I am excited today because I am going to show you my favourite and top muscle building workouts. These workouts are based on one of the best workouts of all time – German Volume Training, or also known as the 10 sets method.
The German Volume Training workout is were you perform 10 sets of 10 reps on one exercise. It is still one of the most popular workouts around today simply because of the fantastic results it gets. If you have never done it you will be pleasantly surprised by the muscle you will put on.
The main downside that I have always found with the original program was that you have to use very light weight – around 40{2dd333ed9c7b2074fdfda098a56357c21ab487243e335d9241a31e34dbd5cf30} of your one rep max. This is not a problem for some people, but anyone who has lifted for a while does not like to do this. Therefore I would like to introduce you to the advanced German Volume Training method.
Advanced German Volume Training
I read about the Advanced German Volume Training from Charles Poliquin, who is the man who popularised the original workout. This advanced wokout uses heavier weight and less reps. I love it because of the progression method and for me a proper progession method is key to continued muscle building. So enough of the talk, let’s get onto the top muscle building workouts! The three weeks of workouts are based on 3 days per week and are shown below.
Week 1
Workout 1 – Chest & Back
A1 – Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 10 (sets) x 5 (reps)
A2 – One Arm Dumbbell Row: 10 x 5
B – Flat Dumbbell Bench: 3 x 6-8
C – Cable Pull Down: 3 x 10-15
Workout 2 – Legs
A – Squat: 10 (sets) x 5 (reps)
B – Leg Curl: 10 x 5
C – Leg Press: 3 x 8-10
D – Stiff Leg Deadlift: 3 x 6-8
Workout 3 – Shoulders
A1 – Side Lateral Raise: 10 (sets) x 5 (reps)
A2 – Barbell Biceps Curl: 10 x 5
A3 – Close Grip Bench: 10 x 5
B1 – Dumbbell Biceps Curls: 3 x 8-10
B2 – Cable Triceps Extensions: 3 x 6-8
Week 1 Explanation
Order: Perform the exercises in the order listed. Where you see a letter by itself (without a number after) perform that exercise in straight sets – do all the sets of the exercise before moving onto the next. Where you see a letter with a number beside it – perform one set of the exercise then move onto the exercise after it. For example – on workout 1 perform one set of bench presses (A1), rest then move onto a set of dumbbell rows (A2), rest then go back to bench presses (A1) and so on. These are call alternating sets and are great to do more work in less time. Sometimes you may not be able to do this in busy gyms, so you can revert back to straight sets if you like.
Rest: You can rest for a minute between most sets. Or you can rest up to 2 minutes if you like but certainly no more than this.
Exercise: You can substitute the exercises shown for other exercises that work the same body part if you like. Try to stick to the ‘bigger’ compound exercises like the ones shown rather than isolation exercises for the 10 sets exercises, if you do want to change the exercises.
Weight To Use: This can be hard to judge when doing 10 sets for an exercise. Obviously I cannot say exactly what to lift because I do not know your strength levels. But for week one try to use your 10 rep max for each exercise. If after a few sets you think the weight is too light you can increase the weight slightly.
Week 2
Workout 1 – Chest & Back
A1 – Flat Dumbbell Bench Press: 10 (sets) x 4 (reps)
A2 – Cable Pull-Down / Chin Up: 10 x 4
B – Incline Dumbbell Bench: 3 x 6-8
C – Bent-Over Row: 3 x 10-15
Workout 2 – Legs
A – Squat: 10 (sets) x 4 (reps)
B – Leg Curl: 10 x 4
C – Lunges: 3 x 8-10
D – Good Morning: 3 x 6-8
Workout 3 – Shoulders
A1 – Side Lateral Raise: 10 (sets) x 4 (reps)
A2 – Barbell Biceps Curl: 10 x 4
A3 – Close Grip Bench: 10 x 4
B1 – Dumbbell Biceps Curls: 3 x 8-10
B2 – Cable Triceps Extensions: 3 x 6-8
Week 2 Explanation
Perform week 2 as described in week 1. The only difference is to increase the weight on the 10 sets exercises and do 10 sets of 4 reps.
Week 3
Workout 1 – Chest & Back
A1 – Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 10 (sets) x 3 (reps)
A2 – One Arm Dumbbell Row: 10 x 3
B – Flat Dumbell Bench: 3 x 6-8
C – Cable Pull Down: 3 x 10-15
Workout 2 – Legs
A – Squat: 10 (sets) x 3 (reps)
B – Leg Curl: 10 x 3
C – Leg Press: 3 x 8-10
D – Stiff Leg Deadlift: 3 x 6-8
Workout 3 – Shoulders
A1 – Side Lateral Raise: 10 (sets) x 3 (reps)
A2 – Barbell Biceps Curl: 10 x 3
A3 – Close Grip Bench: 10 x 3
B1 – Dumbbell Biceps Curls: 3 x 8-10
B2 – Cable Triceps Extensions: 3 x 6-8
Week 3 Explanation
Perform week 3 as described in week 1. The only difference is to increase the weight on the 10 sets exercises and do 10 sets of 3 reps. This is the final week of reps decreasing and the weights increasing. At this point a complete cycle will have been done and you can start again at the week 1 workouts (but use more weight that you used on your first week).
