German Volume Training (GVT)- why does it work so well?

[peni]

GVT with chins = Massive results

A few years back I had the bad luck to be framed for a crime I didnt commit, like the A-team. So inside there were no weights and only a concrete yard a third the size of a high-school gymnasium. I would walk around this yard and every 4 laps jump-reach for an overhead railing and do some chin-ups. Id start with 5 reps and quickly go down to 3, then 2 - which may not seem like a lot of reps but doing nothing but chins for an hour and a half... the reps add up.

So now I have really good lats and nothing else to speak of, just wish I could summon the mental fortitude to do 90min of heavy squats on a regular basis.

Moral: Heavy weight + High cumulative rep count = Monstrous gains
(even on naturally skinny dude with no 'roids and crappy diet of mashed potato and virtually no protein)

 

[Biggly]

Lats do tend to react that way and I've seen myself that just jumping on a home pull-up bar throughout the day can be as effective as incorporating within a workout as such. What I'm interested to know though is how did this affect your biceps and forearms?

I ask as I've found pull-ups do indeed seem to develop lats but not much on the arms, which is weird as the arms are usually the weakest link.


B.

 

[peni]

I always used a pronated grip, and although people often comment on my lats I know my biceps are very average and forearms pretty wimpy really.

 

[MetalVolcano]

My theory is that since the GVT method of training has you repeating the same movement over and over, you're going to really improve on that movement in that plane of motion, whereas 'conventional' training has you hitting the chest from multiple angles but for fewer sets per angle.

Does any of this make sense? I've been using the GVT method for a couple of weeks and really like it. It's not the most exciting thing, the same exercise for 10 sets, but it does seem to be having a positive effect-which is why we train in the first place, right?

Makes sense to me. You're doing 100 reps of one exercise, therefore with all of that movement on just one lift, you're bound to kill it on that lift, and exhaust your muscles in a more complete fashion than if you did 5 sets, or 3 different muscle movements.

 

[MetalVolcano]

Lats do tend to react that way and I've seen myself that just jumping on a home pull-up bar throughout the day can be as effective as incorporating within a workout as such. What I'm interested to know though is how did this affect your biceps and forearms?

I ask as I've found pull-ups do indeed seem to develop lats but not much on the arms, which is weird as the arms are usually the weakest link.


B.

I've always gone underhand and done chin-ups, and when I do them that way, my biceps grow just as fast as my lats.

 

[Merkaba]

 

[jasoncscs]

Not sure exactly why it works so well, but I know I love it and throw it into my programming about once a year.

 

[chiuchi]

im just staring out. it seems to be working well.

 

[Kleen]

I am getting ready to use this again or maybe the Advanced one. One of the big things I haven't seen mentioned here is the GH release stimulated by the horrendously slow 4-0-2 tempo. I got great results from this before but the reason I plan to use it now is I am semi-injured y shoulder is not up to 100% closer to 80 and I am tired of not growing from using lighter weights to spare it. When done correctly with a 4-0-2 tempo you really don't have too much choice but to keep the weights light. I am not a big proponent of anything high volume but really this program is not as high volume as everyone makes it out to be. 13 sets per body part total is not that high. I see most people running 4-5 exercises with 4-5 sets per exercise not including warmup sets. With GVT the first work set is your warm up set. The weights you need to use are so light that there is no need for a warm upset before going heavy You are starting out with 60% of your ten rep max already. Also 10 sets of 10 is the goal and not the reality. IF you get to 10 sets of 10 then you move up in weight you WILL fail on many sets if doing it right.

 

[bigjules]

hi everyone,ime starting the gvt in 2weeks time for a 6week programme as ive heard it takes so much out of you!!that 6weeks will do the job,hope so

 

[roastchicken]

its designed for a 3 day split (5 day cycles) where the workouts are only repated a maximum of 6 times so the program should only last 4 weeks .When you have completed a cycle switch to a lower volume conventional program for say 3 weeks. First do a few cycles of GVT then move on to AGVT.

With that said i only ever use GVT or AGVT for legs as i believe the slow twitch dominant legs respond much better to the Time under tension, high reps and short rest periods. Always use a 41X0 Tempo this will kill You!

 

[LAM]

IMO...volume training works well for most because many don't use a long enough TUT with high enough loads during training their regular training.

for hypertrophy a TUT of 45-60 seconds with loads at/around 80% of the 1RM is optimum. from my personal observances over many, many years in various gyms the majority of people sacrifice weight for form. another thing regarding volume training is that this type of training will result in gains more from increasing intramuscular hydration, etc. than from actually increasing the size of cross bridges and muscle fibers.

people forget that the majority of the gains in "fat free mass" are not from an increase in actual muscle fiber size but in an increase in the various nutrients being stored in skeletal muscle

 

[cornbeef]

GVT worked for me for about 4 months... then i adapted and it stopped working...
really the only thing that works is HARD work...
if you used to your routine and you try something new... ofc its going to work... isnt that what the sport is all about... constantly shocking the body into growth...

 

[ConJnr21]

Hi could you answer a question for me. I have been reading on trying this but am confused. Do you superset this or would you do say 10 sets of bench with a 60 sec rest between each set?? or do bench then go right to back and then a 90 sec rest? When reading the workouts it says Notes: Rest 90 seconds between each "A" exercise and each superset.

How do you do it??

Thanks
Brian

thats a good question i was actually thinking that

 

[ManGod123]

What about shoulders? i don't see any shoulder training

 

[Usealittle]

I'm doin the smolov jr squat cycle.... Squat 4x wk, works great!

 

[Kleen]

What about shoulders? i don't see any shoulder training

Shoulders ate done on arm day. You wont need more.

 

[bigbill69]

if u never tried gvt u have to do it its fukin intense and on leg day those 10x10 squats will make u fell like ur going to die so if u think ur badass doing ur 4 sets of squats at 4 reps u aint got shit on this