By pyramid down, do you mean drop sets? (I.E. you start with 100lbs, rep as much as you can, then drop 10% of the weight, do another set immediately, and keep repeating til you're benching just the bar and failing?)
if so, drop sets should only be done occasionally, as its a huge shock to the muscles...same goes for any fancy stuff, like compoound sets, negative reps and pushing through failure with a partner.
chest three times a week? on a full body workout or not? cuz if not, that's way too much chest work. More doesn't mean better...usually it means overtraining and bad results.
As for pyramiding up...some like it, some don't. I myself prefer to do a warm up set or two, adn then go to my working weight for all my sets. if I feel my working weight is too light, I'll bump up the poundage and just call it a gain.
but there's nothing wrong with doing the first set at x reps, then adding weight and doing the next set for slightly fewer reps, etc. However that does often mean you're lifting a few sets for size, and a set or two for strength.
I prefer to keep reps the same, but occasionally drop or increase reps (depending on my goals) to switch between size / strength gains.
