Skip to main content

Staggered Volume Training

Staggered Volume Training

     This little gem was designed by an exercise physiologist named Douglas Christ over a decade ago.  He claimed—and probably still does—that it’s the best program for maximizing growth hormone release.  I wasn’t sure about that claim when he first made it, and I’m still not sold.  However, what I do know is that it’s an excellent way to pack on some muscle mass when stuck in a rut, particularly when you have been pounding away at more heavy duty, low rep style routines.

     Here are the three factors to making this program work:

  1. Always perform full-body workouts 3 days a week.
  2. Pick one exercise for each bodypart.  The exercises selected should be “bang-for-your-buck” ones—exercises that work a lot of muscle groups at once.
  3. Perform a high volume of work.  Depending on your fitness and strength level, you want to perform 8 to 12 exercises for 12 to 16 reps each.  Also—and here’s the kicker—perform all sets in “jump-set” fashion, alternating exercises for antagonistic bodyparts after 4 sets have been performed on a particular exercise.  For instance, after you have done 4 sets for your chest, do 4 sets for your back, then go back to 4 sets for your chest, and continue in this manner until all prescribed sets have been performed for the exercise.

     Okay, here’s what 2 programs look like.  The first one is for beginners—or anyone not conditioned to full-body workouts—and the second one is an advanced program.

Beginning Staggered Volume Training

 Perform the following program 3 non-consecutive days a week

  • Leg Presses – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Lying Leg Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Leg Presses – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Lying Leg Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Incline Bench Presses – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Wide Grip Chins – 4 sets of maximum number of reps
  • Incline Bench Presses – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Wide Grip Chins – 4 sets of maximum number of reps
  • Barbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Bench Dips – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Barbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Bench Dips – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Lateral Raises – 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps
  • Incline Sit-Ups – 4 sets of 20 to 30 reps

     Here are a few more pointers to get the most out of this program: 1. Don’t approach muscular failure except on the last rep of the last set of each exercise.  2. Use approximately 50-60% of your one-rep maximum—this should keep the intensity at the right level.  3. Take at least 1 minute between sets; any less and you will become too fatigued.  Don’t take more than 2 and a ½ minutes between sets; any more and you won’t be working your muscles hard enough.

Advanced Staggered Volume Training

     This program is for those of you who are already at a high level of strength and muscle development or it can be used after training on the beginning program for a couple of months.

Monday and Friday

  • Squats – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Stiff-Legged Deadlifts – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Squats – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Stiff-Legged Deadlifts – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Squats – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Stiff-Legged Deadlifts – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Incline Barbell Bench Presses – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Wide Grip Chins or Lat Pulldowns – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Incline Barbell Bench Presses – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Wide Grip Chins or Lat Pulldowns – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Incline Barbell Bench Presses – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Wide Grip Chins or Lat Pulldowns – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Barbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Barbell Curls – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Standing Overhead Presses – 4 sets of 12 reps
  • Hanging Leg Raises – 4 sets of 20 to 30 reps

Wednesday

  • Leg Extensions – 4 sets of 20 reps
  • Lying Leg Curls – 4 sets of 20 reps
  • Leg Extensions – 4 sets of 20 reps
  • Lying Leg Curls – 4 sets of 20 reps
  • Flat Dumbbell Bench Presses – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Bent-Over Rows – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Flat Dumbbell Bench Presses – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Bent-Over Rows – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Dumbbell Curls – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Skullcrushers – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Dumbbell Curls – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Skullcrushers – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Dumbbell Curls – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Skullcrushers – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Seated Overhead Dumbbell Presses – 4 sets of 16 reps
  • Incline Sit-Ups – 4 sets of 20 to 30 reps
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to leave us some feedback on the article or any topics you would like us to cover in the future! Much Appreciated!

Popular posts from this blog

The 1-5 Program

Develop Mass and Power with This Unique Wave Loading Method      In my recent article “ Skill Training as Size Building ,” I introduced the concept (on the blog, at least) of the “90% rule.”  I believe it’s one of the most effective ways to make consistent gains in the gym, whether you’re after strength, strength with a size side-effect, or hypertrophy alone.  Basically, the method involves doing the majority of your sets in a workout with 90% of a certain rep range.  This doesn’t mean 90%, necessarily, of your 1-rep max, though it most certainly would if you were to do multiple sets of singles—as we will be doing in this program.      In our previous article, the workout programs I suggested utilized 90% of one’s 5-rep max and 90% of a 10-rep maximum using “cluster sets.”  If you want to know more about what those programs look like, then, please, read that article.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt, if you haven’t done s...
Post a Comment
Read more

High-Frequency Grease-the-Groove Training - The Intuitive Approach

     In my essay “ Basic Lifting, Instinctive Training ,” I mentioned the approach to training that—in the words of the great Bradley Steiner—the “mature muscle man” should take.  Steiner recommended that the seasoned lifter should know beforehand what exercises he would do in a workout, and what days he would train, but not use a pre-determined number of sets and reps for the workout.  Rather, you should let how you feel once you begin your workout decide what you do in the training session.      And, in my recent article “ Skill Training as Size Building ,” I wrote about the training perspective of approaching your lifting sessions as a skill to be developed rather than a “war” to be waged against your muscles—or a “battle” or an “onslaught” or whatever pseudo-military campaign term that modern bodybuilders like to use when discussing muscle-group training.  I also suggested that one of the best ways to do this is to uti...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

  The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan  magazine.      In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.”  I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time .  In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...
Post a Comment
Read more