German Volume Method - 10x10 (lifting in general)

stacw1987
stacw1987 Posts: 206 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone,

I posted earlier about a workout plan but meanwhile I have been chatting to my personal trainer friend about weight training. A lot of people have suggested lifting heavy but 5x5. However my friend said he feels the german volume method would work better to get my leaner and do 10x10. He said whilst its a lot of sets and can be much harder he said the results are good.

Can you offer any advise on this method or does anyone have any previous experience with this method? If you didn't read my earlier post I am 5,2" and 117lbs wanting to get lean! :)

Lifting to me is quite confusing! i have lifted before but on a very basic program.

Thanks in advance! Also please feel free to add me if you can offer some support in this area! :)

Replies

  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
    I've done this one day per week for months now, I like this way of training, but I pretty much do it as a form of cardio almost, I'm not lifting nearly as heavy as I would doing 5-8 reps, however, I do exhaust the muscles. I think it is definitely another way to get lean (following a good diet of course) however, it is taxing, and there is no way I could do 4 days of this a week, I'd get way too bored. How often would you be doing this? Every other day?
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
    P.S. Here is a decent article I found on it

    http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/german-volume-training-for-shocking-muscle-growth.html
  • stacw1987
    stacw1987 Posts: 206 Member
    Hey thanks for the advise!

    Well he said I could superset body areas! Chest and tris one day, back and bis another day, shoulders and legs and cardio and core another day.

    I know its a matter of trying and seeing what suits but I hear so many different ways of training its hard to know what's going to suit me and get the results I am looking for !

    Ahhhhhhh lol!!
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    What are your goals from lifting? If general fitness and strength then GVT is absolutely not the way to go. GVT is very much a bodybuilder type method for simply adding volume into their training. If you're not eating to gain mass (remember definition and mass aren't the same thing) then this is probably not optimal for you. The weight used is typically very light and not ideal for building true strength. I've used this many years ago and it's not ideal on it's own. What you could do is do something like Starting Strength or SL5x5 and then do some accessory work with GVT. The weight that you start with on SS or SL5x5 is actually light too but progressively gets heavier.

    One workout could look something like...
    A) Squat 5x5
    B) Bench Press 5x5
    C) Barbell Row 5x5
    D1) DB Bench 10x10
    D2) DB Row 10x10

    Also, remember that getting is lean is mostly a function of diet, not exercise.

    Edit: I just read the article that kdiamond posted and there's even reference in there to being a hypertrophy focused method. This is actually a very old concept and I'm surprised that it's coming back to be honest. If your goals are to gain size, then paired witht the correct diet; it's not a bad option at all. I would definitely avoid this if you just want to be strong and lean.

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