Big Man Training (BMT) was the name of the program the strength and conditioning coach at my first professional rugby club put me on when they needed to add some size on my frame as fast as possible. It worked.

In fact, it was the first training program to put any significant muscle on my frame. Up until that point, the standard 3x10 and 5x5 programs I’d followed had failed miserably. To this day I still revisit BMT with clients that need a plateau busting mass gain routine.

Big Man Training Is German Volume Training with a Twist

BMT has a few striking similarities with German Volume Training (GVT). Firstly, it is a high-volume routine with a total repetition target of 100 reps per exercise. Secondly, it revolved around big compound lifts. A typical session, back in my rugby playing days revolved around lifts like squats, bent over rows, bench presses, and military presses.

While GVT requires you to hit 100 total reps following a 10x10 set and rep scheme, BMT takes a slightly different and, in my opinion, superior approach. The framework is 100 reps total and is as follows:

• Set 1 – 20 reps
• Set 2 – 20 reps
• Set 3 – 15 reps
• Set 4 – 15 reps
• Set 5 – 10 reps
• Set 6 – 10 reps
• Set 7 – 10 reps

Why BMT Superior to GVT?

GVT is undoubtedly a highly effective program. It has helped thousands of guys build muscle. It does, however, have some drawbacks from both a physical and psychological perspective. BMT addresses these issues while still delivering a potent, high volume growth stimulus.

With GVT you generally use about 60% of your 1-rep max for your sets. This equates to about your 20-rep max. You use this weight for all your sets. As a result, the first 3-4 sets are pretty easy. Fatigue gradually accumulates, and the sets get hard—really fricking hard! From about set 7 on it is a truly brutal workout. The problem is that many of those early sets really didn’t provide much of a growth stimulus.

Ensure Effective Reps

I have written on this topic before. Some reps are more effective than others when it comes to hypertrophy. In general, the magnitude of muscle building effect from repetition is higher as you approach failure. This doesn’t mean reps a long way from failure are a complete waste, but they are not as powerful a growth stimulus on a rep by rep basis.

Research seems to indicate that being further than 4 reps from failure is a bad idea when training for size. You get a bit of fatigue, some joint wear, and tear, but little muscle building stimulus. This makes sets more than 4 reps from failure a really bad return on investment if maximum muscle is your goal.

Given you are stopping set 1 in a GVT session about 10 reps shy of failure then, it is providing no real muscle building effect. All it really does is create some fatigue which gradually accumulates until the sets get hard enough to be effective muscle builders. In a GVT session, this is usually around 5 sets in. So, of your 10 total sets, only 5 of them are truly efficient muscle builders.

With BMT, every set is a muscle builder. Like GVT you use about 60% of 1RM. The difference is that this means you are hitting, or getting close to failure, on every set. As fatigue accumulates, the repetitions required reduce to match this and ensure that every set provides a potent hypertrophic effect.

It Can Get Boring

As I mentioned earlier, GVT does work. That is as long as you don’t die of boredom! The most common complaint I hear from people doing GVT is that it is mind-numbingly boring. Doing 10x10 on the same exercise with the same weight isn’t very exciting. Sure, it can be effective, but if you are not excited and motivated to push yourself then you will get sub-par results. This is a universal truth of training. Even the most scientifically “perfect” program will be ineffective without the required motivation and effort needed to yield results.

BMT solves this issue. Every set is a challenge so you have to stay focused. The three different repetition ranges work fantastically well to keep you motivated. The simple change in reps helps. Also, as you are grinding out reps towards the end of your second 20-rep set, you know you will get the reward of dropping down to 15 reps for the next set. Likewise, as your muscles are burning towards the end of set four, you can console yourself with the fact that you “only” have to gut out 3x10 afterward.

Maximizing the Benefits of BMT

BMT is a highly effective muscle building plan, period. But, to get the most bang for your buck I think where you place it within your periodized plan can magnify your results. I have found it to work best when placed after a period of more traditional bodybuilding work. It provides a novel and extremely effective stimulus after a sustained period of work in the 6-12 rep range.

Reverse linear periodization where intensity (as a percent of 1RM) reduces, but volume (sets x reps x load) increases over subsequent phases is an excellent periodization scheme for hypertrophy. As such, I suggest you utilize BMT as the final higher rep, higher volume phase in a bulking cycle. For example:

• Phase 1 (4-6 weeks): 3x6-10
• Phase 2 (4-6 weeks): 4x10-12
• Phase 3 (4-6 weeks): BMT
• Phase 4 (4-6weeks): A strength focused block (e.g., 5x5)

When your training is set up in this manner, each phase builds on the last to potentiate your results. As the body adapts, you provide a new, slightly different stimulus. Each phase increases training volume (a key driver of hypertrophy) which provides a continuous growth stimulus.

Then, by the end of the BMT phase when your body is becoming accustomed to high training volumes, you switch to a lower volume strength phase to allow your body to “re-sensitize” to high volumes and develop higher strength levels. The increased strength levels then, mean you can handle heavier weights in subsequent bodybuilding style bulking phases.

Exercise Selection for BMT

As with GVT, I am a proponent of using multi-joint exercises as the foundation of your training. However, I don’t think this should be exclusively limited to barbell exercises. For high rep leg training especially, I am a fan of utilizing machine based compound lifts for BMT.

For example, 20-rep deadlifts are not a good idea. The same can be said of back squats for the vast majority of lifters. So, to train the quads and hamstrings I prefer using machine hack squats and leg curls.

For the upper body, high rep barbell rowing can often get pretty ugly, too. The lower back fatigue tends to compromise form and increase injury risk. As a result, chest supported machine rows are my preference. As for pull-ups/chin-ups, I haven’t met anyone who can hit the BMT sets/rep scheme with sustained good form. For this reason, I use pulldown variations instead.

Getting the Best of Both

Compound barbell lifts are phenomenal muscle builders. So, over the years I have refined the BMT workout structure to get the best of both. I achieve this by programming squat and deadlift variations first with a rep scheme best suited to the specific lift. Then follow this with BMT on machine-based compound lifts for the legs to get an optimal muscle building workout in. In practice, this plays out in the following fashion:

Work up to 6RM on a barbell compound lift (think of this as your strength performance indicator lift). Then, do accessory work for the muscle groups using the BMT set/rep structure.

An example BMT session:

1. Front Squat - Work up to 6RM
2. Hack Squat - BMT
3. Lying Leg Curls - BMT
4. Calf Raises - BMT

By the time we have reached the age of thirty, the muscles used to straighten our spines (erector spinae) and keep our shoulders from falling forward (trapezius and rhomboids), have atrophied in the majority of North Americans largely due to a culture that avoids squatting at all costs. From living a prosperous, sedentary lifestyle, shoulder and back pain are now common in our modern society which rewards us with paychecks for sitting at desks; keeping our arms out in front of us; work that involves mental rather than physical effort; and staring in front of computers for hours each day. Our twenty-first-century economy offers plenty of emotional, but not a lot of physical exhaustion on a daily basis—an unintended consequence of living in affluence.

The 10 Important Reasons to Squat

1. Squats Correct Body Position

Muscles that hold our spines straight can be developed by putting enough weight on our backs for our erector muscles to strengthen naturally. So many of us continue “going to the gym,” doing presses and pull-ups thinking that because we are in the accurate position for those particular exercises, our bodies are in the correct position—not true. Those exercises do increase muscle mass but are counterintuitive by creating muscle imbalance.

2. Squats Create a Boost in Human Growth Hormone (HGH) 

When we start lifting heavier weights through squats, our large muscles exert tremendous effort which causes damage that must be repaired. As a result, our pituitary glands release natural human growth hormones (HGH) in order for us to mend. HGH doesn’t just heal muscles; it stimulates bone strength, fat loss, increases energy, stabilizes mood, cell reproduction, and regeneration. The synthetic form of HGH was created in the 1980s and approved by the FDA.  However, squatting releases these amazing hormones naturally.

3. Squats Burn Fat

Performing cardio will burn fat for up to two hours after completing our workouts. When we squat with weights, we will burn fat for 18 hours or more after we leave the gym. Because the largest muscles burn the most calories, high repetition strength training creates what is known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which is a term used for the length of time our metabolism elevates after exercise. If you want to build or maintain muscle while losing weight, squats is your answer.

4. Squats Slow the Signs of Aging

Squats increase the production of collagen, giving us a tightly toned appearance. An added benefit, by increasing our cardiovascular rate and blood flow, more nutrients are delivered to the skin cells all over our faces and bodies, which slows the typical signs of aging. Collagen’s main function is to sustain tendons, skin, and cartilage thus providing integrity, and elasticity for our infrastructure, reducing wrinkles and fine lines.

5. Squats Prevent Osteoporosis 

Squats improve bone density in our hips and spine. Bone health and strength prevent injuries.  There are no warning signs before a first bone break. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you don’t need to be concerned with osteoporosis until you are over the age of 40. Promoting bone density at every age is essential.

6. Squats Reverse the Effects of Imbalances

Bones are held together by ligaments. Ligaments attach muscles to the bones.  Unless we have strong muscles holding our bones in place, they will continue to move, causing pain. Squatting is the perfect symmetrical exercise, allowing the body to build the large muscle and ligament strength necessary to eliminate pain. If you are like me, you go to a chiropractor. He or she pops bones back into place, but two weeks later, the pain returns. Why? Because we haven’t created the infrastructure to hold these bones in place naturally, one of the best ways to solve this issue is to load the body in a symmetrical way, which is squatting. I love my chiropractor, but I don’t want to have to see him or her every week to get pain relief.

7. Squats Strengthen Knees

Squats build the muscles (vastus medialis quadricep) that stabilize and protect the knee.  Don’t buy into the myth that squatting is bad for knees. Done correctly, squatting is an excellent way to protect and support your knees. Like many of you, I bought into the myth spread by American culture that squatting is bad for my knees. My medical doctor told me I had chronic tendonitis and degeneration in my knees. 

“So, what can I do about that?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s part of getting older. Eventually, you will have to have a new set of knees.” 

Because I didn’t know any better, I accepted that answer. Then I started squatting. I noticed a little bit of new muscle growth above my knees after the first week of squats. More growth after the next week, more, and then a little more. Now I have big teardrops (Vastus Medialis Quadricep) around my knees, and they are very stable, far more stable than when I was in my teens, and throughout my years of competition in Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, and Grappling. Even if you have degeneration in your knees, squats will assist you in protecting what you still have for a longer period of time.

8. Squats Can Eliminate Chronic Pain

Finding our personal strength balance through squats is the answer to eliminating pain. The strength of our rhomboids and erector spinae muscles must match the strength of our pectorals to be pain-free. Popular American weightlifting culture has evolved into an exercise of sculpting rather than balancing our muscles. We tend to constantly build muscles that show off our 6-packs while neglecting muscles that are doing the important work of holding our infrastructure in the correct position.

9. Squats Increase Flexibility

Squats increase flexibility in the hips, thoracis spine, shoulders, knees, and ankles. Flexible joints require less energy to move through a greater range of motion decreasing our overall risk of injury while increasing physical performance. This is a fancy way of saying that anything we do physically becomes easier.

10. Squats Increase Your Mind, Body, and Spirit Connection 

Just as the rhomboid and pectoral muscles must be balanced in strength to be pain-free, the spirit, mind, and body must be balanced to achieve physical goals. 

Please, Squat

Some days you are in so much pain that you may only be able to lift the bar. In life, 100% effort may just be getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other to get through the day. Emotional pain is as debilitating as physical pain. The approach is the same. Face it. Feel it.

Give 100% max effort, whatever that is for you, on any given day. Be proud of your accomplishments. Do it again tomorrow. The results will be incremental 1% gains adding up over time.