Periodization

Periodization is a training method that works around the premise that due to General Adaptation Syndrome (more on this in the Science section) of the body, the stimuli must change for the body to continually respond. Periodizing your routine is a great idea.

The traditional way to periodize is for athletics. Take the example of a football player whose season begins in August and ends in November. Once the season is over, the player would start off using a higher volume, lowered intensity program to build hypertrophy and endurance. Then he would move on to a more intense program with longer rest in between sets designed to build strength. After a time he would move again to a program designed to build power, a program with lots of rest and explosive movements done for low repetitions. As the season approaches, his program would change drastically back to lower intensity, higher volume program to allow him to "taper" or rest right before the season. This is known as peaking. Then he would use a lower volume, high intensity program in season to maintain and/or improve his condition.

In this case, the entire program of one year is called a macrocycle. A macrocycle can last longer or shorter depending on the athlete's schedule. A triathlete who competes every 6 months would have 2 peaking times per year. His macrocycle would last 6 months, the time between peaking. Within each macrocycle there are mesocycles which last anywhere from weeks to months again depending on the athlete. In our example above, there were 5 mesocycles: Hypertrophy/Endurance, Strength, Power, Peaking, In-season. Within each mesocycle there can be microcycles which would be shorter periods of usually one or 2 weeks. A microcycle would follow the theme of the mesocycle but with minor variations such as a changed rep range or exercise order to vary the program even more.

Periodizing for non-athletes is a little different. For an athlete they need well-rounded programs to account for all the aspects of their sport. For someone who is a bodybuilder, they want just muscle mass and are not concerned with endurance, strength, or power as goals. So to periodize like an athlete would not be a good idea. But you could periodize any routine by just changing certain areas of the routine. For example, your macrocycle theme would be hypertrophy. Your mesocycles might last 8 weeks each and have different routines each time. You can vary anything from rep speeds to rep ranges to number of sets to rest between sets, etc.

It does not hurt for someone who is interested in hypertrophy to use a strength cycle a few times per year. This can help your body by changing the stimulus as well as giving you added strength for your hypertrophy workouts.