The rivendell regimen

By Ryan Humphries
Co-Owner: Axistence

​When the fellowship set out from Rivendell on their quest to destroy the one ring, their fitness was paramount. While they did indeed require a certain level of strength, what they needed more than anything was strength endurance (the ability to move forward despite feeling tired).

While absolute strength is important (think testing your one-rep-max), you can't max out all year...and if you want your training to be sustainable AND you want to see results until your 111th birthday, you must have a little variation.

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Some cycles should be dedicated to lifting heavier weights (building absolute strength), while some cycles should be dedicated to lifting moderate weights for more reps (building muscle). Olympic Lifters and Powerlifters are examples of two groups who's focus is on building strength. Bodybuilders on the other hand, often focus only on building muscle. Realistically, most people need to do both.

Powerlifters are always going to be stronger than bodybuilders, but bodybuilders are always going to look like they can lift more. If you want to BE strong and LOOK strong too, your programming needs to have cycles dedicated to both.

There’s a large fitness organization that attempts to do this….and they even have their own “Games” where they crown the “Fittest on Earth”. Unfortunately I can’t say their name because they’ll sue me 🙂

Although on the surface, it may seem like they’re checking the boxes mentioned above, the issue with their style of programming is that it’s just too random. If you want to get stronger in a particular lift, or increase the amount of lean muscle in a particular area, you MUST train with a more regular pattern. While variation is great throughout the year, too much variation day to day won’t allow the proper stimulus to take place. 

OK, so back to this cycle!

If you know me then you know I love a good bastardization of an already pre-existing program. Once upon a time there was an amazing strength coach named Charles Poliquin (come to think of it, that would be a great name for a wizard). Poliquin The Wise, maybe?

Anyway, he popularized a form of training he called GVT (German Volume Training). Poliquin used GVT to build muscle in competitive lifters while on their off-season. It’s a ruthless regimen known for stimulating muscle growth, …and it’s anything but easy.

In its purest form, GVT uses compound movements like Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift, Leg Press, Pull-ups, etc. for 10 sets of 10 reps (using the weight you could do for 20 reps.) While this regimen may be ok for advanced lifters and competitors whose job is lifting weights….the volume is just too intense to allow for proper recovery.

What we CAN do however, is a hybrid version. In The Rivendell Regimen, we’re going to test two main lifts (The Front Squat & The Bench Press). However, instead of doing 100 reps per session, we'll use between 40-50. 

Once we’ve tested our maxes (17-22 for both the Squat and the Bench Press), we’ll use those weights throughout the cycle to train with 3-6 sets of 5-10 reps. Fun fact, for most folks, it works out to about 60-65% of their 1RM.

Using these numbers, we’ll be able to accumulate a high volume of TOTAL reps, stimulating muscle growth and strength endurance. This will be a higher volume than most students are used to, but it's still nowhere near the 100 reps that Poliquin was using. We ran this cycle first in 2024 with great success and we've also made some improvements.

Make no mistake, taking the ring to Mordor will be no easy task, but the world will be a better place...