Periodisation Training Explained

What is Periodisation Training?

Periodisation is simply the catch all term for all training systems that cycle various aspects of training throughout monthly or yearly schedules. Periodisation is recognizing that the body can’t train everything well at once, so attempts to break it down into ‘waves’, ‘cycles’ or ‘sub-programmes’.

Where does it come from?

When training athletes or bodybuilders and coaches finally realised that it was too difficult to train everything the same way all the time without changing. The body adapts, stresses vary, time factors and competitions intercede. Building a cycle of training allows emphasis over stagnation.

What are the main kinds of periodisation?

There are 3 commonly held forms of organising periodisation.

Linear Periodisation:

Pretty much how it sounds! Linear periodisation is the earliest and simplest form of periodising your training. It generally means concentrating almost solely on one motor ability per phase. Muscular endurance followed by hypertrophy followed by strength followed by speed etc in a long linear progression.

Undulating Periodisation:

Undulating or ‘wave-form’ periodisation refers to any scheme where you change up a set of protocols to mildly emphasize one area of training. For example you might have a bodybuilder choosing to vary rep and set schemes of 8 x 3, 4 x 6 and 6 x 4 over a set of workouts. This offers different emphasis and would be considered a traditional example of an undulating periodisation.

Conjugate Periodisation:

Popularised by the Russian strength coaches of the 50’s conjugate means overlapping areas of periodised training to build interlocked areas of strength, speed, fitness, size, stamina. It seeks to overcome the inherent weaknesses in a linear progression, where areas can become neglected during all out emphasis on one motor ability. The type of choices can vary between all these factors depending on your goals but you would likely see areas of size and strength gain moving into specific speed strength gain and other overlaps depending upon the sport or pursuit.

All these forms of periodisation can be used to design your own training programmes and many coaches rely on this basic and fundamental idea to build some of the most impressive bodies and performers in sport and fitness.

Key Features (or how to spot a periodisation programme)

1. Consistently and frequently changing different parameters of the training protocols.

2. Considers all aspects of physique development important from fat loss to muscle gains to explosive strength to conditioning and performance.

3. Programmes generally run to multiple month duration, often a year or so, with a fixed end result in sight.

4. No area of flexibility, recovery, injury prevention, core stability etc is ignored over the course of the long term programme, but each area may receive more emphasis in one wave than another.

5. Builds in the understanding that human bodies need to develop other areas of motor ability to enhance the primary goal.

Possible Advantages

1. Maximal recovery developed.

2. Maximal progress in each given area developed at time due to full attention being placed on one aspect at a time.

3. Interest remains very high with frequently changing schedules and workouts.

4. Motivation and retention to the program remain high as usually a large time period has been planned out to stick to.

5. Risk of injury is reduced due to variations in loading parameters as opposed to training heavy at all times.

Possible Disadvantages

1. While dedicating time to one aspect of training others may become drawn down and neglected.

2. Time Consuming periods of high volume training, reflected alternatively with very hard periods of very intense difficult training.

3. Risk of losing confidence and esteem when, and if, things do not go according to the yearly plan, causing disruptions and slowed progress.

4. 100% dedication to training a must.

5. Confidence in training theory required to assemble a sensible and efficient periodised routine.

Should I be using periodised training?

If you want to build the most all round best performance body available to your genetics some form of periodisation will undoubtedly form the bedrock of your training scheme. Unless you have unshakeable genetics, never become injured or are jacked up on massive doses of steroids, you will not simply be able to train ‘instinctively’ and the same way for endless periods of time and still see results. Of course beginners to resistance training will likely see results even from a greatly unvarying form of training for several months as their bodies will react to the stimulus with increased growth and improvement, but this period of grace will not last long.

Training Progression variables

Progression is an important part of periodisation as it is in almost all training methods. The most common and obvious form of progression and one which is often emphasized by training protocols such as HIT or more basic methods is Progressive weight lifted. Simply put – each workout, add a little more weight to the bar. This is a relatively simple and straight forward way of calculating progression. You can measure it and see results. However, it is not the only progression method and it does not take into account the varying protocols that periodisation is allowing you to specialise in throughout the waves and cycles. Here are some examples of the ways you can introduce progression into a periodised programme.

Rep progression:

Simply add a rep onto the same exercise performed in the previous workout. The weight may be the same but an extra rep massively increases the workload completed. This tends to conform to hypertrophy (muscle size growth) training.

Set progression:

Simply add another entire set of the same movement you performed in the previous workout. This will greatly increase the volume of a workout and again is geared somewhat more to hypertrophy phases in periodisation.

Rest progression:

Decrease the time taken between sets and exercises. If you normally take 60 seconds rest between sets, reduce this to 55 seconds next time. This type of progression involves no greater workout load but does lend itself to hormonal changes that are useful for fat loss and conditioning, especially useful in speed or strength-endurance sports or competitive athletes who are up against the clock.

Speed progression:

Decrease the actual time taken to lift the weights in the set. In other words time each set, and steadily lift the weights in a more and more explosive yet controlled manner in order to complete the set in less and less time. This is especially geared towards explosive strength athletes who require bursts of speed and power at various peaks.

Weight progression:

The original and most obvious marker of improvement, lift more weight. It is important to almost all athletes to be able to lift, push or pull more at some stage, although overall strength levels may not be the prime requirement. Higher strength usually means the ability to recruit more muscle and build more in the long run, so although not the be all and end all of training parameters, its place is alongside those mentioned above.

All of these methods can be used within the confines of a periodised training scheme.

As well as variations in the actual schemes used it is also important to remember the following variations will be introduced during a periodisation format to focus on various motor abilities.

Exercise selection:

Power and strength athletes will likely build their most common phases around core lifts such as squats, dead lifts, bench presses and the Olympic lifts such as Clean and jerk etc. Speed athletes may be using more close functional exercises such as single dumbbell variations to highlight core balance and agility. Periodisation will generally focus on all these areas at one point, depending upon your goals. But the important of exercise selection can greatly alter the success of a particular cycle.

Number of exercises:

Total volume of work may have a major bearing on your training but this can also vary depending on whether you choose to dedicate all your sets to one big exercise or break it down into a variety of multi-discipline ones to alternate developmental stressors. Generally when aiming for sheer strength time can be dedicated to the most productive lift, when looking at conditioning or flexibility a variety of exercises can have focus spread across them.

Exercise placement:

There is often the simple piece of wisdom that an exercise done earlier in a workout will get more stimulus than one done at the end as fatigue sets in. But it is also important to remember that the nervous system needs stimulation to fire up to its maximum contractive ability and the very first sets may not be as powerful as later ones. So it is important to understand and vary the placement of your exercises in a routine. Periodisation may mean that different muscle groups are hit first at different times. This also includes advanced techniques such as pre-exhaustion methods and drop-down or pyramid sets, as well as A/B supersets (one exercise paired with another)

Intensity:

Intensity is a complex word in resistance training. Some people use it to refer to the scientific principle of total work contained within a workout, as effectively a measure of how much you did overall. Others use it to refer to the amount of sheer effort applied to a set or lift or individual rep. The first is rather simple and comes under the remit of the other principles you can vary in a scheme. The second is hard to judge and that’s the problem. What may ‘feel’ like your hardest effort one day may have been ‘easy’ on another. Just because it hurts like hell doesn’t mean you completed more work than another day when you cruised it. Of course, more and more people continue to argue about the manner in which intensity affects results. Generally certain kinds of training within a periodisation may require you to ‘back-off’ and allow super-compensation after a period of very heavy intense work. It’s important to know what full maximal contraction feels like so you can do the opposite when needed. In this way, it’s generally agreed that intensity should include lifting fast and attempting to engage as much muscle fibre as possible during a lift.

Designing a periodisation programme

There are literally thousands of training progressions that use periodisation to plan them out and these may vary depending on whether overall shape and fitness are at stake or you are aiming for a competitive date or are trying to improve in a sport. Olympic sprinters may well have very different goals than a stage bound bodybuilder. Footballers different needs than a strongman competitor but the one thing most have in common is that neglecting one area of motor ability may compromise another in the long run.

When designing your own periodisation schemes its important to remember you don’t need to see years into the future but you are going to be looking a little further ahead than many training programmes and you are going to have to do a little more planning than simply showing up at a gym and making it up as you go along.

For simplicity choose 1 year as your overall periodisation time scale. This can then be broken down into 12 month cycles each with an overall goal. A one month cycle is a good block as many trainers notice they begin to stagnate in one scheme after more than 6-8 weeks. This is a contentious issue and not every trainer will agree with it, particularly proponents of schemes such as HIT etc but periodisation tends to lean to this statement as part of its groundwork.

This set of goals generally applies to most weight trainers and all round fitness enthusiasts rather than choosing one very specific sporting discipline but the principles remain the same overall.

For each month block you can choose one of the following goals.

Goal 1: Increase overall muscle mass (hypertrophy)

This is the general requirement to have bigger muscles, which is a combination of improved strength, explosive power, speed and rep-endurance mixed with recovery.

Methods: Rep and set progressions which increase volume are the most profound methods to see overall size development.

Goal 2: Increase or maintain muscle mass but improve conditioning and lose fat

This is often a requirement for bodybuilders and models who need to maintain a certain physique visually.

Methods: Set and rest progressions which keep necessary volume but increase overall calorie output and hormonal changes needed to lose fat.

Goal 3: Increase speed strength and improve conditioning and lose fat

An area that will affect most competitive athletes who need to improve body composition whilst getting faster and stronger and safer from injury.

Methods: Speed and rest progressions are the most powerful tools for mastering explosive speed and strength of neural recruitment whilst improving overall body health and losing fat.

Goal 4: Increase maximal strength and muscle power

Anyone who wants to lift big, hit big or excel in any competitive environment where power is essential, from powerlifters to martial arts.

Methods: Speed and set progressions mirror a blend of sheer explosive potential but with the ability rapidly grow and develop new functional weight.

Goal 5: Increase flexibility, max strength but with minimal size change

A useful goal for those who wish to refine and injury proof a hard worked body, add new skills or for those such as boxers and wrestlers who wish to become faster and stronger without changing weight class. Also useful to if moving between different types of sport or competition.

Methods: Load and speed progressions. A mixture of increasing weight trains neural recruitment and power without much additional volume so size changes and exhaustion are less likely. Speed progressions allow concentration on agility and explosiveness without wearing you out or promoting overuse injuries.

These goals can be applied to each month and a variety of protocols used in each one. In linear periodisation you would choose 2 months or so of each goal and stick to them. In undulating you might have a beginning, middle and end phase of hypertrophy but with waves of strength and conditioning training in-between. In conjugate periodisation you would often choose two goals and blend them over several months, carefully backing off at the end of each section.

Periodisation can be applied to include many other training programmes and schemes and is best thought of as a way of organising your long term training towards an eventual goal of improved performance or hitting a peak on a particular date.