From: Lyle McDonald Subject: Periodization.Info.Part1 Date: Fri, 21 Jan 94 14:40:42 EST Ok, now I would like to talk about periodization of workouts. Basically, periodization provides a method by which the dreaded plateau can be avoided. It was introduced by the Bulgarians who used it extensively with their Olympic lifting athletes. This (along with some major drugs) has been what has helped their incredible success in this sport. One of the problems with most training programs is that it is the same day in and day out. Intensity, rep range, etc tend to be vary constant. Well, the body is extremely adaptable and will eventually stop responding to a certain exercise scheme regardless of the intensity. Periodization provides a mecahnism by which the body's mechanisms can be over-ridden by keeping them from plateauing. Strict periodization consists of four or five distinct stages. Each stage has a specific goal and method of execution. Generally speaking, the program moves from lots of low intensity work to short, high intensity workouts. Each phase stresses a different aspect of the muscle (or energy systems for aerobic athletes). By changing the stress, progress can continue without plateauing. In this post, I will outline the strict periodization used for competitive athletes. I will present a modified periodization aimed more at the recreational athlete in the second part. Stage I: Hypertrophy (or base phase) Volume: High Intensity: Low Sets/exercise: 3-6 Reps/set: 8-20 Type of movement: Slow concentric and eccentric Purpose: Build muscle size and endurance For aerobics athletes, this corresponds to long, easy workouts to build an aerobic base. Stage 2: Strength Volume: Moderate Intensity: Moderately high Sets/exercise: 3-6 Reps/set: 2-6 Type of movements: Same as stage 1 but heavier Purpose: Build on the previous cycle by increasing muscle strength For aerobic athletes, this is the transition from strictly endurance workouts to the inclusion of intervals and hill sessions if applicable. Stage 3: Power Volume: Moderate to low Intensity: High Sets/exercise: 3-6 Reps/set: 2-4 Type of movement: Explosive concentric for power Purpose: to build power At this point exercises should be becoming more sports specific. For aerobic athletes, more interval and race pace work is included while amount of distance work is lowered. Stage 4: Peaking (or competitive) Volume: Low Intensity: Very high Sets/exercise: 1-4 Reps/set: 1-4 This is the phase for powerlifters where heavy singles are performed. For aerobic athletes, this is the racing season. While some maitenance work is performed on all energy systems, the primary goal is actual competiton. Stage 5: Rest and recovery Volume: Very low Intensity: Very low Sets/exercise: 2-3 Reps/set: 12-15 This is a two to three week period of rest. Either complete rest or light activity is done to allow the body to recover from the competitive phase. Note that the length of each stage may be different. Probably the largest amount of time during the year will be spent in Stage 1 to establish a good training base before increasing the intensity. The length of the other stages will vary depending on a variety of factors. Next time: modified periodization. For catalog of previous posts, send request and comments to lylemcd@delphi.com Lyle P.S. This was adapted from "Designing Resistance Training Programs" by Kraemer and Fleck. From: Lyle McDonald Subject: Periodization.Info.Part2 Date: Fri, 21 Jan 94 14:42:25 EST Hi again. Having outlined strict periodization last time, let me describe the modified periodization that is aimed more at the non-competitive exerciser. Instead, of five stages, generally only four are done. Here it is: Stage 1: Base Volume: High Intensity: Low Sets/Exercise: 3-6 Reps/set: 12-20 Type of movement: slow, continuous movement Purpose: To build muscular endurance, increase capillarization and blood flow to muscle Stage 2: Strength/Endurance Volume: Moderate Intensity: Moderate Sets-exercise: 3-6 Reps/set: 8-12 Type of movement: moderate speed Purpose: To increase strength and muscle size Stage 3: Strength Volume: Low Intensity: High Sets/exercise: 3-4 Reps/set: 4-8 Type of movement: fast but controlled Purpose: build power Stage 4: Recovery Volume: Low Intensity: Low Sets/exercise: 2-3 Reps/set: 12-15 Purpose: Like before, this stage allows the body to completely recover before beginning stage 1 again, it should last 2-3 weeks Note that there are only four stages to this type of cycle versus five for strict periodization. For the non-competitive athlete, inclusion of heavy singles is probably not that important. Injury potential is very high as is the potential for burnout. The length of each stage may be a bit more consistent for this type of periodization. Anywhere from 1 to 3 months can be spent on each stage. Some studies have found that strength tends to peak at about 12 weeks during strength training with either a plateau or decrease in strength occurring after that. Also, there is some evidence that there is a shorter 3 week sub-cycle when the body tends to hit smaller peaks. So, within each three month macro-cycle, you could superimpose a shorter mesocycle where the weights/intensity are increased for three weeks followed by a week of lower intensity activity. And, within each week, a micro-cycle can be used where the intensity of a given workout will vary with one high intensity workout and one lighter workout for a given bodypart. That's it for this series. For a list of previous articles send requests to lylemcd@delphi.com and I will send you the catalog. Lyle This was adapted from the previously mentioned Kraemer and Fleck book and also Ripped 3 by Clarence Bass. From: Lyle McDonald Subject: Splits.Info.Part1 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 19:54:34 EST Hi. Well, having covered periodization in adequate detail, I would like to say a couple more things aimed at the intermediate weight trainers out there. At this point, the waters get a bit muddy regarding what is "right", "best" or whatever. I'm not going to try to say that this is the "best" routine for you. However, if you are an advanced beginner/ intermediate, this info may help you make the next step to a more advanced routine. What I would like to talk about this time is split routines. Now there are about a billion different split routines and every one has their favorite. Whether it be a 2on/1off or 3on/1 off split or whatever. Only through experimentation can you discover what's best for you. What I would like to present are two basic splits. In a way, splitting workouts is very similar to periodization. Both techniques present varying stimuli to the muscles in an effort to prevent a plateau. They can be used simultaneously if desired. This would create a scenario similar to the one I described where macrcycles, mesocycles, and minicycles are all used within the scheme of periodization. First, let me discuss exercise intensity briefly. Most likely, you started out with and have been continuing with a standard three day, full-body routine which is normal for most beginners. And this works great in the beginning and as long as intensity is fairly low. However, as you progress and start pushing harder, working each muscle group three times a week begins to be too much and recovery is compromised. In my opinion, unless you are a) on steroids or b) very genetically gifted, working any muscle hard more than once a week is probably too much. Hitting each muscle hard once a week and once easier seems to work well for the "average" weight trainer. Too many high intensity workouts merely put you in a state of overtraining or get you injured. Both situations are extrememly undesirable. So, here are a couple of basic splits. The first maintains the standard three day per week workout with slight modification. It looks like this. Mon: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs hard Tue: Off or aerobics Wed: Back, Biceps, Legs hard Thu: Off or aerobics Fri: Whole body easy Sat: Off or aerobics Sun: Off The body is split over the first two workout days and are worked hard and then an easy full body workout is performed on Friday. On the hard days, since you have less muscle groups to work, you can do two or three exercises per body part to work each a bit harder. For example, you could do incline bench press and dumbbell flyes for chest. Do, 4-5 sets of each exercise pyramiding the sets (15,12,10,8,6) or something similar. The last three sets should be rep max sets meaning that you use a weight with which you can only get 10, 8, or 6 strict reps. When you can get more than six good reps on the last set, it's time to raise the weight. On Friday, do one exercise per bodypart keeping the weight down,3-4 sets and reps higher (12-15 range). This day just gets you into the gym and gets some blood into the muscles. Note that the split I've outlined (basically a push-pull) can be changed according to preference. Another common one is: Mon: Chest, Back, Shoulders Wed: Biceps, Triceps, Legs Fri: Whole Body Choice between the two depends greatly upon personal preference. My current split (for what it's worth) is Mon: Whole body easy Wed: Upper body moderate to hard Fri: Lower body hard I choose to split my workouts this way because, as a cyclist, I need more focus on my lower body with less on upper. And, since I take Sat and Sun off, working my legs on Friday gives them adequate time to recover without compromising my cycling/skating workouts during the week. In the second part of this series, I will outline a couple other common splits. If you're just tuning in and missed some of my previous articles, a catalog is available upon request from lylemcd@delphi.com. Lyle From: Lyle McDonald Subject: Split.Info.Part2 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 19:56:06 EST Ok, having outlined a basic three day split last time, let me describe another common split. This one is a four day push-pull split. It looks something like this. Mon: Chest, Shoulders,Triceps, Abs Hard Tue: Back, Biceps, Legs Abs Easy Wed: Off or aerobics Thu: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs Easy Fri: Back, Biceps, Legs Hard Sat: Off or aerobics Sun: Off Basically, this split builds on the last split I described by dividing the easy day into two separate easy days. I find it a bit easier to alternate hard and easy days on consecutive workouts because it makes it a bit easier to push harder on a given hard day (huh?). As with the three day split, you must make sure to take it easy on the easy days. This split might be for someone who just prefers to be in the weight room more than three days a week. Otherwise, it's really not much different than the three day push-pull split from my last post. Before signing off, let me outline one last split. This is for the person who wants to lift six days per week. Basically, you will only work a given bodypart once per week, one bodypart per day. The key to this routine is intensity. Since each bodypart only gets worked directly once per week, you have to make sure that it needs the entire week to recover. Mon: Chest Tue: Back Wed: Shoulders Thu: Biceps Fri: Triceps Sat: Legs Sun: Off On each given day, you really have to hammer the bodypart. Usually, 3-4 exercises per bodypart with 4-5 sets on each exercise pyramiding each set. Generally, do multi-joint exercises (i.e. bench press, incline press) before isolation movements (i.e. cable cross-overs, flyes). Also, I highly recommend alternating pushing and pulling days with this type of routine. On Monday, although you are really working chest, delts and triceps are getting hit indirectly. If you were to do delts on Tuesday, you risk over- training them. So, by throwing in a pull day (back, where back and biceps will be stressed), you can give the push muscles a day to rest before you hammer them individually. Again, let me state that these are by no means the only splits that will work. They happen to be a few of the most common splits which I've found to be effective. If you find something else which works for you, by all means do it. Also, let me restate that split routines aren't really necessary until the intermediate stage of weight training. Usually anywhere from 6 months to 1 year should be spent with a more basic routine (i.e. three days per week working the whole body each day). For a catalog of previous articles send mail to lylemcd@delphi.com along with comments/questions. Next: a sports nutrition primer. Coming to a usenet feed near you. Lyle