A Hierarchy of Training Decisions
Introduction
Two people are arguing about whether high-bar or low-bar squats are better. The argument is legitimate, has arguments on both sides, and is irrelevant to both of them, because neither has trained consistently in eight months.
That's the most common error among people who've been training a while: spending attention on decisions that are real but small, while the big ones stay unresolved. The solution isn't knowing more about each topic, but knowing what order they matter in.
There are no wrong decisions when the order is right. There are premature ones.
The pyramid
Eric Helms popularized the idea of ordering training by hierarchy, and it works well as a map. From the bottom up, each level matters less than the one below it, and only makes sense to address once the one below is settled.
Level 1 · Adherence. Do you train consistently? Everything else depends on this.
Level 2 · Volume and progression. Do you do enough work, and does it increase over time?
Level 3 · Intensity and proximity to failure. Are your sets demanding enough?
Level 4 · Frequency and distribution. How do you spread that work across the week?
Level 5 · Exercise selection and order. Which ones, and in what order?
Level 6 · Execution details. Tempo, exact rest periods, intensity techniques.
Level 7 · Supplements and timing. Last, by a wide margin.
Nutrition has an equivalent pyramid: energy balance first, then macronutrients, then daily distribution, then micronutrients, and supplements at the top.
How to use it
The pyramid isn't read top-down to execute: it's read bottom-up to diagnose.
When something isn't working, the question isn't "which advanced technique am I missing?" but "what's the lowest level I still haven't resolved?" It's almost always further down than you'd think.
A typical example: someone not gaining strength, considering a more sophisticated periodization model (level 4-5), when a review of their log shows they train two weeks out of three (level 1) and haven't added load in five months (level 2). The problem is two floors down, and no adjustment above will compensate.
Relative weights
The hierarchy gives the order; it's also worth having a sense of magnitude, because the gaps between levels aren't even.
The distance between training and not training is enormous. The distance between training too little and training enough is large. The distance between one good exercise selection and another good one is small. And the distance between taking creatine and not is real and smaller than all of the above.
This has an implication that bothers people who enjoy the details: past a certain point, the upper levels become a matter of preference rather than optimization. Choosing the exercises you enjoy is a perfectly rational decision, because preference feeds adherence, which is level 1.
When moving up does make sense
The pyramid isn't an excuse to ignore nuance forever. The upper levels matter when:
- The lower ones have been stable for months, not weeks.
- You're near your ceiling in something specific and need margin.
- You have a real constraint — little time, an injury, limited equipment — that forces optimization within what's possible.
Outside those cases, moving up early carries a hidden cost: complexity reduces adherence. A plan with prescribed tempo, timed rests and three intensity techniques is easier to abandon than a simple one, and abandonment happens at level 1.
Common mistakes
Using the hierarchy to dismiss the details. They aren't irrelevant; they're subsequent. That's different.
Assuming level 1 is handled because "I go to the gym". Check the log before taking it for granted: memory systematically inflates consistency.
Jumping to level 7 in search of results. It's the behaviour that moves the most money in the industry and produces the least progress.
Mistaking this pyramid for a recipe. It's a diagnostic tool, not a program.
Redoing the diagnosis every week. If level 1 is failing, the work takes months, not days.
Conclusion
Most plateaus among people who've trained for years aren't resolved by learning something new, but by identifying the lowest rung that's still loose and fixing it before touching anything else.
Do the diagnosis now, with your log in front of you rather than from memory: walk the seven levels from the bottom up and stop at the first one you can't answer with data. That's your work for the next three months, and it probably isn't the one you'd been thinking about.
References
- Helms, E. R., Morgan, A., & Valdez, A. (2019). The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Training (2nd ed.).
- Helms, E. R., Aragon, A. A., & Fitschen, P. J. (2014). Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: Nutrition and supplementation. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 11.
- Schoenfeld, B. J., et al. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11).
- Iraki, J., et al. (2019). Nutrition recommendations for bodybuilders in the off-season. Sports, 7(7).