German volume training (GVT) is an intense exercise program that builds the muscle mass and strength necessary for weightlifters to move beyond personal plateaus.

It’s sometimes called the 10-sets method. The training program involves high numbers of sets and repetitions with short resting periods in between. GVT stresses your muscles, which respond by triggering muscle growth. This training method helps bodybuilders and weightlifters build strength, increase muscle size, and develop lean body weight.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Promote muscle growth
• Build muscular strength
• Builds a lean looking body
• Boosts mood and mental health
• Can promote weight loss
• Good for motivation
• Good for fast-twitch muscle fibre recruitment

MISS, or Moderate-Intensity, Steady-State, is a similar form of cardio to LISS, but with increased speed and effort. For example, if your LISS cardio is walking at a fast pace, MISS would be a jog. At the beginning of MISS, your heart rate should be around 65-75% of your maximum heart rate, but as the time goes on, your heart rate should increase to around 75-80/85% of your maximum heart rate and stay there.

Your heart rate will get this high not because you are exercising at a fast speed like you would in HIIT, but because you are exercising at a continuously steady pace.

Doing this cardio for 30-45 minutes helps increase your overall cardiovascular endurance and gives you the base to perform HIIT and sprints more effectively.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Reduced risk of injury
• Exercise may feel more enjoyable
• Helps to prepare you for the tougher sessions
• Helps you to sleep better
• Improves blood / sugar levels

Circuit training is a style of workout performed with different stations or exercises at a usually high intensity with little rest between each station or exercise.

Circuit training is a form of body conditioning that involves endurance training, resistance training, high-intensity aerobics, and exercises performed in a circuit, like high-intensity interval training. It targets strength building and muscular endurance.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Improves muscular endurance
• Improves fitness and heart health
• Offers a full body workout
• It’s time efficient – can do strength and cardio in one session
• Can promote weight loss
• Good for motivation
• Good for all levels

Sets and reps are the terms used to describe the number of times you perform an exercise. A rep is the number of times you perform a specific exercise, and a set is the number of cycles of reps that you complete. For example, suppose you complete 15 reps of a bench press, that equals 1 set.

No matter how many reps you’re completing per set, most fitness experts recommend performing between two and six sets for each exercise. Although even 1 set work, pushed to the right level has shown to be beneficial if time is an issue.

STRENGTH TRAINING POINTS

Gym lore says that rep range determines whether you’ll build strength, muscle, or endurance. However, load, speed, and “time under tension” are actually more important than the number of reps.

Your body reacts best to what’s new, so it’s worth employing various training styles.
Of course, the rep range you choose requires scaling your weights: You can lift heavier weights if you’re doing fewer reps.

Whilst rep ranges are a useful guide, we must keep in mind that training our bodies is a physiological process that relies on adapting to a specific stress. It is the quantity and quality of that stressor, and subsequent recovery, that determines progress, rather than a specific number of repetitions.

So, the quality of the exercise, the weight you are lifting and hitting that failure feeling is most important. For beginners lifting a big weight and hitting 6 reps may be daunting but doing a lighter weight for 20 reps is more manageable.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Makes your body stronger (not bigger)
• Burns calories + speeds up the metabolism
• Decreases body fat %
• Decreases your risk of falls + improves co-ordination
• Lowers your risk of injuries
• Improves heart health / lowers blood pressure
• Strengthens bones
• Boosts your mood and improves brain health

8 sets of 8 is a high volume, fast tempo, size building workout. It is not designed for strength development – it’s purely for bodybuilding or “cosmetic” improvements. 8 sets of 8 will also help you get leaner.

The short rest intervals stress the cardiovascular system to the point where calories are burned, the metabolism is stimulated, hormones are stirred up and fat is melted away.

Here’s how it works: You will select three or four exercises per muscle group and perform 8 sets of 8 on each exercise. That’s 24 to 32 sets per body part. You will work two or three muscle groups per session and rest only 15 to 30 seconds between sets.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Improve cardiovascular performance
• Promote a lean body
• Can be time efficient
• Boosts mood and mental health
• Can promote weight loss
• Good for motivation
• Effective for burning calories and building size

Developed by Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Tabata is based on timed interval method.

Tabata is a type of HIIT workout that aims to yield the most benefits in a short amount of time. For each exercise, you do eight rounds of 20 seconds of maximal strenuous exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest x 8 cycles through.

This equates to a 4-minute workout. This can be done with just one exercise i.e., burpees OR combined with a few different exercises to make a ‘Tabata Circuit’.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Improves fitness
• Maximum results in minimal timeframe
• EPOC effect – ‘afterburn’ so the body continues to burn calories after the session
• Good fat burner
• Convenient and flexible sessions – you can perform a Tabata workout anywhere doing any exercise
• Increased anaerobic and aerobic fitness

Giant sets are doing 4 or more exercises back-to-back with no break. During these sets you can either pair exercises that are non-competing, in other words opposing muscle groups, or you can target the same muscle.

For example, you might do an overhead press, a lateral raise, a rear-delt raise and an upright row for shoulders — then rest a few minutes to catch your breath and repeat.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Improve muscular endurance and cardiovascular performance
• Increase athletic performance
• Can be time efficient
• Boosts mood and mental health
• Can promote weight loss
• Good for motivation
• Effective for burning calories and building strength