German Volume Training

German Volume training is a technique created during the mid-70s in Germany. This method, also known as the “10 sets method” and was used by off-season weightlifters to gain lean body mass and shed unnecessary body-fat. It wasn’t abnormal for weightlifters to move up an entire weight class in twelve weeks due to the effectiveness of this program. I can testify to this as it’s a program I have tried and followed that gave me great changes in hypertrophy and strength.

German volume training targets a specific group of motor units and subjecting them to large amounts of volume, i.e. ten sets of a single exercise. The body, as it’s beautifully designed, adapts to the huge amounts of stress by hypertrophying (muscle-growth) the targeted fibers to cope with the work load. Although this program is geared more towards hypertrophy than strength it still has a substantial positive impact on performance for any weightlifter. Practicing a lift for ten sets every five days is going to drastically improve your form and muscular endurance. When you do a high amount of sets for a single exercise fatigued muscle fibers will begin to drop out and new unused fibers will join in to compensate. At the end of ten sets you will have literally used parts of your muscles that you have never used before, and that’s a good thing, trust me!!!

The goal with this method is to complete ten sets of ten reps for each exercise. You’ll start with a weight of which you could do twenty reps until failure, which for most people is 60% of their 1RM (one rep max). So if you can squat 400 pounds for one rep, you would then use 240 pounds for your ten sets of ten. You must keep the weight the same throughout the ten sets and only increase the weight by five percent once you have completed your ten sets of ten with constant rest intervals. The rest intervals are short (60 seconds between accessory work and 90 seconds between the main lifts) which results in accumulative fatigue.

There’s only one exercise per body part so you’ll only be doing lifts that utilize the most amount of muscle fibers i.e. bench press and squats. Accessory work can be done- 3 sets of 10-20 repetitions. Refrain from using any intensity techniques such as forced reps or drop-sets, the volume will take care of the strength and hypertrophy on its own. At the same time the intense amount of volume will make recovery harder and longer. Typically training a body part every four to five days is sufficient. Here is a recommended body part split for lifters new to the german volume training method.

Recommended Split

After day five you’ll start over from day one, so each training cycle is five days. You’ll want to keep a notebook to track your progress, and a stopwatch to track your rest intervals.

Below is a sample routine based on a five-day cycle and is phase one of german volume training. Once you’ve done six workouts for each body part you will move on to a different program for three weeks and then return to complete phase two.

Beginner/Intermediate German Volume Training Program – Phase One

Day 1 – Chest and Back

Day 2 – Legs and Abs

Day 3 – Rest Day

Day 4 – Arms and Shoulders

Day 5 – Rest Day

You superset the A-1 and A-2 exercises together with 90 seconds rest in between sets, and you do the same for the B exercises except you only take 60 seconds in between. So you will do A-1 then rest for 90 seconds, do A-2 then rest for 90 seconds, then do A-1 again and rest for 90 seconds etc. Keep doing that until all sets of A-1 and A-2 are completed then move on using the same cycle for B-1 and B-2 (remember only 60 seconds rest instead of 90).

After you have completed the first phase you will move onto a different program for three weeks. The recommendation is doing a phase of only four-six sets per bodypart over a five day period with 6-8 reps per set. You can do any split of your choice as long as fits your recovery ability. After the three week intermission you can return to german volume training and begin phase two. With phase two you will still be using ten sets, but will now only be doing six reps for the main lifts. For the exercises that use ten sets, use a weight in which you could normally do 12 repetitions with.

Beginner/Intermediate German Volume Training Program – Phase Two

Day 1 – Chest and Back

Day 2 – Legs and Abs

Day 3 – Rest Day

Day 4 – Arms and Shoulders

Day 5 – Rest Day

You can keep using phase two until you plateau then move onto something else. This is a sample program and you may substitute any exercise you want as long as you follow the guidelines of german volume training. For the main lifts (A-1 and A-2) be sure to pick a movement that will recruit the most fibers, and you should include the basic compound lifts whenever possible. Another good option would be to pick a variation of a compound lift such as front squats instead of squats.

So there it is!! German volume training! Give it a shot!!