Ladies and Gentlemen, last week I wrote a blog about “overtraining” and exercise becoming an addiction.  It wasn’t my intention to scare any of you away from exercising and reaching toward your fitness goals.  It was simply to inform you of the potential harm you can do to your health when the appropriate measures are not being taken.  There are so many styles of training and lately it seems that someone is always coming up with something new and innovative in the fitness industry to make workouts less mundane and to help inspire the uninspired.  Well, today I’m not going to talk about anything new, as a matter of fact, I am going to do the exact opposite of that and tell all of you about something that has been around for years.  I am talking about “PERIODIZATION!”

Periodization is exactly what it sounds like.  It’s simply taking workouts and organizing them into, well, periods.  OK, so its not that simple but it is relatively easy yet, does take some planning.  Most times when you see an athlete, usually of college status or higher, this will likely be the type of program he or she is on.  However, you do not have to be an athlete to train this way.

Now, I should tell you that periodization is broken up into periods (or cycles).  The cycles go as follows: micro-cycles (usually a week in length), meso-cycles (1-3 months), and macro-cycle (typically one full year).  Below is an example of a basic macro-cycle and meso-cycle:

Periodization Training

ExRx.net > Weight Training > Programs  

Sample Macro-cycle
 
General Conditioning
 Strength Power Maintenance Active Recovery
Sets 2-3 2-3 3-4 1-2 1
Reps 8-12 6-8 3-5 6-10 10-12
Intensity moderate high high moderate low
Volume high moderate low moderate moderate

Sample Meso-cycle:

Week or Microcycle (1-10); Percent of One Rep Max
70%
75%
80%
65%
85%
1 2 3 4 5
75%
80%
85%
70%
90%
6 7 8 9 10

Periodization is designed to allow you to be creative with your workouts yet keep everything relatively consistent and extremely organized.  With this method of training you are able to focus on those areas that you might find hardest to develop the way you would like them to be (ie. for a male adding size to his arms, back and chest he would work in the hypertrophy stage for a full mesocycle and then for a month focus primarily on strength with a few hypertrophic sets mixed in), yet providing you with the ability to incorporate other modes of exercise as well.  Also, periodization works great if you know that your schedule is consistent year around, you are able to plan out your entire fitness year according to the particular results you are in search of with plenty of variation to keep you motivated and on track.

BEST OF LUCK!

Guest Blog Written By: Derek Hummel