How to Awaken Your Nervous System With Your Warm-up Sets
Published: Tue, 11/25/14
The majority of the people in a gym do pyramid sets
when working their way up to the heaviest weights.
An example of a pyramid setup for the bench press.
135 X 10 reps
185 X 8 reps
205 X 6 reps
225 X 3 reps
135 X 12+ reps
According to former Soviet Olympic Coach,
Vladimir Zatsiorsky:
"Pyramid Training has been virtually abandoned by
Olympic-caliber athletes. The ascending part of such
a routine induces premature fatigue, while the
descending portion is not efficient since it is
performed in a fatigued state.
Since 1964, pyramids have been virtually excluded
from the training of elite strength athletes."
Here's a "Zatsiorsky inspired" setup of the bench press.
135 X 5 reps
185 X 4 reps
205 X 3 reps
225 X 2 reps
245 X 2 reps
Each set is to be done as explosively as possible.
Lifting lighter weights with maximum force, hits
the large powerful fast twitch fibers without using
maximum weight.
Reps are low, since maximum CNS output can
only be maintained for around 10 seconds.
Since each set aims for maximum CNS output...
while avoiding fatigue...your nervous system
"awakens" from set to set.
By the time you hit your heavier sets, you are
ready to roll!
Your CNS is primed to lift the heaviest possible weight.
Give this approach a try.
I guarantee you will notice a difference in strength output.
Keep training hard,
when working their way up to the heaviest weights.
An example of a pyramid setup for the bench press.
According to former Soviet Olympic Coach,
Vladimir Zatsiorsky:
"Pyramid Training has been virtually abandoned by
Olympic-caliber athletes. The ascending part of such
a routine induces premature fatigue, while the
descending portion is not efficient since it is
performed in a fatigued state.
Since 1964, pyramids have been virtually excluded
from the training of elite strength athletes."
Here's a "Zatsiorsky inspired" setup of the bench press.
Each set is to be done as explosively as possible.
Lifting lighter weights with maximum force, hits
the large powerful fast twitch fibers without using
maximum weight.
Reps are low, since maximum CNS output can
only be maintained for around 10 seconds.
Since each set aims for maximum CNS output...
while avoiding fatigue...your nervous system
"awakens" from set to set.
By the time you hit your heavier sets, you are
ready to roll!
Your CNS is primed to lift the heaviest possible weight.
Give this approach a try.
I guarantee you will notice a difference in strength output.
Keep training hard,
Mike Westerdal
CriticalBench.com
PS: This is just one of many principles covered in Rusty
Moore's newest course Visual Impact Frequency Training.
...but the biggest paradigm shift in Rusty's program is
muscle recovery.
PS: This is just one of many principles covered in Rusty
Moore's newest course Visual Impact Frequency Training.
...but the biggest paradigm shift in Rusty's program is
muscle recovery.
You might be thinking that training the same muscle
groups and lifts with only 24 hours worth of rest, will
lead to over-training.
Tomorrow I'm going to show you the "recovery
guidelines" that the Soviet and Bulgarian athletes
used to allow them to practice each lift daily.
You will want to read this if you still believe that a
muscle must be rested for 48-72 hours before it gets
trained again.