10x10?
 

Do you guys have any experience with GVT? I was thinking that next monday I am going to do a 10x10 for bench press because I have been doing speed benches for 4 weeks now, so I figure I will switch it up a bit.

My question is really what percentage of my max should I use for this?

I have not done anything like this for a while but I think I am going to give it a go. Thanks.

I've run GVT before. 50-60% 1RM is a good starting point for weight. Be prepared for extreme soreness. I've never been so sore in my life. My GVT squat session left me so brutally sore that I couldn't even workout the following week.

Here's my GVT write-up:

German Volume Training | Muscle and Brawn Bodybuilding and Powerlifting.

Thank you, and very nice write up, I think I am going to give it a try on monday. My body does pretty well with soreness and if I have to I can push my ME day on thursday to friday without much harm.

Should be interesting I will keep you posted.

Let me know how it turns out.

I would hover around 60%. Try not to lessen it, but add if it is too easy

The reason I recommend below 60% on some exercises is because I simply can't perform 10x10 with 60%.

For example, on seated overhead shoulder presses, by the 3rd set with 60% I can barely do 5 reps. By the 6th set I am struggling for 2 reps.

I've experimented with GVT, Gironda's 8x8, and Hyper Mass training (which is a GVT derivative), and there are certain exercises where 10x10, 8x8, etc., are impossible for me at 60%. In fact, I've found that for some exercises, I can't even do 10x10 at 40%.

That, IMHO, is the fundamental flaw with the volume training - rest-paused combination.

With that said, my training style is volume and rest-pause. I created it because of the flaws with GVT and Hyper Mass. With my volume approach, I am performing reps at 70-75%+, diminishing the reps as the number of sets progress, and expanding rest-pause periods.

If I remember correctly, I couldn't perform a bench press 10x10 at 60% with 45-60 second rest-pause between sets. Not saying you guys can't, but I sure couldn't. I do know this though...as my body adapts to rest-pause training, my strength endurance gets better deeper into set volume. So over time I could see someone doing 60% of their initial 1RM. But that might not be 60% of their current 1RM.

I've never ever in my life lifted for the purpose of hypertrophy (which is why I'm still "small"), but I decided to give it a go this past spring. My choice of gaining some mass? GVT.


Here's my "before" post:

Athlete Creator The Jeremy Witt Experience


Here's my "after" post (with results):

Athlete Creator The Jeremy Witt Experience: Results Show

I read you're post. Good read. Did you experience a noticeable improvement in strength in the later sets as the weeks progressed?

BTW, welcome to the forum.

Yeah. I touched on it, but didn't really point it out in the post, but here are my starting and ending weights:

Bench - 145 --> 175
Squat - 185 --> 215
Deads - 165 --> 185

And, also as stated, I hadn't benched anything over 175 in 8 weeks. However, I decided to max out on the 9th week and still put up 265 easily and without a spotter. My previous PR was 270.

I plan on doing another 8 week cycle (maybe more than once) this winter again since it worked so well for me.

Did you notice any differences to athletic ability? Speed and power differences, positives or negatives?