A few days ago was the start of the 30day cyclone challenge, or at least mine. I think everyone else is now starting on Monday.
What’s the Cyclone Challenge?
At the moment, my sponsors Maximuscle have teamed up with GNC and Holland and Barrett to offer consumers 3 tubs of Cyclone (Maximuscle’s all in one strength and size builder) for £90. There’s also some sort of money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied, but I’m not sure of the in and outs of that so check in stores. The idea is that you’ll definitely add size and/or stretch over the 30days if you fully follow the plan: food, training and supplements.
When Maximuscle asked me if I was interested in doing the challenge, they asked what sort of training programme I’d recommend. I immediately suggested GVT (German Volume Training) not just because its been shown to add considerable size and strength over 4-6weeks to both trained and untrained individuals alike, but also because its simple. There are literally only a handful of exercises to know/utilise.
As I said, Thursday was my first official day of the challenge, and as such I carefully selected my starting weights. As I always advise with GVT, it’s worth being conservative with your weight selection at the beginning, especially if you are going to keep to the 4010 suggested tempo (4 second lower, 1 second raise and no pause at the top or bottom) and keep to the idea that you’ll up the weight (or at least should try to) to the next available option (or around 4% increase) each time or failing that after two rotations with a weight. So, yesterday I did my 10 sets of 10reps 4010 chin-ups, followed by 10sets 10reps incline dumbbell press.
For those of you that don’t know, GVT takes the following rotation:
- Day 1: chest/back
- Day 2: legs/core
- Day 3: rest/active rest (CV/core)
- Day 4: arms/shoulders
- Day 5: rest/active rest (CV/core)
Check the Maximuscle website or my other articles for the full programme.
This means, that every 6 days it repeats and I’ll be doing yesterday’s chin-ups and DB press again. Over 30 days I’ll get 5 rotations in, so by my last rotation, I may be up by 10kg for my 10sets of 10reps 4010 – a significant jump from my start. At least that’s the plan…lets see what happens, day 1 was tough enough!
Today is legs, so I’ll be doing 10sets of 10reps for squats, then leg curl. Again, I’ve selected a sensible starting weight and I’ll only keep increasing the weight each session if I can properly complete 10sets of 10reps 4010. If I’m taking longer rests, needing someone to make me complete the 10reps with forced reps, or needing a significant spot, I won’t go up the next time. As I always say, form over ego.
To reiterate: GVT doesn’t work if you are struggling with the weight, if you need spotting, or perform forced reps, so be conservative. It’s better to go lighter, get good form and use the correct tempo, than to go heavy and fail to do 10sets of 10reps which is the whole point of the GVT training system. Stick to the plan and GVT will help you surpass previous bests.
I’m going to be blogging as much as I can: both written and video. Check out the Maximuscle website, Youtube and of course my Vimeo, YouTube and website. So if you are interested in helpful tips and advice, you know where to find me!
