I first encountered the Muscle and Strength Pyramids in about 2013 when, like many 19 year olds, I was trying to work out how to get more jacked and I was wading through screeds of bullshit on Reddit and Bodybuilding.com. I was lucky enough to come across Eric Helms’s video series, The Muscle and Strength Nutritional Pyramid. (There’s also the Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid, here.) In it, Mr Helms (now Dr Helms) laid out a straight forward approach to the priorities an athlete should have when dieting for muscle gain and fat loss. That video series helped me cut through the rubbish on the internet and start focussing on what actually mattered.
I was mind-blown (not to mention star struck) when I showed up at my first powerlifting meet in 2014 and Eric Helms was actually there - I later found out he lives just up the road from me, and now I’d consider us to be friends. In some ways, the Muscle and Strength Pyramids were my introduction to evidence based training and dieting information, and I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if I’d stumbled into a different set of videos.
Eric Hems (left), myself (centre back, in the glasses), IPF World Champion Evie Corrigan (centre front) and some Auckland powerlifters and strongmen competed in a Highland Games together in December 2020.
Today I’m going to review The Muscle and Strength Pyramids. The Muscle and Strength Pyramids are a pair of books (mostly e-books though physical copies are available now) written by Dr Eric Helms, Andrea Valdez, and Andy Morgan. The Training Book, as you might expect, covers everything you need to know to practically start writing programs for powerlifting or bodybuilding (or most other sports with some creativity and extrapolation) with a staged approach to the level of emphasis you need on each aspect. Likewise, The Nutrition Book covers everything you need to build muscle, lose fat, and perform in the gym for powerlifting or bodybuilding, with the same staged approach to the principles of dieting.
The books build on the aforementioned video series (which are great, if a little old now.) If you’re on the fence about picking up these books, start by checking out the videos. The books are the same thing, but in much more detail and with much more nuance. The books are available over here, at their website, and are also featured here, on Sisyphus Strength.
The books.
The Muscle and Strength Pyramid Training Book lays out, layer by layer, the important principles to adhere to in order to get stronger. It’s very well referenced, providing a huge reading list if you’re that way inclined, and absolutely no nonsense, skipping all the bro-science and rubbish that doesn’t really help. It includes six sample programs (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced for both powerlifting and bodybuilding), which are provided as examples of how you might construct programs using the principles outlined in the book, but could equally be run word-for-word by a lifter. It strikes a great balance between science and practicality - many books about exercises science either assume a lot of knowledge, or start by taking you through screeds of physiology you don’t need to know in order to get stronger. This book gets straight to the point, and puts the most important stuff first.
The Training Book.
As a "training guy” when I first picked these books up, I assumed I’d enjoy the training book much more, but I actually found The Nutrition Book much more interesting. Like The Training Book, The Nutrition Book is no nonsense, evidence based information that teaches you how to diet or mass while still performing in the gym. There’s so much misinformation and bullshit out there about nutrition, and this cuts right to the heart of it, including both the science, but also practical recommendations about what to do with it, and how to adapt if it isn’t going to plan. Of all the sports science (and adjacent) books I’ve ever bought, The Nutrition Book is probably the one I refer back to most often. You won’t be able to be a nutritionist after reading this, and you definitely won’t be able to be a substitute for a Registered Dietician, but you’ll be headed in the right direction.
Interestingly, if you buy the pair, you get future editions of the Muscle & Strength Pyramids, for free. The second edition was released in late 2018, so those people who bought both got the second edition for free. The authors have committed to releasing new editions as concepts become better understood and more clearly studied, so it’s a good investment on your future education. I’ve never seen authors commit like this before, and I think it shows good promise for the future.
As far as I know, this only applies to the e-book, though physical copies are available also, in a number of languages.
The Nutrition Book.
One limitation of these books is that at just under 300 pages each, and assuming no prior knowledge, the books are relatively superficial from an anatomy and physiology perspective. That has its pros and cons, of course. The advantage is they’re easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to start implementing in your day to day training and dieting. The draw back is that they’re not sufficient to make you a coach or a nutritionist by themselves - they’re a start of a curriculum, but not a curriculum by themselves. If I were going to recommend a course of study (and assuming you don’t have the time or inclination to do a bachelor’s degree in the subject), I’d use these books as a starting point, then books like Renaissance Periodization’s The Renaissance Diet or Scientific Principles of Strength Training as a second port of call, and perhaps a MASS subscription as well (of which Eric is also an author.)
I love these books, and I’ve probably recommended them to 20 different people since I read the first editions in 2015. They provide a good, no-nonsense approach to training and dieting that suits powerlifters, bodybuilders, and most other strength athletes. They won’t make you a coach or nutritionist overnight, but they’ll definitely start you off in the right direction. If you’re just starting to think about coaching, or self-coaching, or tightening up your nutrition, these are a great starting point. If you’re deep into your career as a coach or nutritionist, you might get a little bit less out these books, but they’re still not a bad investment.
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