High Volume training
In recent years, high volume training has gotten kind of a bad rap. When I tell someone I’m doing 32 sets per body part, their normal reaction is to tell me I’m “overtraining” and inviting the scary cortisol monster!
What people don’t realize though is that when you’re doing that kind of volume, you have to totally shift your time format. You can’t go in and do a 3 hour kill session on your biceps.
Serious trainers are caught on the idea that you have to always be pushing the heaviest weight you can for as many reps as possible. While I agree, there is definitely a place for this in your training regimen; it’s not the only way to train.
I’m going to take a minute to give you the rules of high volume training and then give some oversight on each.
1. Keep your time in the gym to a minimum
2. Keep the time under tension to a maximum
3. Control your time in the gym by cutting rest periods
4. Change up the types of exercises you do…stretch, mid range, and contraction
5. Lower your weights
When doing volume training, the first thing you have to remember is that you need to get this done quickly. You’re going to put your muscles under a lot of stress and there is a window before your body turns against you. Now, most people say its 45 minutes to an hour but I assure you, the body of a well trained individual can take more than that before the negative starts to occur. With that said, it is a good idea to be out of the gym in under an hour but when I’m doing heavy volume, I’ll give myself up to 90 minutes.
When doing volume training, try to keep the time under tension high. Time under tension is the amount of time you are in the set with more emphasis of course put on the time you are actually moving the weight and not the rest time. Your goal for building muscle is typically a time under tension between 40 and 70 seconds. With a lot of volume, keep it to 40 or you’ll be there all day. So in a set of 8 reps you might do a 3-0-2 tempo. So if you were curling that means 3 seconds to bring the weight up, no rest at the top, two seconds on the way down. That’s 5 sec x 8 reps which is 40 seconds under tension.
In a high volume scenario, you might be doing two body parts per day. This means if you’re going 32 sets per body part, that’s 64 sets. In order to make this happen without spending 3 hours in the gym, you need to cut your rest periods down to 30 seconds. This is very serious. Bring a stop watch. Time them. At 25 seconds, start getting in position for your next set. This is critical if you want to keep from over training.
Normally I will do high volume in four exercises. Each one will be something like 8 sets of 8 reps. What you want to make sure of is that you are not only hitting the muscle from different angles but also that you are attacking the muscle with a mixture of stretching, mid range and contraction exercises. An example of each of the three for biceps would be inclined curls for stretch, barbell curls for mid range, and concentration curls for contraction.
Some of you may be looking at the above and thinking I’m nuts. 8 sets of 8 with only 30 second rest periods. Hey, I understand. I thought it was pretty crazy too until I got results from it. Let me tell you that when you get through one exercise and your so swollen you can’t bend and you realize you have to do it three more times, its pretty scary. This is where you just push through though. I’m not nuts though, I do realize that there is only so much your body can take before you hit a wall and that’s why I have my last point.
Leave your ego at the door and cut the weight. The weight should be no more than about 60% of your one rep max. The first sets will be easy. That’s normal. Don’t get greedy and start upping the weight. If by the end of the forth set you realize that you’ll be able to breeze through the rest, up it a bit but not much. If by the forth set, you can’t hit 8 full quality reps; drop the weight. You should be doing just enough weight that you can get through the workout with high quality movements but those last two sets are killers.
A few extra notes.
This workout is great for your cardiovascular system. You will breathing heavy… this is especially true on leg day.
I like to split this up in four days across the whole body. So two body parts per day. After the four days, take one or two days off depending on your needs.
Keep your nutrition up; especially on leg day. Believe me, leg day is no joke and you will need to be spot on. You also won’t walk right for a few days after your first time out. It may take 5 or 6 days to heal. This is normal in the beginning.
This workout is not meant to be permanent. I wouldn’t do this kind of training for more than 4 or 5 weeks without cycling back to something else. This is really just another way to shock your body into something else. When you’re done with this, take a few days to a week off and then try something new. If you go back to traditional 3x10 for heavy weights, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your strength gains.
Last point, if you keep up with your nutrition and rest, be prepared to see some serious gains. A month of this program will usually put on about 10 lbs of muscle if you’re eating right. You may grow out of some of your clothes.
That’s about it guys. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Just remember, before you shun something because of something some magazine or someone on a forum said its bad, give it an honest try. You never really know until you try something for yourself.
Until next time,
Kris
i have done 10 x10 training in the past and gained around 4lbs of muscle and looked fuller in the chest and arms in just 6 weeks. There is no question it works but only over short periods.
Posted by: Chris | 12 April 2010 at 03:19 PM