This is probably not new to some people (and I think I got this idea from one of the crossfit websites), but it’s a good one, regardless. I did it yesterday. A little crazy, considering I’m going surfing for two days, but interesting.
It’s a kind of timed pyramid. I did it for chinups, but you could modify it for any other exercise.
Equipment: A watch that shows seconds and a chin-up bar (or equivalent).
You must complete each set within the minute available. You can take as many rests as you need between reps, and for as long as you like, so long as you finish the set within the minute.
1st minute (ie. 0-60 seconds), 1 chinup.
2nd minute (ie. 61-120 second) 2 chinups.
All the way up to 8th minute, 8 chinups.
Then, go back down:
9th minute, 7 chinups…15th minute, 1 chinup.
(Total: 64 chinups in a little over 14 minutes.)
It starts of as though it would be way, way too easy. By the peak and the first few sets on the descent, I was getting absolutely no long rest at the end of each set and I was only just finishing each set, which effectively made half the descent into one huge set.
Let me know if anyone else tries it and how they go. Anyone who can do 1-9-1 would impress me, and anyone who could do 1-10-1 would, frankly, have to be beastly.
Sounds interesting but what’s the point? Is it more effective than just doing a lot of chinups in 2 or 3 sets?
Dunno. It was an interesting way of doing them (and by the way, I’m pretty sore today and was struggling to swim/paddle this weekend). It’s just another way of mixing things up so the body doesn’t adapt and the mind doesn’t get bored. I’ve also tried other configurations of exercises, set and reps, including weighted chinups (including drop sets), sets to failure, super sets, compound sets, and matrices. They all do slightly different things, I suppose, but they’re mainly just ways of mixing it up and keeping it fresh.
Just thought I’d share this one.
Dunno. It was an interesting way of doing them (and by the way, I’m pretty sore today and was struggling to swim/paddle this weekend). It’s just another way of mixing things up so the body doesn’t adapt and the mind doesn’t get bored. I’ve also tried other configurations of exercises, set and reps, including weighted chinups (including drop sets), sets to failure, super sets, compound sets, and matrices. They all do slightly different things, I suppose, but they’re mainly just ways of mixing it up and keeping it fresh.
Just thought I’d share this one.[/quote]
I’m glad you did share it. It is interesting. Thanks.
pyramiding is an effective way of gaining muscle mass and strength quicker than just straight sets. it fatigues the muscles more with the changes in weight and rep.
pyramiding is an effective way of gaining muscle mass and strength quicker than just straight sets. it fatigues the muscles more with the changes in weight and rep.[/quote]
Got a link? I don’t mean I don’t believe you but I would like to read more. I love sports science and have read up on endurance building and aerobic and anaerobic strenghtening, especially how it relates to running, but not much on muscle building.
I didn’t learn this from a website, rather my friend is a fitness instructor, so I don’t have an authoritative website to recommend. Did a quick search, and came up with this site that explains pyramiding:
gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/ … tines.html
It comments that many lifters don’t use the full pyramid. In lieu of that, my friend recommends the reverse pyramid and not the forward (ie heaviest weight, low rep first) with 2 warm-up reps.