Work Your Abs With Pyramid Training
Pyramid training is a workout method that alternates activity periods, with full or partial recovery periods. In the same way, you should know it’s possible to work your abs with pyramid training. Abs are part of an important muscle group that maintains the stability of your body. Therefore, it’s important to follow the right training routine.
Among all of the possibilities and methods to achieve your goals and improve your physical abilities, pyramid training is geared towards building muscle strength and resistance.
In this sense, you should know that it is called ‘pyramid training’ because you increase the weight of your loads, set after set, at the same time you decrease the number of repetitions. As with any other overload exercise system, pyramid training suggests that if you create metabolic stress on your muscles, they’ll increase in size.
Likewise, you must keep in mind that this type of training doesn’t reach the optimal point to build strength, although your bigger muscles will, to some extent, be stronger. It’s a resistance workout that will exhaust your muscles, which prepares them for efficient, daily use.
Ascending pyramid
An ascending pyramid workout starts with lighter weights, and each set includes a heavier weight than the previous one. It’s an ideal workout to build strength, because it generates maximum tension during the final sets. With this exercise you can gain more strength and muscle power.
Likewise, it’s characterized by increasing the amount of weight and decreasing the number of repetitions. If you’re not using weights, this type of pyramid consists of increasing the number of repetitions that you do in each set.
- Light weights of 12-16 repetitions
- Light weights of 10-12 repetitions
- Medium weights of 8-10 repetitions
- Heavy weights of 4-6 repetitions
Descending pyramid
On the other hand, you can also do an inverse pyramid. This means starting with the maximum amount of weight that you can lift for a certain number of repetitions during the first set, and then reducing the weight in the following sets as you increase the number of repetitions. In case you don’t use extra weight, this would naturally consist of reducing the number of repetitions in each set.
In comparison to the classic pyramid, the main advantage of a descending pyramid is that it begins with the heaviest load of the first set, when your mental and physical state are at their maximum, so you can stimulate your muscles to do far more intense exercise and the weights you lift can be heavier.
The descending pyramid is ideal for skilled people, because you must do a good warm up, without using all of your energy. This is the basic structure of a descending pyramid workout. Don’t forget to rest for two to three minutes at the end of each set.
- Warm up set with a gradual increase in weight
- Heavy weights of 4-5 repetitions
- Medium weights of 8-10 repetitions
- Light weights of 12-15 repetitions
Triangle pyramid
There’s another workout method that combines the ascending pyramid method with the descending pyramid method. In this case, when you reach your maximum weight, you lower the intensity and increase the number of repetitions.
- Light weights of 12-16 repetitions
- Medium weights of 10-12 repetitions
- Medium weights of 8-10 repetitions
- Heavy weights of 4-6 repetitions
- Medium weights of 8-10 repetitions
- Medium weights of 10-12 repetitions
- Light weights of 12-16 repetitions
Dashed pyramid
Lastly, we’ll talk about the dashed pyramid workout, another training method that’s ideal for working your abs. You must know that it’s very similar to the ascending pyramid workout, but the last set requires less weight and more repetitions. Because of this, it’s designed for people with less experience.
- Light weights: 15 repetitions
- Medium weights: 12 repetitions
- Heavy weights: 10 repetitions
- Light weights: 15 repetitions
Finally, don’t forget that if you want to work your abs with the pyramid training method, it’s important that you complete a warm-up. Warming up your muscles will prevent the risk on injuries and prepare your body to offer the best version of yourself.