Fouad Abiad Talks Pyramids

PRO TRAINING PARTNER: FOUAD ABIAD



Pyramids power up your workouts.
August 11, 2009
FLEXONLINE.COM

Canada’s Fouad Abiad was second in the Tampa Pro on August 5 and will compete in his second Mr. Olympia on September 25-26. He uses pyramids to safely progress from lighter to heavier sets on leg day.

ABIAD ON PYRAMIDS

“Every quad exercise is pryamided except for lunges, which I take to failure on every set. Pyramids are the safest way to go heavy because the lighter, higher rep sets let you warmup and feel out the weight before going heavier. Also, my pyramids range from 25 reps down to 6, so I do both higher reps and lighter reps of the same exercise.”

<TABLE style="COLOR: #000000" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width="50%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="BACKGROUND: #b10b1c; FONT-WEIGHT: bold" colSpan=4 align=middle>ABIAD’S QUAD ROUTINE


</TD></TR><TR style="BACKGROUND: #000000; COLOR: #ffffff; FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 1px solid">EXERCISE </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ffffff 1px solid" align=middle>SETS </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>REPS </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Leg extensions </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>5 </TD><TD align=middle>25-6 </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Hack squats </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>4 </TD><TD align=middle>15-6 </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Smith machine front squats</TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>4 </TD><TD align=middle>15-8 </TD></TR><TR><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid">Lunges </TD><TD style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid" align=middle>4 </TD><TD align=middle>to failure </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I couldn't imagine doing pyramids for squats or leg presses, that'd cripple me

I did this yesterday for leg extensions. I did 5 sets of 30, 25, 20, 15, and 12. It wore my legs out. I also tried to keep the reps nice and slow on both the positive and negative movements.