About Stew Smith Fitness - PT Club - Former Navy SEAL CSCS

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The PT Pyramid

The PT Pyramid is a no rest (rest while doing other exercises) workout complete with a warmup, max out, and a cool down all rolled into one workout. It is a great foundation builder to increase endurance and muscle stamina. I recommend this workout 1-2 times a week in conjunction with a superset or max rep workout for the other 1-2 upper body workouts in a week.

If you take a look at one of the pyramids, you will notice that it is numbered on both sides. It goes from 1-5 on one side, with the number 6 on the top, and then 5-1 on the other side. Each number represents a step in the pyramid. Your goal is to climb the pyramid all the way up, and all the way back down. So you can consider each step a "set" of your workout.

At the bottom, you will find "pullups x 1, pushups x 2, situps x 3". What this means is that at each "set" or step of the pyramid, you perform 1 pullup for every step you are on, 2 pushups for each step, and 3 situps for each step.

You start at the bottom of the pyramid, at number one. For each set, you times that set number by 1 and that tells you how many pullups to do. You multiply it by 2 to get your pushups, and multiply by 3 for situps. So you keep progressing until you get to the top of the pyramid, or your MAX At step ten you perform 10 pullups/ 20 pushups/30 situps. Now you start working your way back down the other side. So the next set you do will be at step 9 on the way back down. So, you'll do 9 pullups/18 pushups/27 situps. Keep going until you worked all the way back down to one. So here is a number summary of the pyramid:

Go up the pyramid: (or half pyramid workout)
Set/Step 1: 1 pullups/2 pushups/3 situps
Set/Step 2: 2 pullups/4 pushups/6 situps
Set/Step 3: 3 pullups/6 pushups/9 situps
Set/Step 4: 4 pullups/8 pushups/12 situps
Set/Step 5: 5 pullups/10 pushups/15 situps (Your first set sets are basically a warmup)
Set/Step 6: 6 pullups/12 pushups/18 situps
Set/Step 7: 7 pullups/14 pushups/21 situps
Set/Step 8: 8 pullups/16 pushups/24 situps
Set/Step 9: 9 pullups/18 pushups/27 situps
Set/Step 10: 10 pullups/20 pushups/30 situps (Here is where you should fail / max out)

Go down the pyramid: (or reverse order pyramid = toughest to easiest number of reps)
Set/Step 9: 9 pullups/18 pushups/27 situps
Set/Step 8: 8 pullups/16 pushups/24 situps
Set/Step 7: 7 pullups/14 pushups/21 situps
Set/Step 6: 6 pullups/12 pushups/18 situps
Set/Step 5: 5 pullups/10 pushups/15 situps (Still tough until this point reaching failure at every level)
Set/Step 4: 4 pullups/8 pushups/12 situps
Set/Step 3: 3 pullups/6 pushups/9 situps
Set/Step 2: 2 pullups/4 pushups/6 situps
Set/Step 1: 1 pullups/2 pushups/3 situps (Finish cool down)

In conclusion - the pyramid has a warmup. max out, and cooldown all built in AND will definitely help you with your PT scores.

Other creative ideas:

ADD: dips to the exercises for additional tricep /shoulder burn. I usually do the same number of dips as I do pushups.

ADD: Running 100 sprints to add some killer cardio. These will hurt you and you will lose your juice quickly so bring gaotroade for blood sugar / electrolyte replacement and water to drink...

Enjoy the workout idea. If you are interested in fitting pyramid workouts into a comprehensive training program check out the StewSmith eBook Fitness Store.

Related Articles: Pushup Push, Pullup Push, PT SuperSets

Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the
National Strength and Conditioning Association. If you are interested in starting a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle - check out the StewSmith.com Fitness eBook store and the Stew Smith article archive at StewSmith.com.

To contact Stew with your comments and questions, e-mail him at stew@stewsmith.com.

Also Check out Stew on Fight Science - National Geographic Channel

Books, eBooks, DVDs

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Published Books / DVDs / APPs

Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness      | More Info     | Book / DVD
Maximum Fitness - CrossTraining     |    More Info     | Book only
The Special Operations Workout     |   More Info     |     Book only
The SWAT Workout - From Recruit to SWAT      | More Info    | Book Only
The Combat Swimmer Stroke Video     | More Info   | Download MP4
The Pre-Habit Workout     | More Info | DVD only
New Fitness APPs: Navy SEAL, FBI, Pushup. Pullups   | More Info    | APPS

Coming Soon - Navy SEAL Fitness with Weight Training

The Complete List of Stew Smith's eBooks / Books:

* NO EBOOK READER REQUIRED | READ WITH ADOBE ACROBAT READER

Fitness for All Levels of Fitness

The 90 Day Beginner Guide to Fitness   | More Info | eBook, Book

Reclaim Your Life - The Erin O'Neill Program    | More Info | eBook only

Veteran's Fitness - Baby Boomer and a Flat Stomach    | More Info | eBook only

The Diabetic Prevention Workout   | More Info   |   eBook only

Advanced Maintenance and Recovery Program | More Info | eBook only

The TRX Workout eBook    | More Info | eBook only

NEW - Circuit Training 101 eBook     | More Info | eBook only

NEW Obstacle Course Race eBook     | More Info | eBook only

The Special Forces Physical Fitness Workouts

Combat Conditioning Workout    | More Info | eBook, Book

Navy SEAL Workout Phase 1: Beginner      | More Info |    eBook, Book

Navy SEAL Workout Phase 2 - 3: Intermediate    | More Info | eBook, Book

Navy SEAL Workout Phase 4 Grinder PT     | More Info | eBook, Book

Navy SWCC Workout      | More Info    |    eBook, Book

Army Special Forces / Ranger Workout  | More Info SF / Ranger | eBook, Book

USMC RECON Workout      | More Info | eBook, Book

Air Force PJ / CCT Workout     | More Info | eBook, Book

The Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Workout     | More Info | eBook, Book

The Army Air Assault School Workout     | More Info | eBook only

The Army Airborne Workout     | More Info | eBook only

NEW - Upper Body Round Robin (UBRR)    | More Info | eBook only

The OCS, ROTC, Service Academy, & Bootcamp Workouts

The USMC IST and PFT Workout    | More Info | eBook only

USMC OCS / TBS Workout      | More Info | eBook, Book

The Service Academy Workout     | More Info | eBook, Book

Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp Bootcamp Workout   | More Info | eBook, Book

The Army OCS and PFT Workout    | More Info | eBook, Book

NEW Army PRT and Combat Readiness Test Workout    | More Info | eBook only

The PFT Bible - Military / Police Standard PFT   | More Info | eBook, Book

The Law Enforcement Physical Fitness Test Workouts

The FBI Academy / PFT Prep Workout (Vol 1 and 2)     | More Info | eBook, Book

The DEA Prep Workout      | More Info | eBook only

The FLETC Prep Workout - Ace the PEB      | More Info | eBook, Book

The PFT Bible - Military / Police Standard PFT     | More Info | eBook, Book

The Fire Fighter Workout      | More Info | eBook, Book

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