© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

The Training Pyramid Cheat Sheet Purpose: This Cheat Sheet aims to quickly and concisely make it clear

what matters most to get stronger and bigger based upon the research.

Hop onto most fitness mags or any popular bodybuilding forums and you are bound to witness another

“best way to train” or “#1 exercise.”

Unfortunately, the debate-carousel exists because replicatable fitness knowledge runs scarce and the

“worked for me” attitude runs rampant in the still-young industry.

Too often, lifters get distorted views on what matters most when it comes to training to get big. It’s

clear that not all aspects of training hold as much influence on outcome as others and that’s why this

pyramid from Eric Helms of 3D Muscle Journey explains it best.

This training pyramid quickly and simply highlights what is and is most important. Because, when it

comes to getting big and strong, knowing what matters most, wins. Period.

Adherence - Your adherence is dictated by what your reality allows

- do you have a job that requires overtime?

- is your only time to work out early morning? Late night?

in relation to what you are willing to do

- do you enjoy your workouts?

- will you cut out early?

If you are chasing ‘optimal’ but aren’t consistent then you are less like Superman and closer to running

around like that little boy from Family Circus so… and this is the biggest takeaway here; let’s bring all our

attention to it through fonts and highlights of various nature:

CONSISTENCY is the biggest realizer to massive gains.

Keep in mind that what may be necessary to fast track to ‘xyz’ may not fit into your lifestyle. Therefore,

'optimal training' may not be realistic.

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

Linear loading is simply consistently

adding weight weekly. This creates a

program where you begin with high

volume but low intensity and end with

low volume with high intensity.

For example, you bench press 200lbs on

week 1; 205lbs on week 2; 210 on week

3, and so on. However, advanced lifters

gain strength on a scale closer to a

slug’s speed and, remember that VIF

(Volume, Intensity, Frequency) level?

When weight goes up, reps and

therefore volume goes down.

Instead of keeping a solid 10 reps week

by week, they might find that they can

perform 10 reps on week 1 with 200lbs;

8-9 reps on week 2 with 205lbs; 7-8

reps on week 3 with 210lbs; 6-7 reps on

week 4 with 215lbs.

When number of sets is held constant,

volume drops. And volume is mission:

critical in strength and hypertrophy.

So, whaddya do? Add a “wave,” then

return to a week 1 rep scheme with a

slight increase in weight lifted.

week 1 with 10 reps at 205lbs; week 2

with 8-9 reps at 210lbs; week 3 with 7-8

reps at 215lbs; week 4 with 6-7 reps at

220lbs, thereby increasing volume

monthly.

While the first 4 weeks is a steep

decline in volume lifted, in the long run,

you can see week 1, week 5, and week

9 show a consistent climb.

WHAT IS LINEAR WAVE-LOADING PERIODIZATION?

It may not be sustainable; it may not work for you. What does work and

what is most important is finding the right combination that fits you and

your needs. Then doing that over and over.

Volume, Intensity, and Frequency - The big one Exercise Science geeks

everywhere get nerdy on.

Why? Because this level is all about breaking it down like Boogie Nights.

How many reps? How much weight? How many sets? Which method to

use? And so on to discover the better methods that cause our bodies to

change towards expected results.

Let’s cover some basic understanding, first.

Volume is simply the total work performed determined by how much

total resistance (typically weight) one lifts in a single training session or

in a weekly total of training sessions.

It’s a quick calculation, typically calculated per exercise or per muscle

group, of reps x sets x weight. One who squats 150lbs for 3 sets of 10

reps has a total volume of 150lbs x 3 sets x 10 reps = 4,500lbs. When the

number goes up, you inch closer to both greater strength and

hypertrophy (see sidebar for further explanation).

Intensity is simply how hard you work out in a single training session or

in a weekly total of training sessions, determined by the difficulty of a lift

or exercise at a certain weight or speed.

For example, a sprint is a higher intensity than a run; and lifting 5 reps

until failing at 300lbs is a higher intensity than lifting 9 reps until failing

at 250lbs.

That weight can be decided through a slew of ways (each preferring a

training focus):

- percentages of 1RM and/or bar speed (better suited for lower

rep training)

- repetitions in reserve and/or training to failure or ‘as many reps

as possible (AMRAP) (better suited to mid to higher rep training)

- heart rate (better suited for conditioning and endurance)

- rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and/or neurological stress (well

suited for all forms of training), among others.

Intensity must be goal-specific.

If you want to optimize getting stronger, you must use lower reps with

heavier weight. If you want to optimize gaining strength endurance, you

must use higher reps and/or decrease your rest with lighter weight. If

you want to optimize muscle growth, you must use a weight that allows

you to come close to failing in the 6-12 repetition range.

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

Frequency is how often you train each body part in a single training session or in a weekly total of

training sessions. Thinking of it from a different perspective, you can call frequency as to how you

organize volume and intensity.

It’s that mix of volume, intensity, and frequency (VIF) that causes your fitness to improve. But there is a

limit. When you work out, you get tired. If you keep going, eventually, you will hit a roadblock. That

roadblock is looks like you are either lifting like a 2 year old or sounds like you are sucking the last bit of

oxygen out of the world.

It works similarly in the long-term. As you keep demanding more out of your body, you are escalating

your VIF. Eventually, your body needs to take a break. It’s like trying to stay up all night playing Nintendo

as a kid—all of a sudden, its morning, the TV is still on, and you’re wiping drool from your rug-imprinted

face.

What complicates the entire VIF level is that each variable influences the others within the level.

Let’s look at how this can happen:

Scenario 1: Big Man Albert is ready to get swole. His aim is to increase weight while maintaining a

certain rep period. This causes volume to increase, intensity to increase, while recovery period might

increase causing frequency to drop. This, in turn, causes weekly volume to decrease.

Scenario 2: Big Man Biff is also getting at it. He aims to increase weight quicker, understanding that he

will have to drop a few reps to accommodate the added weight. What happens? Volume decreases, but

intensity starts climbing.

It’s all linked up. And it all is different based upon your goals.

Two things to consider before moving onto how your training for strength and hypertrophy goals are

different, is that:

1) Based upon this studyi, you should be aiming for 40-70 reps per muscle group per session (hang

tight because we’ll come because we’ll come back to this)

2) And that there is a strong relationship between overall volume and training adaptations (studyii)

(studyiii).

If your goal is strength, ¾ of that volume should be spent in the max strength range (1-6 reps, 82%-100%

of 1RM) and the other ¼ should be spent in the hypertrophy range (8-12 reps, 65%-75% of 1RM).

If your goal is hypertrophy, ¼ of that volume should be spent just beyond the hypertrophy range (3-15

reps, 60%-90% of 1RM) with max strength lifts at the beginning of your workout and/or any strength

endurance lifts done at the end of your workout. The other ¾ of your volume should be spent in the

hypertrophy range (6-12 reps, 65%-82% of 1RM).

Alright… you remember about those 40-70 reps per body part per day from above? Eric Helms of 3D

Muscle Journey notes that muscle group training should keep it at “2-3 times per week no matter the

strength or hypertrophy focus” in which case the limit would be up to 3 total body sessions.

We know that lifting 2 or more sets (up to even 8 as suggested by the NSCAiv) in a workout for a given

body part is superior to single sets for increasing both strengthv and hypertrophyvi.

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

Anecdotally, and in a small population of intermediate to advanced lifters, I’ve seen great success

following 1950s bodybuilding greats’ advice of total body splits that has 30 reps per body part (3 sets of

10 reps) four to five days a week.

Daily volume is minimal enough to recover quickly but the up to 150 reps per body part is spread

throughout the week and is large enough to see encourage hypertrophy1. Therefore, I hypothesize that

your frequency in training each muscle group varies based upon the degree of daily intensity, as well as

the amount of daily and weekly volume.

Therefore, using Helms’ recommendations, we can tweak it to 120-140 weekly reps (but potentially as

much as 210 reps) as the ballpark to shoot for. NOTE: This weekly rep recommendation needs to be

further examined.

Progression – Your body adapts to the stress you place on it—the mantra of bros everywhere and

single-handedly the most important concept in performance training.

If all you ever do is ensure that however you train is as difficult the 100th time you have done it as the 1st

time you trained, you will always make gains.2

Sprinting. Powerlifting. Distance running. Bodybuilding.

New lifters seem to make serious muscle every time they simply walk by a gym; advanced lifters must be

more adept at the progressive stimulus.

That’s because new lifters are strengthening their neuromuscular efficiency—the motor learning from

practice and neurological changes as your body learns the lift—that causes their strength and

hypertrophy gains to skyrocket.

Advanced lifters see a much more diminished neuromuscular response because their bodies are already

on it like the first set at Rockfest, causing nearly 100% of those gains to be muscular.

While weight is the most used progression as we slide another couple of 5s onto the barbell, it’s not the

only method. It is the most ideal for strength improvements but if you want to run a faster marathon,

you’re not gonna carry a couple of plates with you.

And you can’t do improve your marathon by running a marathon every other day, either.

This is where the VIF level and this Progression level collide like it’s a late 90s natural disaster flick

because you must manage that volume in light of those progressions. Progression for the strength and

size athlete will almost always affect Volume and Intensity (as explained in VIF above).

1 High frequency is one way to address the Repeated Bouts Effect (RBE), one part of which says that as we gain

experience training, our body recovers quicker (allowing us to maintain higher levels of performance). On the

flipside, to continue improving that performance growth, one must continue increasing VIF to overload the muscle.

2 You may not know what those gains will be if you aren’t paying attention to VIF but this statement is imperative

to seeing athletic improvement. However, note that there are also critical factors at play that warrant bending this

rule in training as well (tapering/deloading, overreaching).

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

On top of that, how do you progress for hypertrophy? Endurance? Strength endurance? Explosive

power? What about mobility and age? While resistance is critical for most lifters, many underestimate

the other modalities you can tweak to progress such as: time or duration, distance, controlled range,

pain-free range, speed, even consistency. In fact, every one of the other levels of the Training Priority

Pyramid can also be a focus for progression depending upon the goal.

And this is something that the Linear Periodization outlines well; the long-term progression is vastly

more important than the short-term. And, often, for the advanced athlete, that is the best thing to be

tracking.

Exercise Selection – The movements you want to get better in need to dominate your program. You

need to get stronger in squats? Squat. Need better single arm strength with better control and stability?

Do a single arm movement.

However, while it’s advantageous to do the squat to become stronger in the squat, this studyvii tells us

that it is even more important to think of how the body operates as a system of muscles and not just

parts.

Don’t wanna read that study? The synopsis is this: those who did lunges, deadlifts, and leg presses in

addition to Smith machine squats got stronger than a group that only did Smith machine squats. They

also got more uniform lower body muscle growth—ie, if you want strength, or aesthetics, add some

variation in the movements for the best growth.

Exercise selection has everything to do with which muscles get activated and worked. Therefore,

exercise selection has everything to do with posture, workout enjoyment, physical aesthetics, strength,

quickness, breaking mid-lift plateaus, even endurance and pain.

That’s why your exercise selection should matter when any of those qualities need to be improved.

Winged scapula? Missing the final pull in your clean and jerk? Shoulder pain in the bench press? Need to

bring up those rear delts? Then you should rethink your exercises.

And that’s about it on exercise selection. Do what you enjoy and do what you want to get better at; it’s

as simple as that.

Rest Periods –By rest periods, we specifically are discussing the amount of rest in between sets and

exercises, not rest between workout days (that would be frequency from VIF).

What we know is rest matters more than we used to believe because rest affects:

a) growth hormone production (reduced rest increases growth hormone production)

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

b) energy recovery or metabolic fatigue (reduced rest increases fatigue)

c) workout duration

However, we’ve gotten a lot wrong over the last 60 years. And that’s good because we’re constantly

learning better in your fitness.

But we used to believe in shorter rest periods for better size gains.

With shorter rest periods, natural growth hormone shoots up and among GH’s most impressive talents

is its ability to go all out growing muscle.

But that’s where the growth hormone train stationed at: in theory. And we know betterviii now.

It’s because of a glorious mass research reviewix, we know that growth hormone has a much smaller

impact on muscle growth than the name implies. Sure, it does actually help increase lean muscle mass

but it had no anabolic effectx (ie, no muscle gains) and the mass gain was primarily due to water.

And water ≠ muscle growth.

Cross out the overblown GH-tsunami of growth and what’s left as viable reasons to tweak your workout

rest? Energy recovery and workout duration.

That same review found that except in the case of opposing muscle supersets, reduced rest, and the

metabolic fatigue that reduced rest causes, hurts the amount you can lift. In other words, rest too little

and you can’t lift as heavy or as much.

And that means that volume and intensity sinks like a quicksand fail compilation—over and over again.

…And remember that volume and intensity is our meat and potatoes.

On top of that, your opposing muscle supersets shouldn’t have zero rest.

That study review found that EMG-measured muscle activity increased when alternating with 30-60

seconds of rest in between exercises (that’s including the time to do the agonist exercise as well).

So, whether you are training for strength or for size, in a perfect timeless (responsibility-less?) world,

you should take as much rest as needed to achieve the required volume or intensity.

If you can’t take as much as needed, get volume throughout the week (for hypertrophy), maintain

intensity with the core lifts (for strength), or use agonist supersets (for hypertrophy).

<<drops mic>>

Supersets are superior in only the following two cases: 1) When gym time is limited

2) When using ‘opposing muscle group’ (and not full body)

supersets (with as much rest needed in between each exercise

and each set as needed).

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

Tempo – Ahh.. the level where the rest of the longstanding Weider principles reside: time under

tension, the negative, bar speed…

One thing to note is that the load determines bar speed in strength training; going 80-90% 1RM doesn’t

leave for much personal choice in how fast that bar drops. As such, tempo is typically a hypertrophy-

related variable alone.

So let’s discuss the negative. In the negative—or the eccentric contraction—in which your slowly

lengthening muscles are controlling the descent.

At face value, it’s the slow lowering of the weight in a squat, a bench press, a bent-over row, and a

deadlift (but the slow extending of the arms in a lat pulldown due to the reverse position of the

“resistance pull”).

The negative is important to discuss because we are stronger during the descent versus the ascent.

Think of controlling the descent/getting down ass to grass with a 500lb squat versus pressing said 500lb

squat from said grass; it’s easier to lower it than press it. Which means we can add more volume if we

can eccentrically “lift” more weight.

But in the real world, that doesn’t fly because I can’t press 500lbs on the squat. That means to maximally

eccentric lift, I’d have to load 500lbs in the squat rack, do my negative, unload the weight to get the bar

back to racked (because I can’t lift the 500lbs), reload the weight, perform my second negative, and so

on.

The only feasible option would be to have spotters help you up to get the appropriate progressive

overload.

It theoretically might work but it isn’t efficient.

And most would prefer to have their workouts fit within their schedule, not the other way around,

which is where time under tension (TUT) might accommodate.

NOTE: the only major difference between TUT and negatives is the load. A TUT is lighter and allows you

to concentrically lift the weight, although, TUT could also mean you lift the weight slower during the

ascent as well as the descent.

The idea is that keeping the muscle under load longer (such as a 5 second rep) causes metabolic fatigue.

Surprisingly, the eccentric not only keeps strength athletes from lifting as heavyxi, thus causing volume

to drop and limiting gainsxii (and herexiii), but it also reduced the amount of workxiv (by about 11%) by

limiting the number of reps they were able to perform.

Less reps, less weight, less work, less volume; it doesn’t sound so hot when you know that the most

critical component (after doing the workout), is the VIF and the research shows that slower reps just

don’t help.

On the flip side, here’s a study where they found that a traditional rep speed produced better

hypertrophyxv compared to the slower reps within the same subjects. One arm did fast reps; one arm did

slow reps. Faster reps win.

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

Or in another study when they divided lifters into three separate groups: a strength rep range group

(heavy group), a hypertrophy rep range group (moderate group), and a strength endurance rep range

group (high rep group), they found similar results..

..Even with volume equal between all three groups, the muscle growth was the same between the

heavy and moderate groups but the high rep group was lagging behind on growth.

And holding volume equal is becoming an industry-standard for research because… VIF reigns king.

Despite 20 reps inevitably causing you to be ‘under tension’ at least 3-4 times longer than a strength rep

range (1-6 reps), and again, with volume equal across the board, it didn’t produce gainsxvi.

Slow has it’s place. But it’s better suited for two types of people:

1) someone just getting into weight training to allow more focus on form and muscle function

because ‘beginner gains’ allows them to do anything and see all sorts of improvements, and

2) those with rehab / prehab needs because the eccentric lift is all about control and has its place

in injury prevention, particularly those susceptible to injury.

And while many Big Men have or have had some nagging injury that they should slow down for, they

shouldn’t slow down in an effort to make greater gains.

..unless that ‘slow down’ is an effort to recover and eat. Lots.

What about Periodization? This term gets thrown around a lot but I prefer to think of periodization as

calculated changes or the way that the whole program is organized together. It’s something that is less

rocket science and more a mix of forethought and appropriate reaction.

For example, serious athletes use both deload periods and lighter weeks as a means to continue growth,

periodizing frequency with on season. Even their weekly, and sometimes daily workouts, periodize

intensity or volume.

And it’s possible to periodize progressions, exercise selection, and even tempo as needed. Many

powerlifters periodize exercise selection when they go to a deadlift from a deficit or cut back into a rack

pull. Bodybuilders periodize progressions daily, weekly, and monthly as they change their routines.

Prehab is a great method to periodize your tempo. Even periodizing frequency by acknowledging

holidays and vacations in which your workouts will likely drop so adding an extra workout or two during

the weeks leading to the downtime.

Periodization is a tool to be used throughout any one of these variables.

Using the Training Pyramid Cheat Sheet will put you miles ahead of Big Men and Strong Ladies

everywhere.

Now, the choice is on you to put your knowledge into action.

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

Acknowledgements:

- Eric Helms of 3D Muscle Journey for the inspiration and much of this content. You can see his 2+

hours worth of content regarding the training pyramid at

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYdkxp9hJ4i7-gHy-Loh6lbxsLcsypuYN.

- Greg Nuckols of Strengtheory.com as well, where some additional content was gathered.

Greg Beitling, is a lifelong fitness entrepreneur who, in 2008, began his career as a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness. His passion for fitness showed through becoming a fully-booked trainer within months and recording off-the-chart sessions trained.

A year later, he founded Lit Fitness, a training facility located in Blue Springs, MO, just east of Kansas City: the last place men and women 25 to 42 came to lose weight.

Offering personal training, semiprivate personal training, and their flagship large group training, Lit Fitness marked itself as the premier fat loss studio in the Kansas City area and had clients coming from all areas around the metro to train with him and his team.

A highly sought-after coach for healthy and injured average Joes alike, Beitling has a passion for using exercise as a tool to help clients achieve a higher level of fitness and personal satisfaction.

He now resides in Germany where, when he isn’t having a bad hair day, he focuses on providing high performance coaching through online training.

Beitling has received his BA in Marketing from Truman State University and hasn’t stopped learning having hired multiple business coaches and fitness coaches himself.

An accomplished author, Greg has published over 40 articles for area newspapers and online.

Greg publishes a blog and weekly emailed Stories About Life and Fitness at www.GregBeitling.com

If you want professional knowledge, done-for-you programs, and top-level coaching that has helped hundreds lose 20+

pounds in 6 weeks, many others gain 100+lbs on the big three lifts in 5 weeks, and still more adding 30lbs of muscle and inches

across their bodies in 8 weeks,

apply online at www.GregBeitling.com.

© 2015 Greg Beitling Performance www.GregBeitling.com

www.GregBeitling/Huge

www.GregBeitling.com/Strong-like-a-lady/

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i González-Badillo, JJ and Izquierdo M, Gorostiaga EM. Moderate volume of high relative training intensity

produces greater strength gains compared with low and high volumes in competitive weightlifters.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16503695

ii http://www.researchgate.net/publication/261516420_Effects_of_Different_Volume-

Equated_Resistance_Training_Loading_Strategies_on_Muscular_Adaptations_in_Well-Trained_Men

iii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12436270

iv Coburn, JW and Malek, MH. NSCA’s Essentials of Personal Training. In: Anonymous. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2011.

v http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0027824/

vi http://fysio.dk/Upload/KursUdd/Kursusmateriale/Hjerte12/Single%20vs%20multiple%20etc.pdf

vii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24832974

viii https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18347346

ix http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25047853

x Randall, Tom. Athletes Don't Benefit From Human Growth Hormone, Study Finds.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=awlswGxIiU5c&refer=home. BloombergBusiness

xi http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20351575

xii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11710656

xiii http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21993022

xiv http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20351575

xv http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15640387

xvi http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12436270