German Volume Training - 10 Sets Of 10 Reps

The German Volume Training Workout was created back in the 1970's. This routine became popular by Rolf Feser, who was the German National Weightlifting Coach at the time. The basis of the workout is to 10 sets of 10 reps.

This was used as an off-season workout to help Olympic Weightlifters gain lean body mass and shed excess bodyfat. It's been said that weightlifters would often move up an entire weight class after just 12 weeks of following the 10 sets of 10 method of training.

Back in 1996 Charles Poliquin helped make the German Volume Training a mainstream workout by publishing it in the magazine - Muscle Media 2000. Since then it has been used by thousands of bodybuilders, powerlifters, weightlifters, and athletes across the globe to help gain muscular bodyweight.

The goal of the workout is to complete ten sets of ten reps for each exercise while keeping the rest periods short, approx. 1 minute rest between sets.

You'll want to start conservative with your poundages as the shear volume of this workout will catch up with you very quickly.

The first few sets will feel easy, almost like warm up sets.

But as you progress through the workout each set will get harder and harder.

And by the time you get to those final sets it will be down right brutal as fatigue sets in.

If you can get all 10 sets of 10 reps, increase the weight by 5-10 pounds for your following workout.

But if you can't complete all 10 sets of 10 reps, then keep the same weight for your next workout.

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[emann]

I've been doing at least one body part a workout with 10x10 short rest periods and getting noticeable results in a short amount of time.

[mijo]

I usually do this with my bench now. You would be surprise how strong you actually get doing these. Fatigue and moderate growth. I love it.

[madhurchari]

Dear coach visiting your old video to get info of GVT!! 2012 to 2021, your content has always been amazing

[smprimos]

Do you do high volume per muscle group or just before you finish your work out on one body part.

[eXpLoSiiTZzHD]

If you guys watched til the end Lee did say you can do this for any excercise Bench press, Arms etc...

[WOLMAN]

just a quick question why did you decide to go so high on your bent over rows? do you personally feel it more in your back when you go that high? because i try to stick to pedley rows, or if i do bent over rows i try and get my back slightly above parallel from the ground

[MrBumboclart]

How many exercises with this set&rep pattern per muscle?
For exmaple, would chest simply be - Bench Press 10x10 or would you include a second or third exercise with the same sets&reps?

[Ometheon]

@Lee, does the German Volume Method only make sense for bigger exercises like rowing or bench press, or could you also use it to train more isolated parts like biceps, or shoulders?

[WOLMAN]

hey lee at the beginning of the vid were you doing shrugs or bent over rows, i could not tell

[theguy]

Good vid lee. How many excercises per session do you recommend when doing the 10 sets of 10? Cause normally on back day i have 5. But i do about 4 sets of 12 for those. So if i do a 10 sets of 10 session, should i limit my excercises to 3??

[willy]

Great workout Lee :) !! Just curious about the tempo. Shouldn't it be 4-0-2-0? Coz I am into my 3rd week of GVT and i find that tempo works really well.
Keep up the good work mate !!

[orlandoaquino]

Cool video Lee. I will try it out tomorrow on back day. Hey it was nice running into you at the Olympia expo. Keep up the good work.

[surfside]

I think your supposed to alternate a push exercise with a pull exercise for 10 reps each.

[yurimbaable]

Is there a specific reason you use the overhand grip on the bent over row? I read that the close underhand grip is the best for building the back. Let me see your thoughts on this.

[klkane]

Hey lee, could you apply this to your 3 day split all over body workout, because due to my schedule i can only fit in 3 and a maximum of 4 workouts a week and i have been on the 3 days split workout a while now and made good gains but have seem to hit a plateau and its hard to find another workout i trust.
Thanks,
Kane.

[CraftSadie]

Thanks for the video. Been thinking of trying this

[spyward]

it is a GREAT exercise to build the upper back i've started using barbell recently i was using hammer stremght machine before !

[um]

Great video. i do disagree with the 60 second breaks between sets (90 second breaks for compound movements), but I like how he didn't follow that 4020 tempo..I think that's overrated. To me, as long as you choose the right weight with proper form for every set, that's fine. I guess that's because I do GVT with deadlifts...4 second negative is asking for an inury

[erkmanable]

How many different exercises should u do with this workout or is it hit say the bench 10x10 then off to home?

[petergarvey]

Great one Lee tried this workout the weekend just gone. the first 6 reps were handy
enough, but when i got to rep no. 7 it started to get harder. By rep 10 i nearly collasped ha ha, i was at the stage of getting sick. Brilliant as usual from you, my Canadian friend.