Pyramidal sets

Really nice ,i love it :D

From a scientific point of view pyramidal sets seem to make a lot of sense. If you load a ligament too fast, it gets stiffer and has the ability to store more energy - which can be contraproductive. Collagen fibers seem to need a certain time to “uncoil” or “uncrimp”, before hanging gets productive. So, starting with lower weights could be a good idea.

Here are a few excerpts from BIOMECHANICS: AN OSTEOPATHIC PERSPECTIVE, Chapter 5 (Michael R. Wells, Ph.D., Dept. of Biomechanics and Bioengineering, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology). It’s about the viscoelasticity of ligs and other connective tissue:

THE RATE AT WHICH A STRESS IS APPLIED CAN BE A PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT DETERMINANT IN THE RESPONSE OF MATERIALS THAT EXHIBIT A COMBINATION OF BOTH ELASTIC AND VISCOUS BEHAVIOR IN RESPONSE TO AN APPLIED STRESS. Viscous behavior can be described as resistance to flow such as with cold syrup. Viscosity in biological materials arises largely, but not completely, from the resistance of their water content to flow into and out of the material with applied stress. For example, spaces between molecules of collagen in ligaments contain a large amount of water with salts and other small relatively mobile molecules..

Tensile stress (stretching) of the ligament will decrease the available space between collagen molecules, forcing the fluid between them out of the ligament. THIS PROCESS IS SIMILAR TO STRETCHING A WET SPONGE (FIGURE 6). IF THE STRUCTURE IS STRETCHED RAPIDLY, THERE IS AN INCREASING RESISTANCE TO FLUID TO MOVEMENT OUT OF (AND INTO) THESE SPACES, SINCE THIS REQUIRES TIME. The time required for fluids to move out of intermolecular spaces acts to slow the rate of deformation of an elastic material. This alters the elastic and plastic regions of the stress strain curve…

VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES CAN PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT ALTERATION OF MATERIAL BEHAVIOR WHEN THE RATE OF LOADING IS TOO FAST FOR THE FLUID EXCHANGE TO OCCUR. Under these conditions, a material may exhibit a higher elastic modulus (that is, appear stiffer or more brittle) under high loading rates as compared to the same load applied over a longer period of time. If a viscoelastic material is stretched rapidly and the load is sustained after the initial loading period, there will be a rapid initial deformation of the material followed by a slower deformation as the remaining fluid in the matrix reaches a new equilibrium at a slower rate (Figure 6)…

Can’t find the URL for the whole text anymore, sorry.