The Claim

Whether you lift weights using a pyramid, go to failure, or stick to a standard routine, if you do the same total amount of work, your leg strength improves by about the same amount—around 25%—after 12 weeks.

Source: Crescent pyramid and drop-set systems do not promote greater strength gains, muscle hypertrophy, and changes on muscle architecture compared with traditional resistance training in well-trained men

What the research says

Supports is higher

Support is ahead, but a single strong opposing study can change this.

Supports
54score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

Cause and effect
1 study reviewed
In plain English

Whether you lift weights using a pyramid, go to failure, or stick to a standard routine, if you do the same total amount of work, your leg strength improves by about the same amount—around 25%—after 12 weeks.

See the scientific wording

In well-trained men, 12 weeks of crescent pyramid, drop-set, or traditional resistance training with equalized volume results in equivalent gains in leg press one-repetition maximum strength, with average increases of approximately 25% across all methods, demonstrating that strength gains are not enhanced by specialized protocols when volume is matched.

What the research says

1 study

  1. Study: Crescent pyramid and drop-set systems do not promote greater strength gains, muscle hypertrophy, and changes on muscle architecture compared with traditional resistance training in well-trained men

    When trained guys did three different kinds of leg workouts with the same total effort, they all got about 25% stronger—no method was better than the others.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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