6 Things to Know About the Power of Periodization
Periodization is the science of adjusting the volume and intensity of exercise to produce the desired results at a specific time.
Planning for Success
If you are a collegiate, Olympic-level or professional athlete then the chances are that you have a strength coach who designs your workouts to achieve a peak level of fitness before the most important competitions on your schedule. The science of structuring workouts to peak at a specific time is known as periodization and has been a key component of successful athletes for decades.
An example of the application of periodization:
The 17 game NFL football competition season begins in September, the season ends and playoffs start at the beginning of January with the championship played in early February. Professional American football players should start training from the end of February to July, approximately 22 weeks, to be in football shape before training camps begin in late July. NFL strength coaches apply the science of periodization to structure workouts so players peak at the highest level of fitness when teams begin making a push for the post-season playoffs in late November and then sustain the intensity through the end of the season or elimination from playoffs.
Once a professional football team has completed its season, the athletes will have a few weeks of light, non-football specific activity before starting the conditioning program to prepare for the next season. This is just a high-level overview of how to apply periodization to the NFL season, designing an actual program would require a much greater level of detail and organization.
Exercise IS Stress
Exercise is physical stress applied to the body; the specific stresses applied and the amount of recovery after each workout are important factors in achieving a desired fitness outcome. Top strength and performance coaches know that our bodies get stronger in the recovery period after the workout, not during it. Therefore, they use alternating periods of low, moderate and high intensity exercise to ensure that athletes are properly recovered before entering a competition.
The chances are that you’re most likely not up for a pro contract, college scholarship or competing for a gold medal, so why does knowing about how to properly periodize a workout program matter to you? The point is that if the top athletes in the world use the science of periodization to plan their fitness programs then you can use the same strategy to achieve your personal fitness goals.
As you are looking ahead to 2025, use the science of periodization to plan your workouts for the entire year so that you can achieve the highest level of fitness at the time it’s most important to you.
6 Things to Know About Periodization
Here are 6 things to know about how periodization can help you design an exercise program that delivers results along with some ideas for how you can create your own periodized workout plan for the coming year.
An exercise program consists of specific variables that determine the type and amount of stimulus applied to the body, these are: exercise selection, intensity, repetitions, rest interval, sets and speed of movement, or tempo. It is well established that physical adaptations to an exercise program, including muscle definition and size, depend on the application of these variables. Systematically changing these variables can allow you to alternate between high and low intensity workouts ensuring that your muscles receive the appropriate amount of recovery after each exercise session.
Periodization alternates phases (periods) of training based on volume, intensity and movement complexity. The greatest benefit of periodization is that it uses rest as a means of allowing for adaptation to the physically demanding stresses of exercise. Structured, consistent changes to an exercise program that adjust for training intensity allow you to maximize results while minimizing the risk of injury or becoming stuck on a plateau.
Intensity is the actual amount of weight used in a program which increases from simple bodyweight to using maximal amounts of resistance that allow only one or two reps at a time. When training intensity is low the volume in terms of reps and sets can be high; as training intensity becomes more challenging the number of reps should be reduced while increasing the length of rest interval or number of sets. The purpose of periodization is to manage the application of physical stress applied to the body via adjusting the intensity of the exercises on a regular basis.
Resistance training causes two specific types of stress on muscle tissue: metabolic and mechanical, both of which provide the stimulus required to grow muscle and increase definition. A properly periodized program can alternate between phases of heavy weight for low reps to create mechanical stress and phases of light-to-moderate weight for high reps to induce metabolic stress. The goal is to manipulate the variables of the exercise program to create either metabolic fatigue, mechanical overload or a combination of the two in order to initiate the desired physiological adaptations.
The body will adapt to a specific stimulus after a period of approximately eight-to-twelve weeks, therefore to help your body to make continual changes it’s necessary to adjust your workouts every two-to-three months.
Creating a periodized program can be as simple as switching the types of exercise equipment used from bodyweight to dumbbells to kettlebells to barbells to sandbags to… You get the idea. You can keep everything else the same but changing the type of equipment used will provide a sufficient stimulus for making changes to the body.
How to periodize a workout plan over the course of a year:
There are 4 seasons in a year, each lasting approximately 12-to-13 weeks, an effective amount of time for muscles to adapt to an exercise stimulus. This plan is an example of a year-long program for a 50-something year-old male interested in strength training for longevity. The purpose is to alternate between different types of strength training so muscles are challenging differently throughout the year
Winter (December - March)
General Goal of Phase: Base strength
Intensity: 70-80% 1 rep max
Reps: approx 8-12 per set (fatiguing by last)
Sets: start with 3, work up to 4
Rest intervals: 60-90 seconds
Spring (March - June)
General Goal of Phase: Hypertrophy - increase size and definition
Intensity: 65-85% 1 rep max
Reps: approx 6-15 per set (fatiguing by last)
Sets: start with 4, work up to 5 with drop-setting the last set
Rest intervals: 60 seconds (3 min. after drop sets)
Summer (June - September)
General Goal of Phase: Explosive Strength
Intensity: 50-70% 1 rep max
Reps: approx 3-6 per set (do NOT work to fatigue, stop the set when form is compromised)
Sets: start with 3, work up to 5
Rest intervals: 60-90 seconds
Fall (September - December)
General Goal of Phase: Endurance Strength, bodyweight training for mobility and core strength
Intensity: Bodyweight, and 60-70% 1 rep max
Reps: 10-15 per set (fatiguing by last)
Sets: start with 3, work up to 4
Rest intervals: 30-90 seconds
Consider this your ‘off-season;’ top performing athletes don’t try to maintain peak fitness throughout the year and neither should you. If you worked hard all summer then consider this the ’offloading’ phase where you use lighter weights and focus more on improving stability and mobility than working at a high intensity. Working at a lower intensity does not mean skipping all exercises, bodyweight workouts that promote active recovery are perfect for this phase of training.
Plan Workouts that Work for YOU!
This is by no means the only way to organize a yearly training program but it provides an effective example and should give you a few ideas for how you can apply the science to make the coming year of exercise one of your most successful yet.