GVT vs OVT
GVT is the simple and quick option to build muscle with the risk of overuse injury and boredom. OVT has more variation and takes more time while lowering injury risk and staying more interesting.
What are your goals
Before we go any further I’d like to ask what brought you here
- Why do you compare German Volume Training and optimized Volume Training?
- Why do you want to pack on muscle?
- Why do you want to train?
The better you understand your why the more likely it will become that you reach your goals. There is a very good TED talk out there by Simon Sinek which I recommend to you.
Most people communicate and research the what first than the how and lastly the why. If you reverse this order you are more likely to reach your goals and get others on board. To dig deeper think about the main motivations to do fitness:
- Looks
- Performance
- Health
If you are interested in looks prepare for a hard time. The idealized physiques you are exposed to in the media are hard to obtain. To achieve this goal you will be hungry, tired and grumpy. The main driver for your success will be diet. Exercise will be also important but not the deciding factor. To look like Chris Hemsworth or Hugh Jackman your choices will not always be healthy or help performance on the pitch. But hey, you’ll make it to Hollywood.
If you are all about performance you want to break records and hold trophies. You will pick exercises based on their merit, not based on how they make you look. The work you put in is intense. You spell the word Intensity day in and out. Diet will merely become the fuel to your ambition. You take the good, bad and the ugly to reach your goals. Injuries will occur and you already know how to deal with them. If you don’t, you will learn. Based on this your choices are not always healthy or pretty. Who cares when you go down in history as the greatest of all time.
The last motivation can be health. When you are interested in health you want balance. You stay away from extremes. Injury and burnout are therefore very unlikely to happen. The good thing about this approach to fitness is that you can try a lot of things. When performance and looks do not matter you switch, mix and match as you like. You might never be on the cover of men’s health or make the super bowl. Who cares when you sip your tea and watch the madness go by.
As you are comparing German Volume Training and Optimised Volume Training you are probably in the performance or looks department. Very likely with a small bias towards looks. Always remind yourself of the reasons for your training. Maybe even get them down in writing.
German Volume training
German Volume Training has been made popular by Charles Poliquin. The main idea is to do 10 sets of 10 repetitions for a particular muscle group. Because of its popularity, there are at variations of this basic principle out there. I personally like to do
- 10 sets for
- 10 repetitions at
- 60% intensity with
- 30 seconds rest between sets
With this template, I was able to put on 2.5kg if muscle mass in a month. The exercises I used were
The program is known to be effective, especially if you have not done a lot of high repetition work before.
The biggest advantages of the program are its simplicity and effectiveness. It is easy to follow and gets results. I have yet to find a better program to pump myself up.
The biggest disadvantages are the time it takes and the lack of clear progression. To pinpoint whether you had a good day or not can be exhausting and challenging on GVT. Other programs like 531 or 5x5 state their progression clearer.
Optimized Volume Training
Optimized Volume Training comes from the idea that German Volume Training has too big a risk for injury and boredom. This is based on its monotonous nature. This breakdown is mainly based on the article on Optimised Volume Training.
Optimized Volume Training is structured in a way that you do 5x5 repetitions on a compound movement followed by 5x5 of an accessory movement for the same muscle group.
You will follow a classic bodybuilding split where you train four days a week. The exercises picked will also be very familiar to bodybuilders. Flies, incline bench presses and Romanian deadlifts.
The biggest advantages of OVT are that it has more variation and therefore stays more interesting with a lower risk of overuse injuries.
The biggest disadvantages of OVT are that you need a lot of time and space to do it while also watering down the clarity of GVT. Determining progress and what contributed to it becomes even harder on OVT compared to GVT.
Should you do OVT or GVT
That depends on your goals and personal preferences.
If you are more interested in bodybuilding, have access to a well-equipped gym and if you can spend 1.5 hours a day in the gym go with OVT. You will learn more and have less injury risk.
If you are a beginner with interest in bodybuilding go with German Volume Training first. Maybe start with 5x10 and work up to 10x10. The design of OVT is more complex and you need to learn more movements. Keep it simple by minimizing the number of movements you have to perfect by sticking with GVT.
For powerlifters, GVT or OVT can be a break from very heavy loads or when you are stuck on a certain weight. I would personally lean more towards GVT as you can keep it more specific to powerlifting. OVT can be good if you want to build muscle on weak areas of your body which should not be exposed to a lot of repetitions.
For weightlifters, GVT and OVT could be an option to play around with. However, bodybuilding is not the main goal. The limiting factors to the Olympic lifts are usually technique and speed. So think about whether you want to invest the extra work into time with the technique bar or building muscle.
For CrossFitters the OVT format is probably more interesting than GVT. You can challenge yourself to complete the supersets in a certain amount of time. That simulates most competition situations closer than the grueling GVT routine.
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
