This is the NUMBER 1 RULE to take your body size and performance to the next level. If you EVER want to grow or get stronger, YOU MUST APPLY THIS RULE OR ELSE YOU WON’T MAKE ANY GAINS!
This rule is often the ONLY DIFFERENCE between growing and not growing. Getting stronger and not getting stronger. This rule could seriously change your life for ever so please listen up.
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Again, the Proportion Rule is the MOST IMPORTANT rule you will ever have to learn in weightlifting. Please listen to me, apply it and use it and you will reach a whole new level of achievement. It works wonders for everyone. Every pro or expert out there has their own version of the pyramid rule. I am probably not the only one that calls it that. I also like to call this rule the “Proportion Rule”.
Hell, let’s just call it, the “Pyramid Proportion Rule!”
Ok… on the to the basics of understanding how this Rule applies to your body, and EVERYBODY!
Your body was built with muscles of different shapes, sizes, and strengths. Understanding their size and strength limits will allow you to build maximum size AND maximum strength!
Concept #1: SIZE EQUALS STRENGTH – The strength of your muscle is GENERALLY relative of the size of the muscle – in other words, a bigger muscle would probably be stronger than a smaller muscle.
*Note that I said “probably” because it IS possible to get stronger without getting bigger. The proof is all those powerlifters. I’ve seen 110lbs girls bench-pressing 300lbs and they don’t even look defined or “buff”. But that’s a different topic.*
Concept #2: LOCKED RATIO – Your body already has a LOCKED RATIO on the size and strength of your muscles in relation to each other. In other words, if your biceps and chest have a 1:2 ratio, this means that your bicep muscles are generally always be 50% the strength and size of your chest muscles! If your body arms to legs muscles have a ratio of 1:4, this means your arms can NEVER be bigger or stronger than 1/4th of your leg muscles! Do keep in mind that everyone’s body has a different ratio. That’s why some people have big triceps in comparison to the rest of their body. Or others have big calves in comparison to the rest of the body. But the main concept, is that everyone has a RATIO that their body must be held to. Also keep in mind that in a locked ratio, it’s the smaller muscle that’s locked against the bigger muscle. Think of a pyramid, the bigger slab on bottom can grow as big as it wants, but the smaller slab can’t grow until the bigger slab grows to make room for it.
Concept #3: RATIOS MUST BE MAINTAINED – So now you realize that all the muscles in your body are connected to each other, and “locked” to each other. You now understand that you CANNOT BREAK that ratio! So IF your arms and chest have a 1:2 ratio. This means your arms can NEVER be bigger or stronger than your chest muscles no matter how much you work them out. NOW, if you think long and hard, I’m sure you can think of TONS of people (maybe even yourself), your friends, or WHOEVER, that do nothing but curling for months at home or at the gym. And then they quit because their biceps are growing any bigger or stronger. Now you know why – because their muscles already reached the limit of the locked ratio, and for them to get bigger or stronger, they would’ve had to workout their big muscles.
So what should you do? You MUST workout the chest muscle to make it bigger, to allow room for the smaller muscle (in this case, the arms) to grow and maintain that 1:2 ratio! This concept right alone is the most important aspect of the Pyramid Proportion Rule. If you notice, all the muscles in your body if you compare them will stack up like a pyramid with the strongest biggest muscles on bottom and the weakest smallest muscles on top. To grow one of the smaller muscles, you must FIRST grow the bigger muscle underneath it. Growing the bigger muscle underneath it will allow you the room to grow the smaller muscle to catch up to the locked ratio.
Another thing you can realize here is that you need to get a bigger lower body to get a bigger upper body. Some people will say “but i’ve seen tons of people with big biceps and they don’t workout their legs!” or “my friend can still get a bigger upper body with working out his legs”. The answer to that is that they probably used supplements. Creatine and all that other junk will allow you to make gains even without properly applying the proportion rule or any other weightlifting concepts. Another thing that I will say is that if you look, just about EVERYONE’s BODY regardless of what muscle they work out, generally always look to be in proportion. In other words, you will see people in the gym who do nothing but bench press. Their upper body looks better, but it never really gets bigger than their lower body. That’s the truth and reality of it all, your upper body will never be bigger or stronger than your lower body and that goes for your muscles as well. Real life isn’t like in the cartoons where Superman’s torso is 3 times bigger than his legs. The guys in real life that have the biggest upper bodies also have the biggest lower bodies – drill that into your head and see for yourself!
Concept #3: WORKOUT YOUR BIGGEST MUSCLES – Now that you see how all the muscles in your body are essentially locked and limited to the growth and strength of your biggest muscles, you now should be realizing that you MUST workout your legs if you ever want to get bigger and stronger. Workout your legs with high intensity. Your legs have the biggest muscles in your body and by shocking them with high intensity workouts, you will be stimulating and making room for your whole body to grow bigger and stronger.
Common Mistakes that go against the Pyramid Proportion Rule:
– only working out the biceps (absolutely a waste of time, because they’ll never grow AT ALL if you only work them out and nothing else)
– not working out the legs (this STOPS you from grow bigger and stronger OVERALL)
– not working out the legs with high intensity! (running does not count as a leg workout!)
– using creatine to get bigger instead of leg workouts (Creatine will only go so far! leg workouts combined with creatine will take you further! I prefer all natural personally.)
– saying “but I only want bigger arms” (nope, sorry buddy, bigger arms won’t happen till you get bigger legs…at best you’ll get toned arms)
Do follow this rule and it WILL make you bigger and stronger. Again this is the MOST IMPORTANT SECRET in weightlifting.
When creating a workout plan. Always workout your biggest muscles first. Like for example, Monday – Legs/back, Wednesday – Chest/Triceps, Friday – Shoulders/Biceps/Forearms. (This is just an example, stronger people generally need more days of rest in between workouts).
I wish you the very best of luck and please leave a comment if this works. This rule has helped me increase my bench press max records over the years and it WILL do the same for you just as it does for all the pros.
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