Shock your muscles: The fitness science behind German Volume Training and Hypertrophy

In the world of fitness training, there’s a school of thought that says that in order to grow your muscles, you need to first “shock” them. Shocking the muscle would mean to introduce a new and different kind of stimulus to the muscle, breaking the monotony with a sudden and possibly higher volume of training to induce hypertrophy.

The German Volume Training (GVT) technique was the thing that kickstarted this method of shock training and brought it into mainstream gyms. Trainers like the German Rolf Feser, Canadians Pierre Roy and Charles Poliquin, or the American Vince Gironga, have all created multiple routines that sound and feel extremely tough, but continue to be a success when it comes to training and conditioning athletes. 

I came across Poliquin’s 6-12-25 protocol training method, which led me down the rabbit hole of researching shock training and whether it is worth exploring to give the body a completely different challenge. But to understand any specific method like the 6-12-25, it is important to first understand GVT. 

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Pilonquin passed away in 2018, but an archived article he wrote on his website Strength Sensei, on GVT, gives an excellent understanding of what inspired his own methods. “It won’t help an Olympic weightlifter perform better in weightlifting, and the GVT shouldn’t use Olympic lifts in its exercise choice. It is, though, an excellent way of gaining lean mass for athletes,” he writes. He also says that just 12 weeks of doing the GVT could help lifters move up one full weight class, and cites the example of 1984 Olympic weightlifting silver medallist Jacques Demers. 

GVT’s methodology is simple but it can only work when you adopt it with a great degree of focus over at least eight weeks. The key is to do only four exercises per day and workout three times a week but with higher than usual volumes. 

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Take for example chest and back day. According to GVT, you would start off with flat dumbbell presses. Choose a weight with which is good for 20 reps to failure and then do 10 sets of 10 reps with that particular weight, increasing the weight by 5% whenever possible. That would be 100 reps. 

Alternate this exercise with a back exercise, say chin-ups, with the same formula. 10 sets of 10 reps. Pilonquin’s article suggests the next two exercises should be incline flies and cable rows to neck, done for three sets of 10-12 reps. The rest time between every individual exercise is 75-90 seconds. This is just one example of what a day of GVT can look like. 

Fitness website muscleandstrength.com has a few tips on whichever high volume training method you choose. One of them says the weight range to use is about 60% of your 1-rep max weight in that particular exercise. And that you shouldn’t be stingy about rest periods. 

“Resist the urge to lower your rest periods under the 60 second mark. Limiting rest like this will force you to decrease the load. For most exercises, a 60 second rest works best. Exercises like squat and deadlift are extremely taxing on your CNS (central nervous system), and may require 90-120 seconds of rest at most. Resting any longer between sets will severely reduce the anaerobic benefits of GVT,” the article states.

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Pilonquin’s 6-12-25 method is also quite easy to understand. It actually does have very short rest periods, but then, it incorporates fewer reps than a standard GVT. For the 6-12-25, athletes have to do 3-5 sets of three exercises. The first exercise should be a compound exercise like a back squat. He recommends six reps with a rest of only 10 seconds with what the heaviest load. This would vary from person to person so be careful what weight-range you choose. 

Exercise two will be of a moderate load and act as a supplement to the back squat, so possibly a Romanian deadlift or a leg extension machine for quads. This will be done for 12 reps a set with a rest time of only 10 seconds. The third exercise is with lighter loads, another exercise (e.g.: Bulgarian split squads) and is for 25 sets (REPS) with a rest time of three minutes between each set.

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One of the most detailed research papers on muscle hypertrophy was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2010. “Exercises should be varied in a multiplanar, multi angled fashion to ensure maximal stimulation of all muscle fibers. Multiple sets should be employed in the context of a split training routine to heighten the anabolic milieu. Concentric repetitions should be performed at fast to moderate speeds (1-3 seconds) while eccentric repetitions should be performed at slightly slower speeds (2-4 seconds). Training should be periodized so that the hypertrophy phase culminates in a brief period of higher-volume overreaching followed by a taper to allow for optimal supercompensation of muscle tissue,” states the study, titled The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training. It's quite clear that GVT broadly conforms to the science of strength building.

Whether you’re doing the conventional GVT or the 6-12-25 protocol or any other high volume muscle shock training, the keys of fitness remain the same. Choose the exercises cleverly, rest enough, and keep at it for a few weeks to see it work. 

Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator and writer.

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