The Great Pyramid
By Bryce Lane 2004
In most things we do we consider that whatever it is we want there is
simply more or less of it. You are either moving one way along the
line, the other way, or staying put. However often the way you think
about something, the way you model it in your head is everything.
Simply asking a question well can give you the answer you want.
Consider three kinds of strength:
1.) Continuous effort--Strength repeated continuously a lift or motion
done for 10-15 min perhaps.
2.) Recoverable effort--Strength exerted intermittently in periods of
high effort and recovery.
3.) One time effort--Done once with no likelihood of repeating in a
reasonable time.
Lets consider that you want to be as one time strong as possible. That
puts #3 at the top, #1 at the bottom and #2 across the middle. Much of
this is probably not new to you at this point in fact you might be
saying "duh"; However lets consider also a couple of variables, the
first is the height of the point from its base and the second is the
width of the base. Some of us have naturally or through some training
very steep pyramids that come from a small base up to a steep point and
other the opposite. I suspect that knowing this and how to work these
two relations (the ratio between them) with each other is the real
basis of any physical quality you wish to get more of.
Lets take an athlete who had a 500# deadlift, and no matter how hard he
trains he can't seem to exceed this point. Upon having an epiphany one
day and half out of frustration he decides to do a longer set of 20 and
discovers that the weight has to drop a very long way before he can do
that. He discovers in his case that the
triangle is very steep, the ratio of height to width is too high. So
over the next few weeks he works on these 20 rep sets (yes plural now)
and finds pretty rapid improvement. Pleased with this he continues
until a point of diminishing returns when the numbers are not going up
anymore in the 20's. He decides to go back to the singles and at first
there is no difference but over a few more weeks what was 500# creeps
up to 510# and then 525# and not only that but he can do more than that
one big single and further that some of that dizziness he got on the
top single is gone. Deciding this to be successful he decides to go
even lower on the triangle and build up some endurance at the very base
with hyper-extensions, swings and cleans for much more than 20 reps.
After this he goes back to the twenties and then up to the singles
again and same thing, but even somewhat better this time.
Upon drawing this out on paper this lifter sees that when his triangle
gets steep enough, progress stops yet when it widens out a bit, given
time, progress returns. Upon looking at his training log it seems like
if he spends 20% of his time at the baseline, 20% in the middle and 60%
at the top (just examples) then progress continues and not only that
but he feels better and has seen his own feet over his gut for the
first time in years.
For any other of the three you can simply rotate the triangle with what
you want on top. for example if you are after extreme endurance have #1
on top, #2 in the middle and #3 on the bottom. If you are after truck
loading kind of work capacity then put #2 on top, and #3 or #1 on the
bottom or middle depending on how heavy those boxes really are, but you
get the point.
If progress stops on your peak item then go down to the bottom, give it
some time and work your way back up till the triangle proportions are
conducive to progress again. I think everyone for many reasons has a
steepness in this shape that suits them and if you don't' recognize it
and work with it, you get stuck. There is some mix of these three kinds
of work that will make your particular triangle go up the quickest in
the long term. Its one thing to understand this and many people do, but
its another to have the patience and foresight to figure out your
particular numbers and put them into practice long term.
All the good recipes I know of are not all about more or less of one
single ingredient but the just-right proportion of all of them and then
cooked patiently for just the right amount of time.
Bryce