GVT - Mahler Article

I revisited the Mike Mahler article ‘Customized Volume Training’ posted 1/11/05. In it he advocates customizing the GVT and Russian Bear programs to fit your specific fiber type. For instance slow twitch dominant muscle groups would get 10 sets of 10-12 reps, while fast fiber groups would get 10 sets of 3-5 reps. My question is, are we truly reaping the benefits of “volume” training if only performing 10 sets of 3-5?

Yes, volume is relative.

Relative to your current program?

relative to your muscle type

Thanks Sam and Rolo, the light bulb just clicked on.

Unfortunately for me, I was looking for something to contrast my current training parameters of 10x3 and 5x5’s. It looks as though I’d benefit most from 10x5 due to the prevalence of fast twitch fibers as defined by the article; not much different from 10x3.

homer23,

I would look into CW’s ABBH program. One facet of it is that you start with 10X3 and progresses to 10X5.

I would hesitate to say that 10X3 is not much different than 10X5, it does represent a 67% increase in volume. The trick is finding the proper weight to begin with. If you start doing 10X3 with a weight that is your 5-6 rep max, say 80% of your 1 rep max…then 10X5 with that same weight will be quite a bit different.

Cheers,

Soup

Thanks Soup,

I did the ABBH when it was first posted a while back. I may end up going back to it in the future but just wanted to shake things up for a few weeks with something different. I thought GVT would be a step in that direction, but those high reps aren’t for my body type.