Training Pyramid of Importance
“What’s the best chest workout?”
“Are squats better than lunges?”
Are these some questions that you always grapple with? I was once like that too. And I can see why.
Information overload can be daunting and stressful.
Introduction
In the fitness industry, there are endless streams of information, only to confuse someone navigating their way. The problem is that these are just generalizations instead of giving context. It is understandable, given how broad the industry is. However, these questions are actually missing the whole point here.
Just like nutrition, training should be prioritized in terms of importance.
The Pyramid of Training
In the pyramid, there are 6 levels, level 1 being the most important, and that should be the foundation of your training.
Level 1: Adherence
Training is a journey that must be continued for a long period of time to produce meaningful results. If you cannot stick to it, it doesn't matter if it is the best program in the world. 3 conditions I take note of when I plan my workout for myself, or for others - Realistic, Enjoyable and Flexible. These are common to things outside training too!
The Journey should be realistic, enjoyable and flexible.
Realistic
The first thing that has to be considered is your time frame. Some may be targeting for an upcoming wedding, while others just want to lose weight in the long run. Don’t expect to gain muscles or lose weight significantly if you’re planning to work out only 4 weeks before your wedding.
The second thing to be considered is your week-to-week and day-to-day schedule. If you want to train 6 days a week but are a dad with 3 children and works daily from 9am to 9pm, that may not be realistic. My recommendation is to work with something that you can do first, before slowly adjusting your schedule if you think you can accommodate more.
Enjoyable
Can you train this way for a long period of time? If you’re going to be dreading it everyday, you might want to re-think about your training program. It is important to enjoy the process, instead of being too fixated on achieving your goals as fast as you can. You want to achieve your fitness goals sustainably, and not get burnt out so quickly.
Flexible
Flexibility is the requirement of the above two conditions - it allows you to enjoy your training and makes it realistic. There are many unforeseeable circumstances in your fitness journey - family matters, stress, changing energy levels, just to list some of them. You will need to plan something flexible so that you can have a day off when you feel terrible, or hit your best reps and sets when you have that sudden burst of energy that day.
Level 2: Volume, Intensity, Frequency
Volume, intensity and frequency form the foundations of all training programs. These 3 variables are interrelated and inseparable from each other. Each affects the other.
Volume
Volume is simply calculated as follows: Load x sets x reps. Do enough to progress, but not as much as possible. Increase when you plateaued if you are recovering well.
Intensity
Intensity is often misunderstood. Many describe it based on the subjective feeling of soreness, or how tiring the workout was. From an objective standpoint, intensity is how much you are lifting (often defined a Repetition Maximum (RM) or percentage of 1RM), or how much close to your maximal effort that load is (often referred to as Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)).
Frequency
Frequency organizes volume and intensity. It is how you spread your training across the week. For example, hitting your Deltoids across two days of the week. This helps with recovery, learning through practice and organisation.
Intensity is often misunderstood as muscle soreness or how exhausting the workout is.
Level 3: Progression
In order to get bigger and stronger, you need to gradually increase your training stimulus. This is called The Principle of Progressive Overload. If you are a beginner, setting up a training plan with adequate work load will produce gains without much effort. But as you progress, progress will be slower and more complex programming will need to come in.
Level 4: Exercise Selection
The importance of exercise selection depends on what you are focusing on. If you’re focusing on strength gains, then exercise selection is actually very critical because of specific movements. For hypertrophy, a wide variety of exercises can be used, and therefore exercise selection may not be so critical.
Some examples of how different exercises can be used for different people:
A person with long limbs can use different exercises compared to one with shorter limbs.
A person with back injury can do lighter squats and focus on leg press instead.
A person who wants to train their biceps can do more isolated curls instead of barbell rows, although both exercises target the biceps.
Another point is that a degree of variety in your training program can help with adherence. Some people may find a workout program too boring if they have been doing it for 3 months straight.
Level 5: Rest Periods
Arguments for shorter rest periods include hormonal spikes, metabolic fatigue or muscle damage. While there have been studies that suggest that shorter rest periods may induce greater hypertrophy, recent studies challenged the notion. It is now known that volume of training drives hypertrophy more than hormonal spikes, metabolic fatigue or muscle damage.
Therefore, the recommendation would be to rest as long as you want, auto-regulate your rest periods and then train when you are ready. However, if you happen to be hyperactive when training, have a history of feeling that you need to sweat, habitually under rest or over rest, or just don’t have the luxury of time, it would be good to time your rest.
Level 6: Lifting Tempo
This is the speed in which you are lifting, due to the belief of "time under tension". This may arguably be the least important of the pyramid. Studies have shown that duration of repetitions had no effect on hypertrophy.
Take home message: Just lift the weights. There is no need to slow the weights down unless you want to ensure proper form.
Conclusion
Just like the Nutrition Pyramid of Importance, I would like to end off with the expression depicted by the picture below.
Putting the cart before the horse.
This expression means that you’re focusing on the details before focusing on the bigger picture. For example, buying a car focusing on its top speed and acceleration, when you don’t even have a driver’s licence. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? That’s exactly how it is when you focus on Level 6 of the pyramid instead of Level 1.
So stop being stressed out on questions that do not matter that much!
Unless you're a competitive bodybuilder, who probably would not be on this page 😂
Do share this with your friends if you found it helpful!
Have you been focusing on the wrong things? Let me know!
PS - still unsure how to plan your workout? Drop me a message!
