GVT chest and back

German Volume training can be used to build a bigger chest and back. The template is 10x10 at 60% with 30 seconds rest. The chest is usually easier to grow than your back.

What are your goals

Why do you research chest and back exercises for German Volume Training? Do you feel too small and therefore unattractive to the other sex? Do you feel bullied by others and want to get stronger? Your sick of being undisciplined and want to start your journey to success with a body transformation? Whatever it is that brought you here, it is important to know why you want to train. There will be days when nothing goes your way. You will be sore and tired. That is when you have to know what drives you out of bed. It better be good. Otherwise, you won’t make it. There are three main areas of interest in fitness:

Looks
Performance
Health

If you are all about looks you define your goals by what you see on television. Maybe by the people, you identify most with if you get not fed by the media. This idealistic picture of reality is not inherently bad, it is just hard to obtain. You have to sacrifice a lot to be chiseled enough to enter the Marvel universe. The main driver of success will be your diet. To stay in the range of 10% body fat you will be hungry most of the year. For most of this means staying in a caloric deficit for a couple of months. Not the most pleasant experience. The reward is that you can get a Modeling contract. You might also find it easier to find sponsors for your Instagram feed. The rewards of looking good are real. If it were easy everyone would run around with a six pack and we wouldn’t care. Choices to starve yourself or dehydrate your body to look better are not necessarily healthy but get the job done. Bodybuilders are usually the weakest when they enter a competition. So this is also not the best way to go for athletes.

If you are not about looks you might be about performance. Your measure success by what place you take on the podium. If that’s not attainable you at least strive for the next personal record. Your exercises will be assessed by their intensity. Food will only play the second fiddle to this. It becomes the fuel for your ambition, but not the main driver. As long as you win you don’t care whether you look pretty whilst doing it. The intensity of everything you do will drive your body to breaking point. Injuries are common and you know how to live with them or get yourself fixed quick. By thirty your career is over and you will live with the injuries from your career until you retire.

The last group is into health. If you belong to this group you are mainly interested in balance. The gym is a place for community and recreation. It is not a place for punishment and pain. You will avoid the extremes in training and go the middle way. You will never be a winner or look the best. Who cares? At least you can sleep well at night and don’t yell at your friends and family because of the stress.

As you are researching German Volume Training chances are that you belong to the group most interested in looks. Before you make this choice ask yourself why looks are so important to you. It will give your training purpose and make more likely to obtain your goal.

German Volume Training

German Volume Training is one of the most popular beginner hypertrophy programs. There are many different variations out there. My personal favorite is

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

With this program, I wanna able to put on 2.5kg of muscle in one month. I mainly used

Barbell Squat
Barbell Bench press
Barbell Deadlift

To achieve this. You can also use machines if you prefer.

The biggest advantages of German Volume Training are its simplicity and effectiveness. There are many reports of success. You can not go wrong with this amount of repetitions when it comes to muscle growth. There are no complex calculations needed to start.

The biggest disadvantages of German Volume Training are the time it takes and the lack of clear progression. If you take two minutes of rest between sets you are already twenty minutes in the gym doing nothing for one exercise. That’s why I like the 30-second rest variation. For beginners, it can also become very hard to track progress as they get overwhelmed with the 100 reps per exercise.

Chest training

There are many different exercises you can do for the chest. The main thing for muscle development is to have a bit of variety. Examples are

Barbell bench press
Barbell incline press
Barbell decline press
Dumbbell bench press
Dumbbell flies
Cable work

There are many possibilities. I am personally have not the biggest chesticles been thought my bench press is decent. I never really paid attention to train the chest from different angles. Those who do usually have big balloons.

Back Training

Training your back can be one of the hardest things to progress on. You will think it’s not going anywhere for months as it doesn’t swell like your arms, legs, and chest. Good exercises for your back are:

Glute ham raises
Back extensions
Weighted back extensions
Barbell rows
Dumbbell rows
Machine Rows
Croc rows

Many programs do not emphasize rowing motions enough. This is why I am putting an overemphasis on them here. Some say your rowing movements should exceed your pressing movement 2:1.

Back training needs patience and consistency. Progress usually shows first at the lats and later in the lower back. If you get your lower back ripped, which is possible, you will be strong as hell.