I think if you tweak GVT such that you begin with a heavier load (75% 1RM) for the first 3 sets, moderate load (65%) for 4 sets and light load (55%) for the last 3 sets, you’ll get the best results imaginable. Metabolic stress and hypoxic fatigue are important components to eliciting a hypertrophic response, but so too is mechanical tension and load. If the weights aren’t sufficiently difficult, then you’re leaving a lot of results on the table. The reverse is also true. 5 sets of 60% 1RM for 10 reps isn’t nearly optimal enough to causing hypertrophy in trained individuals. I personally find that Heavy weights and low volume combined with moderate weights and high volume produce the best results.
It's not GVT at that point though. Completely different method. If you wanna spam 10 sets of one exercise a la Sam Sulek then that's all well and good, but it's not "tweaked GVT", it's just 10 sets done in reverse pyramid.
@@doyourownresearch7297 You seem to have chosen your screen name to avoid being challenged for your sources. The studies I've seen recently largely confirm his claims, and add a couple of extra dimensions he DIDN'T discuss.
I squatted 300lbs for 100 reps just once a week and found that my pants got tighter in the legs and butt area. I don't know about studies and science but my lower back, knees and hips don't hurt as much. I am 59 years old and feel like the aging process is slowing and even reversing...
Strength levels of 5 set group increase was most likely due fatigue to stimulus ratio. 10 sets of heavy bench presses is going to fry your CNS and it takes 1-2 weeks to recover from that. Due to systemic fatigue cumulation, they were not recovered enough to exhibit peak performance. = fatigue masks perfomance. 5 set group on the otherhand had much better FTS rate and were not overreaching during workouts. Just enough volume to exceed MEV (Minumum Effective Volume), but not too much to exceed MRV (Maximum Recoverable Volume) 10x10 at 60% is 100 reps of bench press, followed by another 40 reps of incline bench,. Totalling of whopping 140 reps worth of volume in a single workout. Then after few days, they had to do another 140 reps on shoulder press+ tricep pushdowns. Those triceps and front delts were working serious overtime there. For leg they really only did 50 and 100 reps in form of leg press, so , the volume was statisticly pretty similar and so were the gains. Same for the biceps-. This is why you must factor in programmed deload weeks or even total rest weeks to allow the cumulated fatigue to dissipate
I have tried the GVT for my legs & chest/back. For my leg training, loved it, for my upper body, far too fatiguing to do beyond three weeks. I like the idea of switching the rest period from 60-90 sec to the 2.5 min range.
I would say rest as you need. there is no logic behind shorter rest. The only negative here is that other gym goers may think you are hogging a machine, bench or squat rack
Recently found the channel have been working out now for about 10 years and I very much value how you look at the research and put it into something easy to understand
I don't understand why subjects doing 5 sets of 10 with 60% max get similar or slightly more muscle gains. None of those sets were taken even close to failure, while the 10x10 groups have done at least few sets close to failure throughout their workouts. Why?
it's not ten sets of 10. it's 10 sets until "technical failure". once you're form and tempo breakdown outside of the pre-set parameters, failure has been achieved. 10 sets of a perfect 10 reps is actually pretty brutal.
another great post i think its probably because the biggest driver of strength and hypertrophy is mechanical tension and german volume training seems to involve metabolic stress and muscle damage more
Thank you! I see what you're saying. Indeed, the first few sets of German volume training probably involve suboptimal mechanical tension levels. Although, later sets might produce quite high levels of mechanical tension (as the proximity to failure decreases, resulting in the many muscle fibers experiencing tension generation).
@@HouseofHypertrophy yes the better approach for strength and mass imo is keep the weight up reps on the lower end (i prefer 5-8 so that most are effective reps from the get go) and rest periods 2-3 minutes and sets per week 10 -20
Moral of the story, don't do your sets in one day. Spread them out throughout the week. I've always thought 10x10 way too much. The most I do for sets is 5 sets of the same exercise. Once again, this is awesome and quality content. Love the animation too. My question is how do you progress on your big compound exercises when you're getting to the point where you're getting to your max after a few years? Do you just lower your weight and start over. Add more sets or reps? I would just worry about doing too much.
There are many potential things one could do, but it's difficult to be sure of what would work the best (different things might work better for different people). I'd say experiment with whatever you think could work. Generally, increasing the number of sets (very modestly, perhaps by a 20% weekly increase), might be effective. On the other hand, you could try alternating the rep ranges you use for the exercise your plateaued on (for instance train the bench with sets of 5 on day 1, sets of 10 on day 2, and sets of 15 on day 3).
Interesting. However, I think that does not "prove" a study wrong,. I would say instead, it means the average results of those studies simply did not apply to you :)
I've been doing this for about 6 months, I don't have access to much weights so use kettle bells and bodyweight exercises like one arm assisted push ups, goblet squats etc, I'm 39 years old and 66kg with abs I was 71 kgs in January, wasn't too pleased about the weight loss but I look pretty good in the mirror
I go to the GVT for 2 mesocycles (8weeks) per year with a week of de-load after 3 weeks of training. I agree that first few sets are junk volume (ineffective) as they are >5RIR. However, to counter this I modified few things: 1. Keep the intensity at ~65% 1RM, which corresponds to 15Rep Max, ensuring post 6reps it gets harder 2. U need not stick to 10reps strictly, do it until u get in 3-4 hard reps per set. (Last set the 10th rep should KILL you) 3. Increase TUT, slow controlled eccentrics (3seconds) with pause has helped me improved my technique a lot. 4. Increase your calorie uptake, rest and get extra sleep. (maybe 1-2hrs post session) This is my experience with GVT, hope this helps, Cheers! Love the channel💪, great work and explanation.
This is similar to what I did Holy crap was it ever the most emotionally brutal training I have ever done (or my clients) and Holy crap did it work for as long as we could stomach it. (Only 2.5 months)
I think a major issue is proximity to failure. To do 10x10, likely be like doing a cardio workout. So, the person my experience cardio fatigue before muscular. Also, seems like doing the same exercise 10× is a waste of time. If you think about it, if you're doing 5 sets of 10 reps but doing 3 exercises target the same muscle, that's 15 sets of 150 reps for that muscle. Which is more then the 100 reps the 10x10 would be. So, this method may not stress the muscle enough in conclusion, however, it would the cardio system.
For me and the few clients that could do snatch grip deadlifts with a deficit (on a podium) GVT was insanely effective. The biggest struggle was getting enough calories. We did Chinups, SGDL full depth, and push press as our main lifts, super setting the push press. And accessories to round out the work. Only 2 days out of 5 With a de-load after 4-5 cycles. The training was brutal. I can't imagine half of the test subjects would have put up with the torture. We all did 2.5 months with de-loads and never again will we return to the protocol because the work has been done and it was brutal. But we all were noticeably leaner and we put on weight as fast as beginners. Over training is a concern but we really worked to reduce it, and we didn't dad about doing a ton of isolation work outside of what was needed for function and balance. It is possible the training sgdl at greater depth contributed more than the volume as we were fairly new to training at that depth. Over the past 6 years I have had trouble making sense of why we responded so we'll, and have theorized based on the research that maybe it would have been better with more rest, or with something around 8 reps. I like the volume of exercises with challenging mobility I found we became more mobile. Maybe the supersets helped us gain mass in our upper bodies. I did go over our 20rm weight. We often begin failing at set 6 and rarely could manage more than 6 reps on the ninth set. Once we could do 10x10 (with literally everything we had) we would increase and become failing all over the damn place. The timing of 4-5 second eccentric was strict. The concentric was explosive as possible (which wasn't very explosive). I have a GVT timer that I made on my TH-cam channel.
I’m curious to see if tonnage was taken into account. If gvt is essentially double the tonnage it should have a profound effect. However, if the tonnage between the two groups are relatively the same, gvt just spreading the load across more sets, it would explain the similar effects.
Wow.. so training for 10rm isn't improving 1rm? Come on! It's like measuring the increase of someones sprinting ability after training to run 10 miles. And of course rest periodes of 60-90 seconds don't work for increase muscle size; it works your ability to recover! If you correctly translate/programm the body's improved ability to handle stress and recover to strength however, you're golden. This researchers clearely don't understand the training mechanisms and are a waste of money!
I am working something similar to GVT, I start at around 80 to 85% until I cannot achieve 10 reps at which point I decrease by 10 to 20 pounds depending on the exercise. I repeat the decrease each time I cannot complete 10 reps. Once I can achieve 10 x 10 with no decrease I increase the starting load. I work this for 6 weeks and then shift to a 5x5 at heavy loads. Side note on the 10x10 I attack one body part per day to allow time for recovery between the targeted muscle groups.
I think something missing here is - the Weightlifting team (assuming olympic weightlifting) mostly would be training in reps of singles, doubles, triples, and sometimes 5x. As someone who trained Oly, we did lots of heavy triple pulls, snatch / CnJ complexes, heavy squat triples and doubles and focused on explosiveness. this type of training doesnt put on significant amts of mass compared to regular "traditional bodybuilding" which would have higher rep ranged of 8-10 , more endurance. Do they trained for power and explosiveness, and focused on high intensity low reps. it would make sense that it is beneficial for them in offseason, to train their weak spots , which is high rep volume training, vs intensity . I know for me and many others I train oly with, we all really lack ability to rep our squats for 10 in one set. But we can all push 10 sets of heavy triples on squats. GVT would have been an endurance volume routine to balance out their normal intensity low rep routines for competition. Just a thought .
This was off season training for their O lifters, done to increase muscle mass. But let's be honest...it's the steroid use that allows such volume to be used.
It’s DEXA, and it’s way more accurate than an ultrasound for measuring the density of bodily components. We use it to measure levels of osteoporosis in patients.
I have tried GVT in the past with the 60% and low rest, and can attest that there is very few who can do that with compound movements and use an actual effective, safe technique. I have found this rep/set scheme has two real uses: Coming back from an injury you may not be able to handle big weights, then 10x10xcan be done progressively (I've done it on bench press after tendon tear from 10x10x60kg to 10x10x130kg adding 5kg every 4 days) Also it can be done for (especially upper body) accessory work with 50% or less and supersetting opposite movement patterns (Heavy bench first, then seated OHP 10x10x70kg superset with pulldowns 10x10x70kg).
I sometimes increase the the rest between sets and still see impressive growth. I still don't understand the reasoning behind 60-90 seconds rest. Only you know your body and you should only go to the next set if you are not fatigued
It's interesting the way comments on this video are full of proponents of high volume training and every video you've made on low volume training is likewise full of its proponents.
Just finishes GVT for chest back and legs. I never felt sore since started working out since 1 year ago. It was a good way to switch it up. The only problem i encounter is i find it boring due to repetition. I can do 12 sets with 3 exercises but 10 sets with 1 exercise is too boring. I will try this out however for 1 month.
If the goal is 10x10, I found what works best for me. since the first 3 to 4 set tend to be easy with 60%1rm, those 3 to 4 set, are done with a little slowet tempo, and with 30 second rest in between, as I progress, i add, a 15 to 30 second rest for the remainder 4 to 10 sets, so to say from 9 to 10 there is a 2.5min rest to achieve the 10x10 rep scheme. 4 to 5 weeks top.
Nice summary! Curious as to whether the participants had their 1RM determined in the study, or if that was self reported? The size of these tests makes it hard to draw conclusions.
I'm going to try and make this as condensed as I possibly can I recently started to do high volume training once again I have not performed anything like German volume training since my earlier years is a lifter In my opinion and with my personal training background I recommend that a person listen to their own body We're current literature suggests that around 12 weekly sets split over a few sessions for a particular muscle group seems to result in best muscle gains Now myself personally being experienced and having conditioned my muscles over many years I personally find that I need higher volumes than this to get a good pump and DOMS Delayed onset muscle soreness and pump being good indicators of enough stimulus being achieved for hypertrophy Currently with my coach I believe I'm going very excessive doing 20 daily sets for a particular muscle group and I can say that for my more conditioned areas of the body this results in the pump and soreness that I remember from when I was in my earlier years of lifting however in my less condition parts of the body the amount of time that it takes for that part of my body to recover is far too excessive The takeaways from this and remember this is to be taken with a grain of salt though research does back my findings don't be afraid to add extra sets if you are not feeling like you're coming away with enough work being done to a particular part of the body
Im sorry to burst your bubble but current literature and studies clearly indicate that a "good pump" and soreness are bad indicators of a stimulus for muscle growth. The most important drivers for muscle growth are progressive overload, high mechanical muscle tension, nutrition and rest. Many natural lifters actually try to avoid soreness because it hinders their regeneration and can potentially lead to overtraining. The sweet spot for sets per muscle group per week sits between 10 to 20 for most people. Everything above that threshold can potentially increase your recovery time because of increased muscle damage and metabolic stress. They are called "wasted sets" for that reason. It varies individually though.
Can you please do a ranking of all the popular well known routines for best hypertrophy? Since GVT proves to be mediocre, it would be interesting to see what the current data/studies shows about all other known workout routines such as Smolov jr, 5/3/1, 5x5, etc.
That was technically explored in the previous video. Much of the research in the meta-analysis by Schoenfeld et al. (explored in that video) compared 1 set to failure for an exercise to 3 sets to failure 9per session), because most of these studies had subjects train 3 times per week, the 1 set to failure groups performed 3 sets per muscle group each week, while the 3 sets to failure groups performed 9 sets per muscle group each week. As we saw, the overall results indicate more sets are better, 9-12 weekly sets for a muscle group was superior (suggesting 1 set to failure for an exercise is suboptimal in this regard). We then looked at more research exploring how many weekly sets for each muscle group a trained individual may want to be performing for maximizing hypertrophy. Hope this makes sense, let me know if there are any questions!
Everyone is different. But for hypertrophy it seems not ideal. 75% of 1Rep max would be more effective most probably. Too much volume will kill your gains as well if you not rest properly. more than 9 sets per muscle group per training session seems also insane. 9 sets per muscle group per week seems to be the sweet spot for getting the best ratio of rest and hypertrophy...at least from my experience. If I do more, the recovery will take much longer and the volume actually decreases over time. If I imagine to do hack squats with 10 sets per session...OMG...I will die... 😀
I tried GVT. For upper body exercises it was manageable. But for squats, it killed me. My heart rate shot up to 170+ every set. How do you guys do it without puking and resting with an ice pack to the head?
The test subjects... where they beginners, intermediate or professional athletes? This makes a huge difference without even talking about being on or off steroids
In addition to that, German training failed because it is similar to the pro split training which they train 15+ sets in one session which is hard to give the proper technique while training, while the 5 sets group had proper technique in sweet spot volume
What's a good alternative? I am plateauing in strength doing a Push-Pull-Leg program (cycles 2x a week). And while I know not the most accurate way to measure muscle mass. My In -Body scan has shows my muscle mass has a flat trend the last 2 months (it was on an upward trend the month prior).
Again.. this all goes out the window if AAS are involved. In the 10*10 group, the more muscle breakdown would result in more muscle hypertrophy, being better then the 5 set group.
I think the German Training system is mostly for advanced strength sportsmen because normal people probably cant regenerate from the intense training fast enough or Long enough
GVT is for when you're saucy and you know it and you really want to show it. Myself, most of the comments here, and the latest literature seem to need a deload after 3 weeks for naturals. Even with diet in check super high volume increases inflammation and can make life miserable when you're trying to recover and chill.
gvt- all it does is tire the muscles out, they should've done gvt only twice a week with at least 3min rest intervals. i've tried gvt with 1min rest intervals and 50% of 1rmax, not good for me, all it did was tire me out, the last 3-4 sets were the only hard ones, by then, all my atp was gone so i ended up just slinging the weight up with plenty of body english. the 5 set people study should've done twice a week with a minimum 3-5 min rest intervals for compounds,,,, bam,,, they would have great gains. also depends on age, 15-30 yr olds, 3 times a week is best with lower volumes, 30-60yr olds twice a week.
If you travel a lot like i do and have to work out in hotel gyms it is a very good way of training if there is not enough weights in the gym. That is how i use this system.
I think GVT is more for advanced lifters.. 6-12 months training age is still a baby. Also- I think the drecrease in AnteriorThigh thickness for that 1 group, shows that they were definitely under recovered- on top of a deload, I think a 2-3 week Low Volume block would really let that accumulated Volume shine- via more hypertrophy. 1 more thing- with such short rest periods- I think this almost became a block for increasing work capacity. This does not increase hypertrophy in and of itself- but does set up the body to do lots of work in a differet, and lower volume, training block. Still, after this video- i doubt I will experiment with GVT- but I would like to see a study with advanced lifters, calories tracked, and measurements taken 4 weeks after the last session.. (1 week deload and 3 week Low Volume block) Great video as always!!! Cheers, Z
10 reps x 10 sets at what ever gets you to failure? ... until you fell pumped up and get doms the day after... I like GVT - is simple and quick no changing weights - I do it on the minute - only getting 30 seconds rest.. On set 9 to 10 maybe 15 seconds rest..
Ive seen people say they use this program as a plateau breaker for about 6 weeks….. also what do you think about Fst 7 program??…. Could you make a video on Fst 7 program?
Thank you for your kind words! I'm not sure I'd call myself that knowledgeable, haha. I checked out the video, it sounds quite interesting. However, I'm not actually aware of any scientific evidence to support his claims about fascia's relation to hypertrophy. I'm going to have to dive a bit more into it at some point to fully assess it :)
Also I have a question, is volume load essentially infinite if things like injury, improper nutrition, etc. are not a factor? Or is there science on the subject of potential volume capacity? Does it taper out at a certain age? At what point are we unable to continually progressively overload? Thanks for the videos
No problem! When you say volume load, do you mean the product of sets x reps x load, or are you talking about the number of sets you perform per muscle group each week? If it's volume load, I detailed a few videos back why I believe it's not really a great metric for muscle growth. On the other hand, the number of sets is better. In the last video on this channel, we detailed whether more sets = more muscle growth. Generally, 9-12 weekly sets per muscle group seems to be better than fewer (at least in beginners). For more trained individuals, the research is not crystal clear. But it seems that if you use longer rest intervals between your sets in a session (2+ minutes), 12-18 weekly sets for a muscle group might be sufficient, with more sets providing no benefit (or even regressions in results). Constrasingly, if you use short rest intervals between sets (90 seconds or less), the research shows that up to 30-45 weekly sets per muscle group could be beneficial. The reason for this might be because longer rest intervals make each set more effective for building muscle, meaning that it's logical if you use shorter rest intervals, you'd have to perform more sets to compensate and achieve equivalent results. There are some more nuances to this discussion, check out the last video for more details if you'd like. All in all, it makes sense that there would be a limit to the number of sets a person could perform per muscle group each week. Firstly, more stimulus might not actually translate into your body producing more results. At the cellular level, there might exist "thresholds" whereby more training fails to do anything. In addition to this, your body can only handle so much as well, all individuals likely have their own point at which they can no longer recover from a certain amount of training (a variety of factors would influence this). As for some of your other questions, generally, it's quite possible older individuals (50+) have decreased recovery abilities, meaning that they probably could not recover and benefit from higher number of sets (15-20+ weekly sets for a muscle group), but I'm not aware of any research exploring this. Your ability to progressive overload diminishes the more training experience you have. It's difficult to say when an individual will no longer be able to do this, due to the many many factors that could be involved. However, with smart and planned training, there's still evidence that individuals with 10+ years of training experience can still make progress, albeit at a slow rate. Hope this helps!
Depends on how many exerices you're performing. If you perform one exericse only for 10 sets of 10 repetitions with 60s of rest between sets, I guess it is possible to perform is just about in 15 minutes.
10x10 @ 60% squats will grow your legs; 531 at 75-85% will make them stronger. Alternating every 6-8 weeks is good. My joints eventually ache more with higher intensity, my muscles eventually ache more with higher volume.
I think if you tweak GVT such that you begin with a heavier load (75% 1RM) for the first 3 sets, moderate load (65%) for 4 sets and light load (55%) for the last 3 sets, you’ll get the best results imaginable. Metabolic stress and hypoxic fatigue are important components to eliciting a hypertrophic response, but so too is mechanical tension and load. If the weights aren’t sufficiently difficult, then you’re leaving a lot of results on the table. The reverse is also true. 5 sets of 60% 1RM for 10 reps isn’t nearly optimal enough to causing hypertrophy in trained individuals.
I personally find that Heavy weights and low volume combined with moderate weights and high volume produce the best results.
It's not GVT at that point though. Completely different method. If you wanna spam 10 sets of one exercise a la Sam Sulek then that's all well and good, but it's not "tweaked GVT", it's just 10 sets done in reverse pyramid.
Bro science 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@irishdepartmentofagriculture very confident bro science with some vocab thrown in to make it seem legit.
@@doyourownresearch7297 You seem to have chosen your screen name to avoid being challenged for your sources. The studies I've seen recently largely confirm his claims, and add a couple of extra dimensions he DIDN'T discuss.
probably need some german 70's testosterone supplements too.
I squatted 300lbs for 100 reps just once a week and found that my pants got tighter in the legs and butt area. I don't know about studies and science but my lower back, knees and hips don't hurt as much. I am 59 years old and feel like the aging process is slowing and even reversing...
Oooh nice
😍😍😍🙌🏾
Awesome!! Thanks for the inspiration
I'm not surprised squats improve your overall athletic ability by a great deal. Everyone should do squat training.
The program done in the study is not even proper gvt, it adds aditional volume on top of the 10x10 sets
Strength levels of 5 set group increase was most likely due fatigue to stimulus ratio. 10 sets of heavy bench presses is going to fry your CNS and it takes 1-2 weeks to recover from that. Due to systemic fatigue cumulation, they were not recovered enough to exhibit peak performance. = fatigue masks perfomance.
5 set group on the otherhand had much better FTS rate and were not overreaching during workouts. Just enough volume to exceed MEV (Minumum Effective Volume), but not too much to exceed MRV (Maximum Recoverable Volume)
10x10 at 60% is 100 reps of bench press, followed by another 40 reps of incline bench,. Totalling of whopping 140 reps worth of volume in a single workout. Then after few days, they had to do another 140 reps on shoulder press+ tricep pushdowns. Those triceps and front delts were working serious overtime there.
For leg they really only did 50 and 100 reps in form of leg press, so , the volume was statisticly pretty similar and so were the gains. Same for the biceps-.
This is why you must factor in programmed deload weeks or even total rest weeks to allow the cumulated fatigue to dissipate
I have tried the GVT for my legs & chest/back. For my leg training, loved it, for my upper body, far too fatiguing to do beyond three weeks. I like the idea of switching the rest period from 60-90 sec to the 2.5 min range.
I've been doing this with my legs as a continuation of physiotherapy and my legs handle fine it but my upper body is in no way interested.
Damn, I was the opposite. I can 1rm like 420 on squat. Doing 255 for 10x10 seems fucking insane.
I think later studies has shown that the rest period is outdated. 2.5min is a perfect rest period to incorporate into your GVT routine.
I think that is a very good training to experiment with your as the video says, i would like to see how it affects on ⚙️ people
I would say rest as you need. there is no logic behind shorter rest. The only negative here is that other gym goers may think you are hogging a machine, bench or squat rack
Recently found the channel have been working out now for about 10 years and I very much value how you look at the research and put it into something easy to understand
Thank you so much!
I don't understand why subjects doing 5 sets of 10 with 60% max get similar or slightly more muscle gains. None of those sets were taken even close to failure, while the 10x10 groups have done at least few sets close to failure throughout their workouts. Why?
One thing is for sure, if you do German Volume training, you get really good it doing 10x10 with 60 % of your 1rm
Evolutionarily our legs should be able to handle more work more often.
it's not ten sets of 10. it's 10 sets until "technical failure". once you're form and tempo breakdown outside of the pre-set parameters, failure has been achieved.
10 sets of a perfect 10 reps is actually pretty brutal.
another great post i think its probably because the biggest driver of strength and hypertrophy is mechanical tension and german volume training seems to involve metabolic stress and muscle damage more
Thank you! I see what you're saying. Indeed, the first few sets of German volume training probably involve suboptimal mechanical tension levels. Although, later sets might produce quite high levels of mechanical tension (as the proximity to failure decreases, resulting in the many muscle fibers experiencing tension generation).
@@HouseofHypertrophy yes the better approach for strength and mass imo is keep the weight up reps on the lower end (i prefer 5-8 so that most are effective reps from the get go) and rest periods 2-3 minutes and sets per week 10 -20
Moral of the story, don't do your sets in one day. Spread them out throughout the week. I've always thought 10x10 way too much. The most I do for sets is 5 sets of the same exercise. Once again, this is awesome and quality content. Love the animation too.
My question is how do you progress on your big compound exercises when you're getting to the point where you're getting to your max after a few years? Do you just lower your weight and start over. Add more sets or reps? I would just worry about doing too much.
There are many potential things one could do, but it's difficult to be sure of what would work the best (different things might work better for different people). I'd say experiment with whatever you think could work. Generally, increasing the number of sets (very modestly, perhaps by a 20% weekly increase), might be effective. On the other hand, you could try alternating the rep ranges you use for the exercise your plateaued on (for instance train the bench with sets of 5 on day 1, sets of 10 on day 2, and sets of 15 on day 3).
Drop the weight & increase reps
U will become stronger
Studies are great but personal experience can often prove them wrong. Running GVT rn and my chest and back are BLOWING UP!!
Interesting. However, I think that does not "prove" a study wrong,. I would say instead, it means the average results of those studies simply did not apply to you :)
Means growing good or not?
"However"
I've been doing this for about 6 months, I don't have access to much weights so use kettle bells and bodyweight exercises like one arm assisted push ups, goblet squats etc, I'm 39 years old and 66kg with abs I was 71 kgs in January, wasn't too pleased about the weight loss but I look pretty good in the mirror
I go to the GVT for 2 mesocycles (8weeks) per year with a week of de-load after 3 weeks of training.
I agree that first few sets are junk volume (ineffective) as they are >5RIR.
However, to counter this I modified few things:
1. Keep the intensity at ~65% 1RM, which corresponds to 15Rep Max, ensuring post 6reps it gets harder
2. U need not stick to 10reps strictly, do it until u get in 3-4 hard reps per set. (Last set the 10th rep should KILL you)
3. Increase TUT, slow controlled eccentrics (3seconds) with pause has helped me improved my technique a lot.
4. Increase your calorie uptake, rest and get extra sleep. (maybe 1-2hrs post session)
This is my experience with GVT, hope this helps, Cheers!
Love the channel💪, great work and explanation.
Hey dude, I think that's some solid adjustments! :)
Hii bruh can you share ur insta I'd?
You’re brilliant. You might build huge biceps using this.. but your brain is already HUGE.
This is similar to what I did Holy crap was it ever the most emotionally brutal training I have ever done (or my clients) and Holy crap did it work for as long as we could stomach it. (Only 2.5 months)
On step 1. Are you saying that you are on 65% 1RM on all 10 sets?
I think a major issue is proximity to failure. To do 10x10, likely be like doing a cardio workout. So, the person my experience cardio fatigue before muscular. Also, seems like doing the same exercise 10× is a waste of time. If you think about it, if you're doing 5 sets of 10 reps but doing 3 exercises target the same muscle, that's 15 sets of 150 reps for that muscle. Which is more then the 100 reps the 10x10 would be. So, this method may not stress the muscle enough in conclusion, however, it would the cardio system.
I see what you're saying :)
And don't forget neural fatique 😉
For me and the few clients that could do snatch grip deadlifts with a deficit (on a podium) GVT was insanely effective. The biggest struggle was getting enough calories. We did Chinups, SGDL full depth, and push press as our main lifts, super setting the push press. And accessories to round out the work. Only 2 days out of 5 With a de-load after 4-5 cycles. The training was brutal. I can't imagine half of the test subjects would have put up with the torture. We all did 2.5 months with de-loads and never again will we return to the protocol because the work has been done and it was brutal. But we all were noticeably leaner and we put on weight as fast as beginners. Over training is a concern but we really worked to reduce it, and we didn't dad about doing a ton of isolation work outside of what was needed for function and balance. It is possible the training sgdl at greater depth contributed more than the volume as we were fairly new to training at that depth.
Over the past 6 years I have had trouble making sense of why we responded so we'll, and have theorized based on the research that maybe it would have been better with more rest, or with something around 8 reps.
I like the volume of exercises with challenging mobility I found we became more mobile. Maybe the supersets helped us gain mass in our upper bodies. I did go over our 20rm weight. We often begin failing at set 6 and rarely could manage more than 6 reps on the ninth set. Once we could do 10x10 (with literally everything we had) we would increase and become failing all over the damn place. The timing of 4-5 second eccentric was strict. The concentric was explosive as possible (which wasn't very explosive).
I have a GVT timer that I made on my TH-cam channel.
I’m curious to see if tonnage was taken into account. If gvt is essentially double the tonnage it should have a profound effect. However, if the tonnage between the two groups are relatively the same, gvt just spreading the load across more sets, it would explain the similar effects.
I think it’s great for 2-4 weeks when you’re coming back from a long break and want to regain the technical skills fast
Maybe, but it would also produce a lot of soreness in this scenario too :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy haha yeah, no escaping that
It's actually terrible after a long break. Imagine doing 10x10 squats after a two month break, you will probably we sore for two whole weeks.
Wow.. so training for 10rm isn't improving 1rm? Come on! It's like measuring the increase of someones sprinting ability after training to run 10 miles. And of course rest periodes of 60-90 seconds don't work for increase muscle size; it works your ability to recover! If you correctly translate/programm the body's improved ability to handle stress and recover to strength however, you're golden. This researchers clearely don't understand the training mechanisms and are a waste of money!
I am working something similar to GVT, I start at around 80 to 85% until I cannot achieve 10 reps at which point I decrease by 10 to 20 pounds depending on the exercise. I repeat the decrease each time I cannot complete 10 reps. Once I can achieve 10 x 10 with no decrease I increase the starting load. I work this for 6 weeks and then shift to a 5x5 at heavy loads.
Side note on the 10x10 I attack one body part per day to allow time for recovery between the targeted muscle groups.
i do the German vol training one day muscle training and one day off doing cardio..back and forth.it works for me...best training ever.
I think something missing here is - the Weightlifting team (assuming olympic weightlifting) mostly would be training in reps of singles, doubles, triples, and sometimes 5x. As someone who trained Oly, we did lots of heavy triple pulls, snatch / CnJ complexes, heavy squat triples and doubles and focused on explosiveness. this type of training doesnt put on significant amts of mass compared to regular "traditional bodybuilding" which would have higher rep ranged of 8-10 , more endurance. Do they trained for power and explosiveness, and focused on high intensity low reps. it would make sense that it is beneficial for them in offseason, to train their weak spots , which is high rep volume training, vs intensity . I know for me and many others I train oly with, we all really lack ability to rep our squats for 10 in one set. But we can all push 10 sets of heavy triples on squats. GVT would have been an endurance volume routine to balance out their normal intensity low rep routines for competition.
Just a thought .
This was off season training for their O lifters, done to increase muscle mass. But let's be honest...it's the steroid use that allows such volume to be used.
GVT does help increase work/load capacity. Also these studies are flawed, due to no dietary knowledge of the subjects, and other factors.
I would personally up the rest time to 3-5 minutes per set and maybe use 70% 1 rep max load for better results
Now you're just doing regular volume training, except with low volume, high intensity rest times.
Or you can do supersets.
It’s DEXA, and it’s way more accurate than an ultrasound for measuring the density of bodily components. We use it to measure levels of osteoporosis in patients.
7:17 If breakdown > synthesis, breakdown should've gone up on the see-saw
I have tried GVT in the past with the 60% and low rest, and can attest that there is very few who can do that with compound movements and use an actual effective, safe technique. I have found this rep/set scheme has two real uses: Coming back from an injury you may not be able to handle big weights, then 10x10xcan be done progressively (I've done it on bench press after tendon tear from 10x10x60kg to 10x10x130kg adding 5kg every 4 days) Also it can be done for (especially upper body) accessory work with 50% or less and supersetting opposite movement patterns (Heavy bench first, then seated OHP 10x10x70kg superset with pulldowns 10x10x70kg).
The Lat Pulldown is literally the worst excercise you can test a 1RPM on..
I sometimes increase the the rest between sets and still see impressive growth. I still don't understand the reasoning behind 60-90 seconds rest. Only you know your body and you should only go to the next set if you are not fatigued
It's interesting the way comments on this video are full of proponents of high volume training and every video you've made on low volume training is likewise full of its proponents.
Just finishes GVT for chest back and legs. I never felt sore since started working out since 1 year ago. It was a good way to switch it up. The only problem i encounter is i find it boring due to repetition. I can do 12 sets with 3 exercises but 10 sets with 1 exercise is too boring. I will try this out however for 1 month.
If the goal is 10x10, I found what works best for me. since the first 3 to 4 set tend to be easy with 60%1rm, those 3 to 4 set, are done with a little slowet tempo, and with 30 second rest in between, as I progress, i add, a 15 to 30 second rest for the remainder 4 to 10 sets, so to say from 9 to 10 there is a 2.5min rest to achieve the 10x10 rep scheme. 4 to 5 weeks top.
Correct me if I am wrong but I think the GVT was done twice a week not 3X in the 70s where it began.
Mixing it in for a few weeks randomly was great. I mainly trained in the 4 to 6 rep range and shaping over just gave my body that shock it needed
Can you make a video on cluster sets please. another great video as always
Thank you! Yep, I plan to make a video on that at some point :)
Could you do an assessment of HIT training?
Nice summary! Curious as to whether the participants had their 1RM determined in the study, or if that was self reported? The size of these tests makes it hard to draw conclusions.
Thank you, the 1RM's were determined in the study
I'm going to try and make this as condensed as I possibly can
I recently started to do high volume training once again
I have not performed anything like German volume training since my earlier years is a lifter
In my opinion and with my personal training background I recommend that a person listen to their own body
We're current literature suggests that around 12 weekly sets split over a few sessions for a particular muscle group seems to result in best muscle gains
Now myself personally being experienced and having conditioned my muscles over many years I personally find that I need higher volumes than this to get a good pump and DOMS
Delayed onset muscle soreness and pump being good indicators of enough stimulus being achieved for hypertrophy
Currently with my coach I believe I'm going very excessive doing 20 daily sets for a particular muscle group and I can say that for my more conditioned areas of the body this results in the pump and soreness that I remember from when I was in my earlier years of lifting however in my less condition parts of the body the amount of time that it takes for that part of my body to recover is far too excessive
The takeaways from this and remember this is to be taken with a grain of salt though research does back my findings don't be afraid to add extra sets if you are not feeling like you're coming away with enough work being done to a particular part of the body
Im sorry to burst your bubble but current literature and studies clearly indicate that a "good pump" and soreness are bad indicators of a stimulus for muscle growth. The most important drivers for muscle growth are progressive overload, high mechanical muscle tension, nutrition and rest. Many natural lifters actually try to avoid soreness because it hinders their regeneration and can potentially lead to overtraining.
The sweet spot for sets per muscle group per week sits between 10 to 20 for most people. Everything above that threshold can potentially increase your recovery time because of increased muscle damage and metabolic stress. They are called "wasted sets" for that reason. It varies individually though.
Can you please do a ranking of all the popular well known routines for best hypertrophy?
Since GVT proves to be mediocre, it would be interesting to see what the current data/studies shows about all other known workout routines such as Smolov jr, 5/3/1, 5x5, etc.
That's a great idea, I will add this to this list :)
very interested to see what you find with the one set per exercise going to failure study(s). thanks.
That was technically explored in the previous video. Much of the research in the meta-analysis by Schoenfeld et al. (explored in that video) compared 1 set to failure for an exercise to 3 sets to failure 9per session), because most of these studies had subjects train 3 times per week, the 1 set to failure groups performed 3 sets per muscle group each week, while the 3 sets to failure groups performed 9 sets per muscle group each week. As we saw, the overall results indicate more sets are better, 9-12 weekly sets for a muscle group was superior (suggesting 1 set to failure for an exercise is suboptimal in this regard). We then looked at more research exploring how many weekly sets for each muscle group a trained individual may want to be performing for maximizing hypertrophy. Hope this makes sense, let me know if there are any questions!
Everyone is different. But for hypertrophy it seems not ideal. 75% of 1Rep max would be more effective most probably. Too much volume will kill your gains as well if you not rest properly. more than 9 sets per muscle group per training session seems also insane. 9 sets per muscle group per week seems to be the sweet spot for getting the best ratio of rest and hypertrophy...at least from my experience. If I do more, the recovery will take much longer and the volume actually decreases over time. If I imagine to do hack squats with 10 sets per session...OMG...I will die... 😀
I tried GVT. For upper body exercises it was manageable. But for squats, it killed me. My heart rate shot up to 170+ every set. How do you guys do it without puking and resting with an ice pack to the head?
The test subjects... where they beginners, intermediate or professional athletes? This makes a huge difference without even talking about being on or off steroids
The training experience of the subjects was mentioned throughout the video
In addition to that, German training failed because it is similar to the pro split training which they train 15+ sets in one session which is hard to give the proper technique while training, while the 5 sets group had proper technique in sweet spot volume
I've tried GVT in the past and I sometimes think about doing it again, but only as a microcycle, or mesocycle.
Very interesting to hear! Wishing you gainz :)
What's a good alternative? I am plateauing in strength doing a Push-Pull-Leg program (cycles 2x a week). And while I know not the most accurate way to measure muscle mass. My In -Body scan has shows my muscle mass has a flat trend the last 2 months (it was on an upward trend the month prior).
Again.. this all goes out the window if AAS are involved. In the 10*10 group, the more muscle breakdown would result in more muscle hypertrophy, being better then the 5 set group.
I think the German Training system is mostly for advanced strength sportsmen because normal people probably cant regenerate from the intense training fast enough or Long enough
Potentially, but even still I'm not sure if it's truly great for advanced folks :)
GVT is for when you're saucy and you know it and you really want to show it. Myself, most of the comments here, and the latest literature seem to need a deload after 3 weeks for naturals. Even with diet in check super high volume increases inflammation and can make life miserable when you're trying to recover and chill.
gvt- all it does is tire the muscles out, they should've done gvt only twice a week with at least 3min rest intervals. i've tried gvt with 1min rest intervals and 50% of 1rmax, not good for me, all it did was tire me out, the last 3-4 sets were the only hard ones, by then, all my atp was gone so i ended up just slinging the weight up with plenty of body english. the 5 set people study should've done twice a week with a minimum 3-5 min rest intervals for compounds,,,, bam,,, they would have great gains. also depends on age, 15-30 yr olds, 3 times a week is best with lower volumes, 30-60yr olds twice a week.
hoh- btw, another great video, thanks for all you work.
Thank you, very interesting to hear your experience! I agree, longer rest intervals and lower frequencies would probably be better :)
If you travel a lot like i do and have to work out in hotel gyms it is a very good way of training if there is not enough weights in the gym. That is how i use this system.
I think GVT is more for advanced lifters.. 6-12 months training age is still a baby.
Also- I think the drecrease in AnteriorThigh thickness for that 1 group, shows that they were definitely under recovered- on top of a deload, I think a 2-3 week Low Volume block would really let that accumulated Volume shine- via more hypertrophy.
1 more thing- with such short rest periods- I think this almost became a block for increasing work capacity. This does not increase hypertrophy in and of itself- but does set up the body to do lots of work in a differet, and lower volume, training block.
Still, after this video- i doubt I will experiment with GVT- but I would like to see a study with advanced lifters, calories tracked, and measurements taken 4 weeks after the last session..
(1 week deload and 3 week Low Volume block)
Great video as always!!!
Cheers,
Z
Awesome points dude ! :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy I had a good teacher XD
I’m curious is the 5 set would be different for 80% right away
10 reps x 10 sets at what ever gets you to failure? ... until you fell pumped up and get doms the day after... I like GVT - is simple and quick no changing weights - I do it on the minute - only getting 30 seconds rest.. On set 9 to 10 maybe 15 seconds rest..
GVTs were on test prop and anadrol
Should I rest 60-90 seconds after every exercise, or should I do the two exercises in a row and then rest for 60-90 seconds?
Ive seen people say they use this program as a plateau breaker for about 6 weeks….. also what do you think about Fst 7 program??…. Could you make a video on Fst 7 program?
I'll check it out and see if there's anything I could comment on :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy thanks check this link out that grabbed my attention on that th-cam.com/video/stoQ02JnLJc/w-d-xo.html
I feel like you’re very knowledgeable would like to know what you think?
Thank you for your kind words! I'm not sure I'd call myself that knowledgeable, haha. I checked out the video, it sounds quite interesting. However, I'm not actually aware of any scientific evidence to support his claims about fascia's relation to hypertrophy. I'm going to have to dive a bit more into it at some point to fully assess it :)
Great video, although it runs counter to my love of GVT. It says 60% of 1 rep max, but best I can do is 45%.
I think that's fair enough, if you love it and you're seeing progress, all is well! :)
So basically this: its a mindset, fellas.
Make a video about fullbodybworkouts every day with low volume as 5 sets per muscle
For hypertrophy
I plan to make a video comparing full body to something like bro splits.
Thanks for the info! I always liked 5 sets better anyways…
Also I have a question, is volume load essentially infinite if things like injury, improper nutrition, etc. are not a factor? Or is there science on the subject of potential volume capacity? Does it taper out at a certain age? At what point are we unable to continually progressively overload? Thanks for the videos
No problem! When you say volume load, do you mean the product of sets x reps x load, or are you talking about the number of sets you perform per muscle group each week? If it's volume load, I detailed a few videos back why I believe it's not really a great metric for muscle growth.
On the other hand, the number of sets is better. In the last video on this channel, we detailed whether more sets = more muscle growth.
Generally, 9-12 weekly sets per muscle group seems to be better than fewer (at least in beginners). For more trained individuals, the research is not crystal clear. But it seems that if you use longer rest intervals between your sets in a session (2+ minutes), 12-18 weekly sets for a muscle group might be sufficient, with more sets providing no benefit (or even regressions in results). Constrasingly, if you use short rest intervals between sets (90 seconds or less), the research shows that up to 30-45 weekly sets per muscle group could be beneficial. The reason for this might be because longer rest intervals make each set more effective for building muscle, meaning that it's logical if you use shorter rest intervals, you'd have to perform more sets to compensate and achieve equivalent results. There are some more nuances to this discussion, check out the last video for more details if you'd like.
All in all, it makes sense that there would be a limit to the number of sets a person could perform per muscle group each week. Firstly, more stimulus might not actually translate into your body producing more results. At the cellular level, there might exist "thresholds" whereby more training fails to do anything. In addition to this, your body can only handle so much as well, all individuals likely have their own point at which they can no longer recover from a certain amount of training (a variety of factors would influence this).
As for some of your other questions, generally, it's quite possible older individuals (50+) have decreased recovery abilities, meaning that they probably could not recover and benefit from higher number of sets (15-20+ weekly sets for a muscle group), but I'm not aware of any research exploring this.
Your ability to progressive overload diminishes the more training experience you have. It's difficult to say when an individual will no longer be able to do this, due to the many many factors that could be involved. However, with smart and planned training, there's still evidence that individuals with 10+ years of training experience can still make progress, albeit at a slow rate.
Hope this helps!
@@HouseofHypertrophy thank you very much that gives me a good idea!
Think 10x10 regime is designed for someone on steroids
Potentially!
Yeah, steroids were legal in the 70s
Its normal to a GVT workout lasts only 15 min ?
Depends on how many exerices you're performing. If you perform one exericse only for 10 sets of 10 repetitions with 60s of rest between sets, I guess it is possible to perform is just about in 15 minutes.
@@HouseofHypertrophy yes its 10x10, was 17 min and was really good im gonna test, thanks for the ansewer 🙏
I absolutely despise German Volume Training because i know my squat rack will be occupied for at least half an hour.
I think GVT works best if you're..."dabbling in 'special supplements'..."
Haha, probably!
10x10 @ 60% squats will grow your legs; 531 at 75-85% will make them stronger. Alternating every 6-8 weeks is good. My joints eventually ache more with higher intensity, my muscles eventually ache more with higher volume.
Lateral raise gvt hell yeah but 20 reps x 10 sets
so it's "German Junk Volume Training"?
"sofar i not have heared from this so-called german volume training there
greetings from germany ^^
Always works for me.
German technology is the best technology in the world
turns out the volume was mls of testosterone
Hermiston Turnpike
Josue Coves
10x10 flat bench
hell
Sofia Park
Gvt sucks. It kills your strength.
Grade A is that you?
Towne Turnpike
27422 Legros Island
Young Richard White Anthony Taylor Jeffrey
Algorithms!!
Thank you!
sports science is bs
For the algo