Well I exercise for 8 months and I heard about a programm called GVT. It seems challenging so I thought to give it a try for 4 weeks. I am 20 years old, 174cm and 71,3kg. My questions are the following:
i) should I do any form of cardio (like incline walking or some HIIT) in rest days cause I dont want to stay inactive?
ii) do you have any general tips for nutrition?
This is my routine:
Monday: Chest,Back
Bench Press-Medium Grip (10setsx10reps/90sec rest)
Bent-over Row (10x10/90sec)
Cable Crossover (3x10/60sec)
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown (3x10/60sec)
Tuesday: Legs,Abs
Barbell Squat (10x10/90sec)
Lying Leg Curls (10x10/90sec)
Seated Calf Raise (3x10/60sec)
Hanging Leg Raise (3x10/60sec)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Arms,Shoulders
Smith Machine Close-Grip Bench Press (10x6/90sec)
Barbell Curl (10x6/90sec)
Side Lateral Raise (3x6/60sec)
Seated Bent-over Rear Delt Raise (3x6/60sec)
[quote=“spyridon, post:1, topic:232106”]
It seems challenging so I thought to give it a try for 4 weeks[/quote]
The core concept of GVT is to progress in volume and eventually hit 10x10. You’ll have a better idea of where you’re starting from by the end of your first week, but I’d stay open to possibly needing to run the program longer than 4 weeks to get the full effect. Like, if after 4 weeks you’re not yet hitting 10 reps on the last 3 sets of an exercise but you ditch the plan anyway, that’s progress left on the table.
Any kind of easy-ish active recovery should be fine. It’s hard to walk too much, especially if you’re currently carrying visible body fat. Anything higher intensity, like HIIT, gets tricky because you don’t want to turn it into a hard conditioning session.
Eat much. Don’t avoid carbs or healthy fats (or, obviously, animal protein). This would be a solid guideline.
I’d suggest plain old boring GVT as your intro to the program. Same split you wrote, but only one exercise per bodypart for 10x10. Done. At most, you could add one accessory exercise per body part for 3x12. Get more out of less. The more simple, the better.
Well as far the body fat I dont know my percentage, cause I dont know how to count it, but I have fat on stomach. I believe I am around 16-18% cause I think if I drop 2-4kg my abs will be visible.
As far the nutrition tips, the article seems very helpful and I will read it immediately.
Also, my bench press max is 65kg so I train with 45kg, bent-over row max is 65kg so I train with 40kg and squat max is 80kg so I train with 45kg. So in my 1st week of training I managed to do 10x10 not easily but with struggle. Maybe should I increase the weight?
Also, I cant do the 4-0-2-0 tempo and I do 2-0-2-0 is that wrong?
[quote=“spyridon, post:3, topic:232106”]
my bench press max is 65kg so I train with 45kg, bent-over row max is 65kg so I train with 40kg and squat max is 80kg so I train with 45kg. [/quote]
Knowing this, there’s a very good chance this program is too advanced for you and you won’t see a ton of progress.
The plan says to increase the weight when you hit 10x10, not when 10x10 is easy. None of the workouts will be “easy.”
If you can’t do the suggested tempo, you’re going too heavy. That said, it’s not necessarily “wrong” to use a different tempo, but that ties back to the original idea of doing the plan as Poliquin originally suggested.