Take 60% of your 1 rep max shoulder press
10 x 10 reps @ 60% rest 90 seconds between efforts
This will be done for 3 weeks. Add 5# the next week if all
10 sets were successful. If not stay at 60% until all 10 sets are completed unbroken
Post weights and rest intervals to BTWB
Based on the feedback from Thursday’s squat session it sounds like many of you didn’t expect the the results of doing 10 sets of 10 at 60%. A lot of legs were pretty sore and some had trouble walking and doing other normal everyday activities. Remember it’s okay to take a rest day or two in a week. If you come this Thursday and perform the workout as written then understand this type of volume leads to soreness. Feel free to scale the reps as always too.
For those of you that didn’t read the articles I posted about volume training, I’m going to provide some of the pertinent information directly on today’s blog. From Bodybuilding.com and by author Charles Poliquin, if you don’t know who he is do a quick internet search, the below article talks about GVT.
“It’s brutally hard, but I’ve found it to be an effective way to pack on muscle fast! In strength-coaching circles, this method is often called the Ten Sets Method.”
The bottom line is that almost any training method will work—provided you do it with intensity—at least for the few weeks it takes for your body to adapt to it. There is, however, one training system that stands above all the rest. It’s brutally hard, but I’ve found it to be a very effective way to pack on muscle fast!
The program works because it targets a group of motor units, exposing them to an extensive volume of repeated efforts, specifically, 10 sets of a single exercise. The body adapts to the extraordinary stress by hypertrophying the targeted fibers. To say this program adds muscle fast is probably an understatement. Gains of 10 pounds or more in six weeks are not uncommon, even in experienced lifters!
The goal of the German Volume Training method is to complete ten sets of ten reps with the same weight for each exercise. You want to begin with a weight you could lift for 20 reps to failure if you had to. For most people, on most exercises, that would represent 60% of their 1RM load. Therefore, if you can bench press 300 pounds for 1 rep, you would use 180 pounds for this exercise.
Terms to Know
Rest Intervals: When bodybuilders start with this method, they often question its value for the first several sets because the weight won’t feel heavy enough. However, there is minimal rest between sets (about 60 seconds when performed in sequence and 90-120 seconds when performed as a superset), which incurs cumulative fatigue. (Interestingly enough, you might find you get stronger again during the eighth and ninth sets. This is because of a short-term neural adaptation.) Because of the importance of the rest intervals, you should use a stopwatch to keep the rest intervals constant. This is important, as it becomes tempting to lengthen the rest time as you fatigue.
Number of Exercises: One, and only one, exercise per body part should be performed. Therefore, select exercises that recruit a lot of muscle mass. Triceps kickbacks and leg extensions are definitely out; squats and bench presses are definitely in. For supplementary work for individual body parts (like triceps and biceps), you can do 3 sets of 10-20 reps.
Training Frequency: Because this is such an intense program, it’ll take you longer to recover. In fact, if you’re familiar with the writings of Peter Sisco and John Little, you’ll find that the average “Power Factor Rating” of the 10-sets method is about 8 billion. Consequently, one training session every four to five days per body part is plenty.
Overload Mechanism: Once you’re able to do 10 sets of 10 with constant rest intervals, increase the weight on the bar by 4-to-5%, and repeat the process. Refrain from using forced reps, negatives or burns. The volume of the work will take care of the hypertrophy. Expect to have some deep muscle soreness without having to resort to set prolonging techniques. In fact, after doing a quad and hams session with this method, it takes the average bodybuilder about five days to stop limping.
