Pyramid of Gains
By Sam Brown of sambrownstrength.com
Watch the video by clicking here!
The new year has been here for over a month now. How are you looking at achieving your goals? If you are like most people who make New Year’s Resolutions, then you have already landed firmly on your face.
Do not fret! Coach Sam is here to let you in on some very useful information that will not only help you to reach your New Years goals in the gym, but it will also help build the foundation to a healthier and potentially pain/injury free life!
Introducing, the Pyramid of Gains!
The Pyramid of Gains was created to show you what is truly important when it comes to lifting weights and strength training. This obviously does not include anything outside the gym, which is frankly the most important steps to real change, but let’s save that for another article!
Too many times do I see people working out who are not only performing an exercise incorrectly, but also do too many reps, with too much weight. This is a recipe for disaster and injury. I know the feeling of wanting to just jump right into a new program so that you can hurry up and hit the goals you have for yourself. This is all well and good but jumping into an unknown program, with little to know background in the gym, can lead to you getting frustrated, burning out, or possibly hurting yourself or others.
Before jumping into each layer of the pyramid I want to make it clear that this is not simply for beginners in the world of strength training and weight lifting, but for everyone that is looking to get stronger. I currently utilize this framework of thinking when it comes to my own programming and training and if you follow it, and keep it in mind, it will benefit you for years to come.
Base Layer: Technique
The bottom and largest portion of this pyramid is reserved for what I believe to be the most important aspect to starting a weight training regimen and that would be technique. Whenever I get a client that is new to working out or being in the gym, technique is the first thing we go over. This is to not only keep the athlete or client safe and injury free, but to also teach them how to move their bodies effectively and to be able to feel the appropriate muscles contracting.
The cool part about working on technique when you are a newer lifter is that although you may not feel beat up or “dead”, your body is growing and developing to the new stimulus you are putting your body through and you are getting stronger. Strength is not merely how much weight your muscles can move. It is also how quickly and efficiently your central nervous system can fire off signals to those muscles. When you are learning a new skill or exercise your brain is creating more efficient pathways for your nervous system to fire through in response to the technique work you are doing. These pathways become shorter and shorter the more your practice which leads to you not only being able to reproduce proper technique with each repetition you do, but you will be able to do so with more weight. Do not underestimate the value of this phase as it provides the foundation for efficient growth and development later in your fitness journey.
Level 1: Muscle Imbalances
Moving on up the pyramid leads us to our next block. Muscle imbalances are when one muscle group or individual muscle is not as strong or is lagging in relation to the others. This can be determined in your physique if you are a bodybuilder or it can be determined while weight training (back rounding during a deadlift, unable to do pullups/pushups).
Now this is not just important if you are looking to compete on a bodybuilding stage or a powerlifting platform, but it is vital to making sure you are injury free throughout your everyday life. Muscle imbalances lead to preventable injuries. A strong body and strong muscles have a better chance of absorbing forces from falls, slips, and everyday movements. For example, if you are a mother and your child want you to pick them up from the ground it is important to be able to maintain proper strength in your core, back and glutes in order to pick them up. Of if you are a doctor running to the ER to do an emergency operation and slip on the floor and catch yourself from falling. it is important for your hamstrings and low back to be strong so that you can properly absorb the force as opposed to letting the force just radiate through your muscles and ligaments which may cause sprains or tears.
Having a hard time determining what imbalances you have? Here is a simple way to think about it. Most people who start a workout program are highly concerned with their “mirror muscles”. Mirror muscles are the muscles that you can see when you are standing in the mirror. Chest, abs, biceps, anterior deltoids, and quads to name a few. These muscles can be seen and are able to be tracked in terms of progress. The problem with this is that most of those same people neglect the muscles that you cannot see. Rear deltoids, lats, traps, glutes, hamstrings, and the low back are always neglected in comparison to the mirror muscles. The issue with this is most soft tissues injuries occur due to weaknesses in these areas or the areas surrounding them. Combine a general weakness with the huge amount of sitting we do as a population and there is a serious problem. A few rules of thumb when it comes to muscle imbalances is that you should really focus on the things you are bad at and spend twice as much time working on the muscles on the back of your body as you do on the front of your body. For example, if you decide to bench press for 3 sets of 10, make sure you are doing two pulling exercises (face pulls, rows, etc.) to counteract the pushing.
Level 2: Work Capacity
Did you know that much of the reason you find yourself not getting stronger is not because you are not lifting enough or working hard enough, it is because your cardiovascular system stinks? What I mean by this is that you are unable to get a huge response to lifting weights in the gym because your body is not recovering well from the work you are doing. Think about this situation. You have been working out in the gym for about 6 weeks and have been working out 3 days a week. I take you aside and give you a test where you are supposed to do 15 bodyweight squats for 3 sets with only 45 seconds between sets. Set one goes well, set two doesn’t feel great but you get through it, then set three is a struggle and you fail to complete the full 15 reps without stopping for air. You are breathing heavy and start to feel nauseous. What happened? Are you simply so weak that you are unable to complete the prescribed reps? Unlikely, the more logical answer is that your cardiovascular abilities are not up to par. Without getting too complicated or science-y, the reason that it is important to have a solid base of work capacity is because it means that your body can better transport blood, oxygen, and nutrients into muscles and aid in recovery between working sets. This means that your body is not only able to do more work but is recovering better during and after the workout.
So, what is the takeaway for Work Capacity? Make sure you are getting a few sessions in a week of more cardiovascular style training sessions. This could be walking, running, cycling, playing basketball, hiking, etc. If you are like me and really enjoy lifting weights, you can decrease your rest periods between working sets a few days a week or set up circuit workouts that contain bodyweight exercises and lifting weights utilizing lighter loads, higher reps, and less rest periods. Basically, if the exercise or activity makes you breath heavy, then you are doing it right.
Peak of Pyramid: Program
Now you may be thinking that I am nuts when it comes to putting the program you pick as the least important factor on the pyramid of gains. The program is the magic that happens in the gym that makes you jacked and shredded right? Wrong. No program is magic. If a program is built around sound training principles, then it will work. With that in mind, if you do not have the other layers of this pyramid down, then it has the potential to not work as well, not work at all, or get you injured. I take a very different stance with my clients than most coaches or trainers. I educate them and teach them everything they need to know about training as well as how to build and develop a program that works for them. I also teach them how to look at a training program, compare that to the weaknesses they currently have, then decide if that is the one they want to do or not. You see, if you have focused on building technique, doing the necessary work to help build your weaknesses as well as develop your work capacity, then the program you pick is the icing on the cake, or in this situation is the peak of the pyramid because you have done everything in your power to build the solid foundation that will help you for years to come.
Learn more about Sam here: sambrownstrength.com