When Paul Nicholls asked me to write an article on the benefits of Periodization I was extremely excited. I was introduced to Periodization as a junior in college at Penn State University, and almost immediately realized it is the standard for creating and implementing an exercise program for nearly any fitness level or activity. In order to understand why and how Periodization works you're going to need a general understanding of some exercise physiology. As you begin to understand how the body reacts to exercise the Periodization model will make perfect sense, and will hopefully begin to change your views on how getting fit and healthy should be approached. So put on your thinking cap and I'll begin to paint a picture for you…

Although Periodization is a common sense approach to exercise, learning how and why it works takes a little time. Because of that I'm going to use this article to give you a general overview, and just begin to get into some of the specifics. In future articles I will expound on the foundation that has been set and include some nutrition advice to follow as well. Remember, diet and exercise go hand-in-hand, so it is important to provide your body with the proper fuel so it can work efficiently.

Proper exercise at the right intensities provides the stimulus for your body to adapt and increase its fitness level. In order to increase your fitness level your body must be stressed beyond its normal capabilities; asking the muscles to perform more work than they are presently capable of doing, or "overloading" the muscles. The recovery period between exercise sessions is when those adaptations are actually occurring. Because of that it is important to plan both your workouts and your recovery periods. Falling into the trap of doing the same routine from workout to workout, week after week, is what leads to overtraining, boredom, and staleness. This is the trap that the masses fall into. In order to avoid this - keeping your workouts fresh, your fitness level increasing, and providing new stimuli for your body to adapt to - you'll need to become familiar with the variables involved in exercise. Changing the variables is what provides a new stress to your body, and providing new stresses causes you to avoid overtraining. That sums up the purpose of Periodization.

Periodization was developed in the 1960's by Russian scientists and it is based on Seyle's General Adaptation Theory. This theory states that when your body is hit with a training stimulus it will go through 3 stages:
1. Shock. This stage usually lasts 1-2 weeks and during this time your fitness level is not increasing. This is the stage that you feel soreness following a workout. The soreness progressively decreases during this time and eventually disappears. This is because you have entered stage two.
2. Adaptation. Depending on your fitness level this stage will last about 2-8 weeks. The higher your fitness level the less time it takes for your body to adapt. During this stage your fitness level is increasing as your body adapts to the stresses put on it.
3. Overtraining/Staleness. If you do not change the stress on your body you will enter this stage. Periodization is set up to avoid overtraining. There are many negative physiological changes going on during this stage, and if you are overtraining your fitness level will first plateau and the plateau will be followed by detraining.

The variables involved in exercise include, but are not limited to:
1. Number of repetitions per set.
2. Type of exercise performed.
3. Frequency of training from week to week.
4. Intensity - the amount of weight lifted.
5. Rest periods between sets.
6. Varying hand and foot positions with each exercise.

The repetitions you complete in a set - assuming you are pushing yourself to "at or near muscle failure" - determines how your body will respond. On a perception scale of 1-10 muscle failure would be considered a 10. Muscle failure is defined as not being able to perform another repetition with correct form. You do not need to push yourself to muscle failure in order to get the benefits of resistance training, but if you don't push yourself hard enough your body won't have a new stress to adapt to. So intensity is very important. Pushing yourself to a perception of 7 out of 10 (70% of what you are capable of doing for any given repetition range) should provide enough stimulus for your body to make adaptations. So assuming "at or near muscle failure":
1-4 repetitions causes your body to adapt for power
4-8 repetitions causes your body to adapt for strength
8-12 repetitions causes your body to adapt for size, although in the case of women this will equate to leanness as opposed to growth.
12-25 repetitions will cause your body to adapt for local muscular endurance.

Rest periods between sets are equally as important. Resistance training is an anaerobic activity. That means your body is not utilizing oxygen as its primary energy source. Instead your body draws most of its energy from two anaerobic sources. The first is known as phosphocreatine (PC). PC is stored right in the muscles (so it's easy for your body to get to it) and only takes one step to break down and use as energy. As long as your body has PC stores to rely on it will not fatigue. Unfortunately PC is only available for the first 10-15 seconds of a set and when it is depleted your body is forced to rely on energy source #2 - blood sugar (glycogen). When glycogen is broken down and used as energy lactic acid is a byproduct. Lactic acid is a major cause of fatigue and gives you that burning sensation you feel at the end of a set. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are training for muscle endurance you want to stress your lactic acid system and force your body to become more efficient at dealing with lactic acid buildup. This means that over the course of time it will become easier for your body to perform work at a given resistance, and you won't fatigue as quickly. It is important to know that PC, which is depleted in about 15 seconds, takes about 3 minutes to replenish itself completely. This is where rest periods between sets become important. If you are training for power or strength you want your rest periods to be longer. You want PC stores to replenish themselves so fatigue doesn't set in as quickly and you have the strength to push the heavier weights you are using. But if you are training for size/leanness or local muscular endurance, you want your rest periods to be shorter so you can stress your lactic acid system. Typically rest periods between sets follow this general rule:
1. 1-4 reps/set = 3 or more minutes of rest between sets.
2. 4-8 reps/set = 2.5-3 minutes rest between sets.
3. 8-12 reps/set = 2 minutes rest between sets.
4. 12-15 reps/set = 90 seconds rest between sets.
5. 15-20 reps/set = 60 seconds rest between sets.
6. 20-25 reps/set = 30-45 seconds rest between sets.

Also understand that the repetition ranges work on a continuum. So performing 4 repetitions per set will cause your body to respond mostly for strength, and a little for power. Performing 8 repetitions per set will cause your body to respond mostly for size/leanness, and a little for strength. Performing 12 repetitions per set will cause your body to adapt mostly for size/leanness, and a little for local muscular endurance, and so on.

As you are creating your exercise program, which is obviously geared towards your personal goals, you want to think about and plan the following:
1. Individual workout sessions.
2. A week of training (known in Periodization as a microcycle)
3. A month of training.
4. Three months of training. (known as a mesocycle)
5. One year of training (known as a macrocycle)

Over the course of a year an athlete competing in some sort of sport or competition will plan pre-season/preparation, transition, in-season/competition, and recovery/off-season phases. The purpose of this is to vary intensities; have fitness level peaking at the right time; avoid overtraining; and plan recovery periods. Your body cannot sustain a high fitness level. Trying to sustain a high fitness level for more than several months is what leads to overtraining and greater potential for injury.
1. Pre-season/preparation phase: The major goal of this phase is to develop basic physical conditioning. Training within this phase is normally of relatively high volume and relatively low-intensity. In other words, you do more exercises within a session and/or use higher repetition ranges, but at a lower intensity (such as 70-80% of what you are capable of before reaching muscle failure). This phase can also include sports-specific training as well as conditioning. For the purpose of general fitness this phase is usually two to three months in length.
2. Transition phase: This refers to the late pre-season/preparation phase. Intensity of training is higher and the volume of training is lower. You will begin to perform less exercises within a session and/or lower repetition ranges, but at a higher intensity - such as 80-90% of what you are capable of. The goal of this training phase is to make the transition from the preparation phase to the in-season/competition phase. For general fitness the length of this phase would be about three months.
3. In-season/competition phase: During this phase intensity normally reaches it's maximum and the training volume it's minimum for the year. The goal of this phase is to maintain physical condition and sports specific skills, as well as to peak for major events and/or competitions (if applicable). For general fitness the length of this phase would be three to four months.
4. Off-season/recovery phase: This is sometimes referred to as the "active rest" phase. The goal of this training phase is to allow yourself to recover both psychologically and physiologically from the competition phase. Although you are resting, some training should be performed so that your fitness level doesn't deteriorate drastically. The activities can include forms of exercise not typically performed in training. For general fitness this phase is usually one to two months.

Just after the in-season/competition phase a week of very high intensity may also be planned. By doing this your fitness level will maintain itself and could even increase during the first week or two of the recovery phase, instead of immediately beginning to decrease. Studies have proven that planning your year similar to the Periodization concept benefits everyone, from elite athlete to Joe Public. An athlete will have to make more adjustments based on the demands of a season, and the off-season/recovery phase is usually longer for an athlete compared to someone interested in general fitness.

Now let's look at an individual training session. The first step is to determine your individual goals. Be clear and detailed because the clearer your goals are defined the more specific your exercise routine will be. Obviously you'll want to take any health issues into consideration such as medications you may be on, previous joint injuries, etc… If your goal is to lose weight, get leaner, and increase your endurance level, you obviously don't want to spend most of your time lifting heavy weights. Having said that, each repetition range and the adaptations your body makes for it will assist you as you move to new repetition ranges. Don't forget it all works on a continuum, so you don't want to neglect any repetition range as you train, you just want to spend most of your time in the ranges that correspond with your personal goals.

When planning an individual workout session you typically start with large muscle groups (such as legs/buttocks, chest, and back) and move to smaller muscle groups (shoulders, arms, low back, abdominals) as you complete your workout. DO NOT NEGLECT ANY PART OF YOUR BODY. You will want to prioritize depending on your goals. If running a marathon is an event you enter once a year, you'll want to focus on legs and torso (abs/low back), but don't ignore the rest of your body. That means you'll include more leg and torso exercises within an exercise session. Since endurance training breaks down muscle instead of building it, you do want to include resistance training as part of your routine. Resistance training strengthens the heart, improves blood flow, increases metabolism, strengthens joints (which decreases the chance for injury), and increases your overall strength so that you will not have to work as hard in an endurance event, versus not doing any resistance training at all. There are actually more health benefits to resistance training than there are to aerobic training. And studies have shown that aerobic/endurance training alone is detrimental to the body in the long run (no pun intended). ;-) But I digress…

A typical individual training session will look like this:

1. A 3-5 minute cardiovascular warmup. The purpose is to raise core body temperature, begin to warm the muscles, and lubricate the joints.
2. Resistance training from large muscle group to small; highest priority to least priority; one to two exercises per body part; two to four sets per exercise, depending on the phase:
a. Legs (such as a squat, lunge, or leg press)
b. Chest (bench press, dumbbell press, or flye)
c. Back (seated row, lat pulldown, bentover dumbbell row)
d. Legs (extension and curl; abduction and adduction - inner and outer thigh)
e. Shoulders (Overhead dumbbell press, front raise, lateral raise, rear deltoid)
f. Biceps (elbow curl)
g. Triceps (elbow extension)
h. Abs/low back
3. If cardio is performed in the same workout it is best that you perform your cardio routine after the resistance training.

In the pre-season/preparatory phase of Periodization, as you are coming off of a recovery period or lighter intensity off-season, you are trying to increase your fitness level. Rather than jump right into it you'll want to start with higher volume (such as 15-20 repetitions per set) and lower intensity (working at 70% of what you are capable of within that repetition range). For general fitness this phase usually begins with two resistance training sessions per week for the first couple weeks. Afterwards you can increase to three resistance training sessions per week and maintain that for the remainder of the phase. Within a one week microcycle you will also want to vary the intensity from workout to workout. Assuming you are performing your resistance training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: Monday will be a light day, working at 70% intensity. Wednesday the intensity increases to moderate, at 80%. Friday is your heavy day, at 90%. If you choose to do a cardio workout on days you are not resistance training, make sure at least two days of complete rest are planned into your week.

As you can probably guess by now, as time continues to move forward you will continue to increase intensity while decreasing volume within a mesocycle. The mesocycle will be followed by a short (usually one week) recovery period before entering the next mesocycle. That way when the next mesocycle begins you will have given your body some time to recover, and your fitness level at the start of the second mesocycle will be higher than it was when you began the mesocycle you just completed. The theory behind Periodization is that your fitness level will increase from the pre-season phase through the transition and in-season phases, will slightly decrease during the off-season phase, but then start at a higher level as you cycle through again. From year to year your fitness and health will continue to improve, all while avoiding boredom, staleness, and overtraining.

It's the perfect plan.

Whew. That was a lot of information to take in. So I think I'll save talking in more detail about the different cycles and individual training sessions for the next article. I'll also include more details about how to work training for a marathon into a year long macrocycle. Since I have ten years of experience with training myself and others under the Periodization model, I invite you to take advantage of what I know by e-mailing me with any questions you may have, or taking advantage of the TWO FREE TRAINING SESSIONS that I offer through Elements. When performed correctly and efficiently, exercise benefits every single system in your body, and when combined with proper nutrition, you'll not only look and feel healthier and more fit, but you'll greatly increase your potential for longevity.

Sounds like a good deal to me. =)

Jeff Young
CEO
Elements Fitness and Nutrition
ElementsHnF@aol.com