Today I start a new routine … Martin Berkhan’s Reverse Pyramid Training. It’s not his concept, but it is his workout style and the one he prescribes. I recently started supporting him on Patreon because intermittent fasting has done a lot for me and I hate how many others were better at capitalizing on intermittent fasting. It seems like he is figuring out this online world though. I also am a fan of him as a person. My boss somehow knows him as well.
Technically, my routine has changed over the years. It has always been some variation of StrongLift’s 5×5 or Starting Strength (similar, but 3×5). I did powerlifting with Joe Zmyewski (RIP) at Lion Heart where I did 2-3 reps per set. Since I started lifting again after almost two years of no lifting, my routine was an ugly combination of everything I knew. It wasn’t bad. I am as strong as I was two years ago at my previous peak, but 13~15 lbs lighter. I’m 150ish now.
Reverse Pyramid Training
I posted a link earlier, but RPT (Reverse Pyramid Training) is starting with your heaviest set per lift and reaching a rep goal, then doing as many reps as possible for the succeeding sets, but with weight removed each set. It’ll make sense when you see my work out log.
My First Workout
Your first set, which has a rep goal, should be something you can 6, 8, or 10 times. I had to port my current lifts over to this new rep range, so I converted successful sets. If I did 3×5 with good form, I put in 5 reps into this one-rep max calculator (would love to make my own…). For deadlifts, I just picked a random good set I did recently.
Bold sets are working sets!
Deadlift
My deadlift sucks because I passed out while deadlifting a few months ago and I’ve been taking it easy. Having to do higher reps means less of that initial strain when going really heavy. My last highest set was 5×250. That’s a 1RM of 280. I knew I could do more, because I did 5×240, 5×230 before, so I went for 300-1RM since I’m only doing two working sets.
5 x 130
5 x 150
5 x 180
6 x 260 (302 estimated 1RM)
8 x 235
Success! I will go up next Monday.
Overhead Press
My last decent workout I did 3x5x125 which gave me a 141 estimated 1RM, which is done from October. 🙁
8 x 115 (143 estimated 1RM)
9 x 110
8 x 105
Success! The first set was hard, but the others went up easy, but I still hit a wall.
Barbell Curls
I can’t believe I’m doing curls, but I needed to an accessory exercise. I couldn’t do tricep push downs and weighted chin-ups are a main lift in this routine, so I decided why not. I may have to ask Martin if it is okay to do chin-ups twice a week if spread with a weekend. It just feels wrong doing these.
10 x 60
13 x 55
Success! Since I don’t do these, I took a wild guess at my starting point. I think I picked well.
Result
I sent my friend a message at 8:04 that I was about to start and finished at 9:05. My previous workouts take TWICE AS LONG.
The main difference is the volume of warm-ups, which affects the total volume as well. I’ve read that you only need to warm-up with one lift. I shied away from that thought and would just do quick warm-ups, but perhaps I was exhausting glycogen for when I really need it. For squat and bench, I sometimes will do 8 warm-up sets. Here, I limited it to 3 and I didn’t warm-up on the second compound lift.
While the total volume is less, I feel properly exhausted. The conversions from my estimates were spot on. I am still anxious about the lower amount of volume. Is it enough? Am I going to get fat? Either way, I’m just glad the time is short. If the volume isn’t enough, I can scale back the calories, but I’m already thinking too far into this. Will continue on!