High intensity 5x5s versus Pyramid

Well, you guys were right! For my chest day today, I switched from an
8/6/4 pyramid with 3 minutes of rest to 5x5 (static weight) with 1
minute of rest.

I seriously started out with what I thought was an extremely low
weight in comparison to what I usually do, with the intent of getting
my form right and then using a "real" weight next week. This was the
week that I would have increased weight on my 8/6/4 pyramid so that my
set of 4 would be with 355lbs, so when I had 235lbs on the bar it
should have been easy.

Nope! The first set was easy with perfect form, and the second was
pretty easy, too. By the third set, I was feeling it, and by the 4th
set I wasn't sure if I could finish! On the 5th set, I could finish 3
(no promises on perfect form), but broke on the 4th rep. Each set took
around 20 seconds to complete.

Who'd've thunk that decreasing the rest period would have had such a
major impact?! I was barely able to complete my inclines and dumbbell
flyes, and an hour later I'm still a little shaky.

We'll see if this triggers growth, though. But so far, it feels like a
good workout.

One question, though. How much time should there be between actual
exercises, like when I'm going from bench to dumbbell inclines? I
tried to switch everything as fast as I could, but there's simply no
way to move everything into position in 1 minute.

Jason Carlton wrote:

> Well, you guys were right! For my chest day today, I switched from an
> 8/6/4 pyramid with 3 minutes of rest to 5x5 (static weight) with 1
> minute of rest.
>
> I seriously started out with what I thought was an extremely low
> weight in comparison to what I usually do, with the intent of getting
> my form right and then using a "real" weight next week. This was the
> week that I would have increased weight on my 8/6/4 pyramid so that my
> set of 4 would be with 355lbs, so when I had 235lbs on the bar it
> should have been easy.
>
> Nope! The first set was easy with perfect form, and the second was
> pretty easy, too. By the third set, I was feeling it, and by the 4th
> set I wasn't sure if I could finish! On the 5th set, I could finish 3
> (no promises on perfect form), but broke on the 4th rep. Each set took
> around 20 seconds to complete.
>
> Who'd've thunk that decreasing the rest period would have had such a
> major impact?! I was barely able to complete my inclines and dumbbell
> flyes, and an hour later I'm still a little shaky.
>
> We'll see if this triggers growth, though. But so far, it feels like a
> good workout.
>
> One question, though. How much time should there be between actual
> exercises, like when I'm going from bench to dumbbell inclines? I
> tried to switch everything as fast as I could, but there's simply no
> way to move everything into position in 1 minute.

You don't need to move between exercises within one minute. Actually I
believe you'd do better to rest a while, or even do something totally
different, like rows or chinups, between exercises targetting your chest.
But the later obviously depends on how you train.

--
Andrzej Rosa