German Volume Workout – Watch Now

German volume training has been around for a long time and is one of the best programs to do if you want to add blocks of muscle to your body. I have used German volume training twice in my training and it only leads to great results. There are many reasons for this which we will get to in a second, but the most popular man to bring German volume training to the masses is Mr. Charles Poliquin. This man is an idol to me and a God in the field of strength and conditioning. He has worked with more Olympians and professional athletes than anyone I have ever heard of and his results speak for themselves. He is an absolute genius and has forgotten more about training than I hope to learn and understand.

The basis of German volume training originated in Germany in the 1970s and was adopted by Olympic weightlifting athletes to pack on pounds of muscle mass in a short period of time. Now there are many reasons why this program works so well and the main one that many people talk about is its simplicity and targeting a specific group of motor units.

Research has clearly shown that if hypertrophy (gaining muscle) is your primary goal, then you should work in a rep range of between 8 and 12 reps. Now obviously you can build slabs of muscle with different rep ranges and this depends on how you structure your training program, but this is the beginning and the beginning of all “what rep range is best for building muscle”. Now, with German volume training, you’re going to be doing two main moves per workout with 60% of your 1-rep max for 10 sets of 10 reps alternating back and forth. Now it seems easy to do on paper, but it’s hard. Every time I did the show, I experienced new growth due to its brutality. But it’s not so much the 10 reps that build muscle; it is the total volume and overload in that specific group of motor units that innervate those specific muscle fibers. Due to the tremendous volume and movement pattern itself, your body essentially goes into super adaptation mode. The body is an adapting machine. He hates NOT being in homeostasis and always wants to stay at that level. To make a change, you need to throw it out of control. But when you exercise too much and you’re always changing your training parameters, it’s much harder for your body to adapt to something at its full potential. So the real beauty of German volume training is that you’re only doing 2 main moves per day with the same movement pattern for 10 sets of 10 reps.

When it comes to the exercises you choose, make sure you choose only the ones that will give you the most performance and target your biggest weaknesses. For example, with the chest, if your upper pecs are lagging, then I would choose some kind of incline movement to really focus on this area for 10 sets of 10. You don’t want to waste time doing dumbbell chest flyes for 10 sets of 10. it’s just a sheer waste of time. And the same goes for the back exercise. If you want to focus on getting wider then I would go with some sort of pull ups, pull ups or pull down moves.

German volume training routine

The German volume training routine is quite simple and straightforward. You are going to lift 3 days a week preferably Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or you can also do a split Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, it really doesn’t matter and it is totally adaptable to your lifestyle. For Monday, you’ll work your chest and back, Wednesday you’ll work your quads and hamstrings, and Friday you’ll work your biceps and triceps.

Here is a sample training template you can use:

Monday – Chest and Back (rest 60-90 seconds between each set and alternate)
A1) Barbell Incline Bench Press 10×10
A2) Wide grip pull-ups 10×10
B1) Decline Dumbbell Press 3×15
B2) Dumbbell rows 3×15

Wednesday: quads and hamstrings (rest 60-90 seconds between sets and alternate)
A1) Back squats 10×01
B1) Seated Leg Curl 10×10
C1) Back extensions 3×15
C2) Standing calf raises 3×12

Friday: biceps, triceps and shoulders (rest 60-90 seconds between sets and alternate)
A1) Backgrounds 10×10
A2) Preacher bar curl 10×10
B1) Dumbbell Lateral Raises 3×12
B2) Incline Dumbbell Lateral Raises 3×12

Trust me, if you do the above program, it will be hard enough and will definitely spark new growth in your physique. Just make sure you eat a lot while on this program. You’re breaking down a lot of muscle tissue, so your body will need those extra calories to recover. This program is one of the most powerful and simple to produce maximum gains, but if your nutrition isn’t up to the task, then your results will be sub-optimal at best.