Since I'm pretty much a beginner, I decided that doing pyramid-style training and alternating upper and lower body days MWF would be a good way to make some initial newbie gains and get some fat loss (since I'm cutting).

I decided to base my training on the easy program laid out in the Body-for-Life book, which (for those of you who haven't seen it) involves working one body part in sets of 12/10/8/6 reps, followed by two sets of 12 reps at a higher weight than the initial set of 12.

The problem I'm having (primarily on my upper body sets, since I'm weaker) is that I'm reaching failure on the final set of 6 with the higher weight. If I don't reach failure, I very easily do before the end of the next set.

Does that mean I should lower the weight I use during my earlier sets, or is it okay for me to end with the final set of heavy weight? From everything I've read, the failure set (with higher weight) should end the exercise, so I'm wondering what the benefit is of those two 12 lighter sets at the end. Help! :)

anyone?

I decided to base my training on the easy program laid out in the Body-for-Life book, which (for those of you who haven't seen it) involves working one body part in sets of 12/10/8/6 reps, followed by two sets of 12 reps at a higher weight than the initial set of 12.

The problem I'm having (primarily on my upper body sets, since I'm weaker) is that I'm reaching failure on the final set of 6 with the higher weight. If I don't reach failure, I very easily do before the end of the next set.

Does that mean I should lower the weight I use during my earlier sets, or is it okay for me to end with the final set of heavy weight? From everything I've read, the failure set (with higher weight) should end the exercise, so I'm wondering what the benefit is of those two 12 lighter sets at the end. Help! :)

Don't know what weights you are using, do you find this true on all body parts or just some. Has it always been like this? Do you keep a log?

Remember the goal is to get near failure at the last set of 12. Those last two sets are most important ones. All the other sets build up to it in a intensity measure of 5,6,7,8,9,10. You are seeing 5,6,710,10,10. That says you need to reduce weights.

Now that you have felt failure, that is a 10, you can begin to log if that is really a 5 you start with or a 7. Give it a few weeks to determine how to measure intensity and set weight. Keep logs like book says!