The Off-season for GAA and other sports can be a great time to make some serious muscle mass gains but you need to do it the right way. This is a principle that we use a good bit of through the training we do here at Sphere. Practice what you preach and here with his own personal take on it is Sphere Fitness Maynooth coach, Karl Mahon. (Check out his blog at the bottom of the article)
The Basics
This is an old program created in Germany in the 70’s with the aim of adding serious mass all over the body. The program I will be talking about is based on one that was re-introduced a couple of years ago by Charles Poliquin.
The principles of the program is that it is designed to add mass more so than strength, however the sheer volume of compound exercises such as squatting and bench pressing can lead to an increase in maximal strength. You will lift 60% of your 1 rep max for a total of 10 sets of 10 reps.
The Training Week
The program works by utilising a 3 day split routine similar to bodybuilding:
Day 1: Chest & Back
Day 2: Legs & Abs
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Arms & Shoulders
Day 5: Off
Day 6: Off
Day 7 you can take it off and repeat again each week, or if you feel good then restart the cycle on the 7th day.
Key Pointers
Although you might think that training your chest or your legs once a week doesn’t sound like a whole lot, if you understand the principles of training and bulking then you will see that there is plenty of work here.
The amount of volume involved in this program will cause deep muscle soreness for the few days after a training session, and it is during this time that your body remains in an anabolic (muscle building) state.
When we train our muscles our bodies release growth hormone, and the larger the muscle, the more growth hormone is released. Hence, BIG SQUATS = BIG GAINS!
Don’t mind your bicep curls or cable pull downs, if you want to get big and lean then train the compound movements such as squats, deadlifts and bench.
For me, I find I feel a lot leaner and stronger all over after a couple of heavy squatting sessions.
Training for size is actually a lot simpler than people make it out to be and that is what I love about G.V.T. High rep squatting and high rep benching, along with one or two accessory exercises is all you need to pack on size, I will speak briefly about what to do on your off days to accommodate your mass gain, but this is predominantly a training article.
Take Homes
Here are my personal key points that I would like you to consider while doing this program:
- Time under tension (TUT)
- Stick to your rest periods
- Don’t force reps
- Fuel/Fuel/Fuel
Time under tension is the amount of time you spend under the weight. The longer you spend, the more your muscle must work, which will force it to grow. I recommend a four second eccentric (lowering) phase with a one second concentric (raising) phase e.g. in a squat the eccentric phase is when you move from standing upright to the bottom of the squat.
Stick to your rest periods; if it says rest for 60 seconds, rest for 60, if it says 90 then rest for 90. Hypertrophy (muscle building) training relies on the muscle being placed under stress for a significant period of time, so if you do one set of 10 reps and then take a 5 minute rest you are seriously diminishing your return and your results will suffer.
Don’t force reps, the weight should be controlled down and up the whole way through. If you are doing a bench press the bar should remain steady and your body tight and not look like a fish out of water.
Fuel/Fuel/Fuel: Please listen to this part if nothing else. When you train you release growth hormone, as you train harder you will release more. During this program your body should be in an anabolic state most of the time and it is during this window of opportunity that you must fuel your body sufficiently in order to maximise your results.
A few tips are stick to real natural foods, always more protein, at least 2.5g per kg of bodyweight a day, plenty of water and fibre, and don’t be afraid of a good high carb meal post training. For more nutritional info check out the Sphere blog.
Coach Karl Mahon is a coach at Sphere Fitness, Maynooth. You can read more about his training and thoughts on nutrition, training and lifestyle here
Find out how you can gain muscle mass for the GAA season by booking a call here
