minutes but it really taxes your body.

 

[Smont]

Pyramid set- this is how I start every exercise, it's a general progression of warm-up to your working set.

Rest pause is a good intensity technique (and my favorite) to take you to and past failure.

Reverse pyramid I feel like is a great way to waste your time.

If I want to lower the weight it's going to be a back off set or a drop set, but to continually lower the weight is just junk volume in my opinion.

Unless your goal is purely muscular endurance, then I can see all that junk volume being a little productive

 

[Smont]

I like to do rest pause (DC training style),

But the more I think about the reverse pyramid sets, I can think of multiple times I have used them too.

I guess I just have to say there all tools in a toolbox.

As long as your using one of those tools to achieve a form of progressive overload it's gonna work.....

 

[kisaj]

Pyramid set- this is how I start every exercise, it's a general progression of warm-up to your working set.

Rest pause is a good intensity technique (and my favorite) to take you to and past failure.

Reverse pyramid I feel like is a great way to waste your time.

If I want to lower the weight it's going to be a back off set or a drop set, but to continually lower the weight is just junk volume in my opinion.

Unless your goal is purely muscular endurance, then I can see all that junk volume being a little productive

Agree with all of this and do the same.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Pyramid set- this is how I start every exercise, it's a general progression of warm-up to your working set.

Rest pause is a good intensity technique (and my favorite) to take you to and past failure.

Reverse pyramid I feel like is a great way to waste your time.

If I want to lower the weight it's going to be a back off set or a drop set, but to continually lower the weight is just junk volume in my opinion.

Unless your goal is purely muscular endurance, then I can see all that junk volume being a little productive

I like to combine the two pyramids.
ex.
10 reps - 1000 lbs
8 reps - 1100 lbs
6 reps - 1200 lbs
8 reps - 1150 lbs
10 reps - 1050 lbs

 

[Smont]

I like to combine the two pyramids.
ex.
10 reps - 1000 lbs
8 reps - 1100 lbs
6 reps - 1200 lbs
8 reps - 1150 lbs
10 reps - 1050 lbs

I'd just rather do more sets of 6 or more sets of 8 ect. 6-10reps is all kinds the same to me, meaning in that rep range I'm going to get similar results weather it's sets of 6 or 8 there's not really a difference. So what am I benefiting by slightly lowering the weight for 2 more reps vs. Doing another set of 6.

I'm not saying what your doing is wrong or won't work, but I'm asking what's the benifit of that vs doing three sets of six or three sets of eight or three sets of 10

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I'd just rather do more sets of 6 or more sets of 8 ect. 6-10reps is all kinds the same to me, meaning in that rep range I'm going to get similar results weather it's sets of 6 or 8 there's not really a difference. So what am I benefiting by slightly lowering the weight for 2 more reps vs. Doing another set of 6.

I'm not saying what your doing is wrong or won't work, but I'm asking what's the benifit of that vs doing three sets of six or three sets of eight or three sets of 10

For me, variety. Every set is a challenge even if it means incremental weight increase or an increase in rep or two. Mentally it feels rewarding.

 

[Smont]

For me, variety. Every set is a challenge even if it means incremental weight increase or an increase in rep or two. Mentally it feels rewarding.

I can't argue that, enjoying your workout is a huge component to success

 

[Smont]

I keep it pretty vanilla.

Opening set is always my heaviest, with highest output. For compound movements I generally stay linear, and reps fall with each subsequent set. I do this until I hit a hard plateau that I can’t get through after typical reactive deloads to break the plateau.

for isolation movements, I do rep range targets. Opening set is still heaviest, I drop weight by about 10% as needed each subsequent set to stay within +/- 2 reps of target.

This is like the total opposite of keeping it vanilla lol

If you said I keep it pretty vanilla, I do a few warm ups and then 3 sets of 10. That would be keeping it vanilla.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with what you're doing, it's just fairly methodical, far from the plain old norm/vanilla