GVT legs and abs [Article]

GVT legs and abs

German Volume training uses 10x10 sets and repetitions to make you grow. You can train your legs and abs with free weights or machines. Free weights will make you stronger but take longer to show results in muscle growth. Machines will isolate muscles and make them grow quicker at the expense of body function for strength. The main driver for bodily growth is food. Invest your research and effort accordingly.

What are your goals

Why are you looking into German Volume Training? What is it you need to know about leg training? What do you want to know about abs training? Why do you want to train your legs and abs? Are you new to bodybuilding? Do you have to pack on some muscle to hit harder? Whatever it is, it is very important to go to the bottom of why you want to do something. The more you know your way, the harder you will train. It will become easy for you to perform. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a smile on his face when he trained because he loved what he was doing. In fitness, I see three big areas of interest:

Looks
Performance
Health

If you are all about looks you are chasing the ideals that have been set out for you. You see the advertising on the bus, in the cinema, and on your favorite YouTube channel. These ideals have been designed to make you want more products. Chase the dream and buy more. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it makes you happy. It is hard to achieve these ideals. The models and movie stars give up certain types of food. They get up at 5 am in the morning to get their gym session in. Then they have nothing but coffee for breakfast while their make up is being applied. That path is hard. What you see on Instagram is just the snapshot. The tip of the iceberg of a day that had been geared towards getting that one perfect shot. For the perfect look as seen on the cover of Men's health start with diet. Be vigilant about your diet. That is the starting point as you can starve yourself into a six-pack. Is this approach healthy? Probably not. The stress and lack of food are not necessarily good for you. Will you perform your best in sports with this approach? Probably not. You need some food to perform.

If you are all about performance you mainly care about the next competition. The next personal record to make you go down in history. Your goals are to become the greatest of all time. For that, all the work you put in has to pay into your specific sport. Pick the exercises you do wisely. Your time is limited and your competition does not sleep. If you are all about performance measure the outcomes. Intensity on the track and in the gym will be your main priorities. Food becomes the fuel for your ambition. It is important but takes second place to push yourself. You will get injured. It will not be pretty at all times. But you will kick ass and be the best in your chosen field.

If you are mainly about health your main priority is the balance. You will enjoy life and not stress out about your looks or performance. You will look into yoga. You will seek new diest and try them out. Meditation and patience are your main traits. You will avoid the extremes and therefore be less likely to burn out or get injured. At the same time, this might take off the edge to ake the front cover or the team. But you do not care about that as your bliss lies somewhere else.

It is important that you know which of these goals is your main priority. It will determine your choices. It will determine how much you train, It will determine what you eat. It will determine how much you sleep. Be deliberate, patient and vicious about your choices. I can not overstate the importance of this.

German Volume Training

German Volume Training is one of the most famous hypertrophy programs out there. There are many different variations so I will introduce you to the template that is my personal favorite. From this basic principle, you can build a workout which is most suited to your need. You can always contact me at pascal@marathon-crossfit.com for questions. The basic template is:

60% of your one repetition maximum
10 sets
10 repetition per set
30 seconds of rest between sets

I personally like to do use this template with the barbell squat, barbell bench press, and barbell deadlift. You can build any kind of machine or free weight exercises around this template. If it is too hard for you, you have two options. You can either decrease the intensity by using less weight or increase the rest periods between sets.

To get better and grow, scale up the weight gradually. Only use very small increases as you are doing a lot of volume in one session. Once you struggle to finish all sets stay at the same weight until you can.

The biggest advantages of German Volume training are its simplicity and effectiveness. You do not need to calculate a lot of percentages. You do not need to cycle exercises. I was able to pack on 2.5kg of muscle in a month with German Volume training. Be aware that my main focus is not muscle growth but strength. That effect will have worn down and get smaller over time. Still, its the best program I ever did to pump myself up.

The biggest disadvantages of German Volume training is the boredom and time it takes. Doing 10 sets of 10 repetitions of the same thing can be challenging. If you like flashing lights, music and dance moves this is not for you. This is a grind and gets ugly after set 6. Otherwise, you are doing it wrong. The other disadvantage is that the rest time can balloon quite considerably. If you choose to have 2 minutes of rest between sets you will spend 20 minutes per exercise in the gym doing nothing. That is why I like the 30 second rest period.

Leg Training

There are a lot of different leg exercises out there to make yourself grow. Some examples are:

Barbell back squat
Leg press
Leg curls
Reverse leg curls
Barbell deadlifts
Trap bar deadlifts
Split squats
Safety bar squats

The options are endless. Generally speaking, it seems to work well to focus on compound exercises first and then accessorize with some machines. My results were achieved by only doing the compound lifts. However, I do not have the most impressive physique.

Abs Training

There are many different ways to train your abs. Sit-ups and leg raises are options but never really did it for me. Also remember that getting a six pack is mainly a result of your diet, not of what you do in the gym. If you want a six pack master your meal plan and cooking in advance. You have to constantly be at 10% body fat or less. Some have the opportunity and time to train three times a day. Eat away. Some have the genetics to scratch their backs and get chiseled. Most of us will have to count calories and slave over the cooker.

Ab exercises which I like and made me stronger and bigger:

Hanging leg raises
GHD sit-ups
Barbell loaded sit-ups
Heavy side bends

I do these in various combinations for 3 - 4 sets by twenty repetitions at the end of my workouts. This takes ten to fifteen minutes. Since I have implemented this I am can lift the weights without a belt that I needed a lifting belt for in the past.

Does GVT make your abs and legs grow

It is a great program to build muscle. It is the best that I personally know. It is brutal but simple. If you do not sweat and have some pain the next day, your weight is not heavy enough. The main component to make your body grow is food. Training hard without having a proper diet plan does not get you anywhere. This is especially true if you are older and do not have the blessings of a heightened testosterone level and fast metabolism.