I will post a new book called, Escalating Loading Ramps to the homepage of this website by the end of the week. Loading ramps supply a little more variety in terms of volume and load than linear loading. If you have tried linear consisting of a steady increase in weight over the course of 8 to 15 weeks, and you did’t like the outcome, escalating loading ramps is a good alternative. The basic concept behind escalating loading ramps is explained in the following excerpt of the book which contains the introduction and first chapter of the book.
Introduction
A loading ramp consists of a series of workouts in which the weight is increased over a designated time period. Loading ramps can vary in length and be short, medium, or long. When discussing short loading ramps in this book, they will be referred to as mini ramps. The mini loading ramps will only last for a series of three workouts. The weight is increased in each workout of a mini ramp, and the loads of each mini ramp can be ramped up to be slightly heavier than the previous mini ramp. In other words, a series of three workouts forms a mini ramp, and a series of mini ramps are then ramped up to form a longer loading ramp. The whole process is referred to as escalating loading ramps.
The advantage of using just three workouts within each mini ramp is that it provides a balance between volume and load within each mini ramp. Light weights are used in conjunction with higher reps at the start of each mini ramp, and heavier weights are used in conjunction with lower reps at the end of each mini ramp. This allows you to include a substantial amount of both volume and load within a short time period of a week to ten days. Many loading procedures do not do this and have periods within an 8 to 15 week loading process where volume is emphasized at the expense of load at the start of a loading cycle, and load is emphasized at the expanse of volume at the end of the cycle. This does not seem to be a problem for some lifters, but others find they need a consistent balance between load and volume within each week or ten day period of a training cycle. One way to solve this problem is to utilize the concept of escalating loading ramps.
If you have failed to see results when using long loading
periods in which weight is steadily increased from week to week for 8 to 15
weeks, you may find it beneficial to use the strategy of escalating loading
ramps. The goal of this book is to help you understand how to implement this
type of training.
Chapter 1
The Basic Concept
The basic idea behind escalating loading ramps can be broken down into two basic concepts:
First, create a short loading ramp in which the weight is increased from workout to workout across three workouts.
Second, increase the weight of your lifts as you proceed from short ramp to short ramp.
Example of A Mini Ramp
If we consider the first concept of creating a short loading ramp, the three workouts listed below would be an example of how to create a mini ramp consisting of three increasingly heavier workouts. The sets, reps, and percentages listed should be performed for each muscle group that you will be targeting in your workout:
Workout 1: 3 sets x 12 reps with 65% of your single rep max
Workout 2: 3 sets x 10 reps with 70% of your single rep max
Workout 3: 3 sets x 8 reps with 75% of your single rep max
The Second Mini Ramp
The three workouts that are listed above make up the first mini ramp that would be performed out of a series of mini ramps. The next step is to plan a second mini ramp of three workouts that are slightly heavier than the workouts within the first ramp. This would be done for each muscle group as follows:
Workout 1: 3 sets x 10 reps with 70% of your single rep max
Workout 2: 3 sets x 8 reps with 75% of your single rep max
Workout 3: 3 sets x 6 reps with 80% of your single rep max
You should notice that the poundages ranged from 65% to 75% for the first mini ramp. The weights were then increased to poundages that ranged from 70% to 80% for the second ramp.
Mini Ramps 3, 4, and 5
You can easily create three more mini ramps that each grow successively heavier by doing the following sets reps and percentages for each muscle group as you proceed from workout to workout, and from mini ramp to mini ramp:
Mini Ramp #3
Workout 1: 3 sets x 8 reps with 75% of your single rep max
Workout 2: 3 sets x 6 reps with 80% of your single rep max
Workout 3: 3 sets x 5 reps with 82% of your single rep max
Mini Ramp #4
Workout 1: 3 sets x 6 reps with 80% of your single rep max
Workout 2: 3 sets x 5 reps with 82% of your single rep max
Workout 3: 3 sets x 3 reps with 87% of your single rep max
Mini Ramp #5
Workout 1: 3 sets x 5 reps with 82% of your single rep max
Workout 2: 3 sets x 3 reps with 90% of your single rep max
Workout 3: 1 set x 1 rep. Go for a personal record max with 100% or more
A Full Ramp = 5 Weeks
If you were to perform three workouts per muscle group each week, each mini ramp would only take one week, and the full ramp of escalating mini ramps would take 5 weeks to complete.
A Full Ramp = 7 ½ Weeks
Those who prefer to work each muscle group twice per week would need approximately 10 days to complete each mini ramp. The full ramp of escalating mini ramps would take about seven and one half weeks to complete.
As you proceed to the next page, you will see a table that summarized the contents of all 5 mini ramps:
End of Excerpt
As I said at the start of the article, the rest of the book will be available on the homepage of this website. It will discuss more variations of escalating loading ramps and will also address the importance of how to individualize this type of training to your capacities. Best of training to you.
