GVT and cardio [Article]

GVT and cardio

GVT and Cardio can be combined if you have the time. If your goal is getting ripped take care of diet first. Cardio is second and GVT third on this list. The simplest way to get to your six pack your s a caloric deficit.

What are your goals

Why do you research German Volume Training and Cardio? Do you want to get shredded? Do you want to express the other sex? Maybe you want to be the best bodybuilder in the world? Whatever it is that brought you here, be very clear about your goals. The clearer your goals are the more likely it becomes that you will reach them. When I talk to beginners the goals are often fussy. Fussy goals get fussy results. The first thing I ask you to do is to prioritize between these three main areas of interest:

Looks
Performance
Health

Most activities in the gym fall under one of these three major subcategories.

If you are all about looks you want to look like the stars. If that does not work at least like the guys on your Instagram and Twitter feeds. Prepare to be very disciplined to achieve these goals. The snapshots you see are prepared by an entire team of people. It’s intended to look good. Getting a chiseled physique takes hard work. You will have to monitor your diet very tightly. You will be tired. Don’t be surprised if you feel sluggish. There is a reason why bodybuilders often feel weakest on competition day. They have been starving and dehydrating their bodies purposefully. Of course, the shortcut is always Photoshop. Fair enough. If you are about looks you will not always make the healthiest choices. It also does not set you up to perform best in sports.

If you are all about performance you are interested in trophies. At least you want to set a new personal record if that does not happen for you. You will pick your exercises according to the relevance to your sport. You can spell Intensity in ten different languages. An injury is part of your routine and your life with them. Diet is the fu for your ambition but not the deciding factor. Your choices will not always be the healthiest. You are also don’t care that much about how you look while winning.

The last group is mainly interested in health. If you are part of this group you want balance. You will avoid the extremes. Your choices will, therefore, be less risky and less stressful. You might never be the best in your sport or lion the best, but you also don’t care that much.

As you are researching German Volume Training in combination with cardio it gets likely that you mainly care about looks. Just know why you are putting yourself through this ordeal. It will keep you on track on the bad days.

German Volume Training

German Volume Training is one of the most popular hypertrophy programs out there. As it is popular there are many variations. I will introduce to the one that I like most:

10 repetitions for
10 sets at
60% of one repetition maximum with
30 seconds of rest between sets

I used this template to pack on 2.5kg of muscle in a month using the

Barbell squat
Barbell bench press
Barbell deadlift

You can also use machines or dumbbells. Whether you pick the leg press, leg curl, dumbbells or lat pulldown depends on your personal preferences and needs. Machines usually create more of a bias towards bodybuilding. Free weights have a bit more of a bias towards functional strength.

The biggest advantages of German Volume Training are its simplicity and effectiveness. Doing 10x10 of something does not need many calculations. I have never done a program that got me as pumped as this one and there are many case studies out there showing it works.

The biggest disadvantages of GVT are its unclear progression and the time it takes. If you have a 2-minute rest between sets you have already spent 20 minutes at the gym doing nothing. Some people can crush a 10k run in that time. That is why I like the 30-second rest variation. Between these 100 reps per exercise, it can also become hard to assess how to progress. Adding only 2.5kg already means a Volume increase of 250kg.

Cardio Training

Must people who like lifting are not huge fans of cardio. That includes me. I’ve run three marathons because I hated it. I needed to lose weight and that was the best way of doing it.

If you ask experts how you can get a six pack everyone worth their salt will say diet first. Once that is sorted and you still get nowhere they probably will prescribe some cardio. You have many options for your cardio

Treadmill
Rowing machine
Echo bike
Stair master

It is good to go outside. I am personally not a huge fan of running on a treadmill. Except for paced runs.

Cardio is one of the best options to burn calories. Go for 20 to 60 minutes to get the best results at a moderate pace. A moderate pace is that you can still speak to the person beside you while doing the exercise. If you want to take it up a notch use intervals. Go at a normal pace for two to four minutes and then go all balls out for one minute. Works all the time.

The biggest advantages of cardio are that it is cheap and effective. You can go for a run anytime anywhere. A decent pair of runners can be had for 20 Euros. No gym membership needed. When I ran my first Marathon I lost 15kg in half a year. I stopped drinking alcohol and ran 5k every second day.

The biggest disadvantages of cardio are that it can be very boring and you need to be relatively fit to do it. Doing the same movement for 20 to 60 minutes can be nauseating. Especially when we are used to the rapid fire of direct gratification of our phones. If you are overweight you might want to check with your doctor before you do intense cardio. Some people do drop dead because they overdo it. Have not heard that about weightlifting yet.

Can you combine GVT and Cardio

You can absolutely. Just be aware that the main driver for getting ripped is neither GVT nor Cardio. It is your diet first, Cardio second and GVT third. If you have spent more research on workout routines and running plans I recommend to switch your focus to a proper diet plan. If you don’t cook yet, get in the kitchen and make cooking a habit instead of the gym. Once you are on top of that move on to the rest.