GVT and steroids
Steroids work but are not worth the risk for most. Combined with GVT your chances are high for rapid muscle growth. Talk to your doctor before going on a plan. I’d strongly recommend to avoid them.
What are your goals
Why do you research German Volume Training and steroids? Do you feel small and inadequate? Do you want to impress the other sex? The next bodybuilding competition you attend has a strong field? You just don’t want to put in he hard work? Maybe you are willing to give it all to win? Whatever it is that brought you here it is important to be specific about your goals. Specific goals get you specific results. Fussy goals get fussy results. The three main interests in fitness usually are
- Looks
- Performance
- Health
If you are all about looks strap in for a hard time. The ideals you see in movies and in magazine covers are not attainable by mere mortals. What you see are carefully crafted images by hundreds of people. These are full time professionals of being pretty. If you square yourself up with them be prepared to make big sacrifices. If you are not ready for this avoid beating yourself up about lacking results. To achieve these ideals your choices will be unhealthy. It will also not always help to perform to your best on the pitch.
If you are all about performance you only care about the trophies. The numbers and results on the way are your dopamine. You will pick your exercises and diet based on carryover to your chosen field. Injury is your companion. Intensity goes to sleep with you and stares at you when you wake up. The choices you make are not always healthy or pretty. But you don’t care as long as you can carve your name in bronze, silver or gold.
The last group is mainly about health. You will avoid the extremes of performance and looks and play it safe. Your diet is a field for experimentation and experience. Fun and community are the main aspects of sport to you. You will never make it to the top or look the prettiest. But you also won’t die of a heart attack while chasing these ideals.
Based on the fact that you research German Volume training and steroids you are probably maitsky about the looks. Always consult a doctor before taking steroids and keep in mind that most of them are illegal in most sports.
German Volume Training
German Volume training is a well known program to build muscle. As it is very popular there are many variations out there. My personal favourite is this template:
- 10 repetitions for
- 10 sets at
- 60% of one repetition maximum with
- 30 seconds of rest in between
With this template I managed to put on 2.5kg of muscle in a month. The exercises in use were:
You can also use machines like the leg press , leg curl or lat pull down. Dumbbells are also a popular option.
The biggest advantages of GVT are its simplicity and effectiveness. You do not need to do a lot of complicated calculations to figure out how much to lift for the next set. I have yet to find a program which made me grow quicker.
The biggest disadvantages of German Volume Training are the time it takes and lack of progression. One of the most important concepts on strength training is progressive overload. For German Volume Training it is hard to apply as any increase multiplied by 100 over the workout. Fatigue management becomes more complex especially for experienced lifters.
Steroids
No fitness discussion is complete without addressing steroids. Technically not all steroids are performance enhancing but we will keep it simple. Some steroids function as hormones in your body. The big one being testosterone as there is a correlation between high testosterone levels and athletic performance.
Steroids in fitness are therefore supplements which help you to train harder for longer. They can be taken orally, anally or injected into your blood stream. As with most medication, the most direct application is direct injection into the blood stream bypassing your digestive system.
If your are an endurance athlete you are mainly concerned with improving the ability of your red blood cells to transport oxygen. The more oxygen you can transport healthily the longer you can run/fight/climb without experiencing loss of performance.
If you are a strength athlete you are mainly interested in the effects on skeletal muscle growth. If you want a real good overview of steroids watch Icarus on Netflix.
If you are going for steroids ask yourself whether they are really worth the risk. You can be banned from your sport and harm yourself really bad really quick. The substances you get can be of low quality. The needles you buy can be contaminated. Most people don’t have a clue how to administer the steroids in the right amount. Even if you get quality produce it possibly is some product that is being injected into pigs to make them grow quicker. The list is long and if you were worried about whey protein don’t even go near it.
The advantage is that they do work. Lance Armstrong and Ed Coan are o my two examples of positively tests athletes who dominated their sports for years. Thanks to steroids and inhuman training capacities they dominated the field.
Can steroids and GVT be combined
If you are willing to take the risk, which in my opinion is stupid for 99% of the population, steroids will make you grow faster on GVT. For maximum results make sure you eat and sleep enough. Get the basics right before you start spiking your blood stream. Would be a shame if you die of a heart attack based on a steroids overdose because you wanted to skip leg day.
Further reading
- Can you mix German Volume Training and Stronglifts 5x5
- German Volume training 4-week review
- German Volume Training vs Wendler 531
- German Volume Training vs Stronglifts 5x5
- German Volume Training for CrossFit
- How to prepare for German Volume Training
- Is German Volume Training better than Stronglifts 5x5
- Smolov vs German Volume Training
