The Everlasting Pyramid Program

Q: "I bought your book which arrived today. I had a chance to skim through it but not read through it completely. I read through the section regarding training frequency, but I think I prefer just doing a 3x/week full body routine as outlined in the Hypertrophy Training for Ectomorphs article. 

"For the first time in my life, I made some very nice gains following your ectomorph lifting routine. Can I just keep doing that indefinitely and mix up the exercises as well as the number of sets and reps? I’d rather do that than workout 4 times a week."

Thanks,
Tony K.


My Answer: Hey Tony, glad you're gaining on the 10-8-6-15 program. You've made a good choice in staying with 3 full body workouts instead of the 4 day split/full body combo outlined in the book. Everything in Strength and Physique: The Articles is meant for the intermediate to advanced bodybuilder. You as an ectomorph would do better with brief, intense but frequent training. As far as continuing on the 10-8-6-15 program indefinitely, you know what my answer is going to be:

All good things must come to an end.

But you can certainly delay the dreaded plateau for as long as you can. Changing exercises is one way to do this. You can also alter the rep scheme. You'll still pyramid the reps, but it will be at a lower range: 8-6-4-12. My advice is to rotate through different exercises throughout the week and stay with the 10-8-6-15 rep scheme for as long as you're making progress. Once you stop making progress, switch to a lower rep scheme of 8-6-4-12. Everything else (sets, times, frequency) stays the same.