Periodization is the cyclic structuring of training that allows an athlete to maximize their abilities leading up to a competitive season, or leading up to a specific event or competition
That’s broken down into micro-cycles: 5-10 days, meso-cycles: 1 to 4 months, and macro-cycles: 10 months to a year
There are several different concepts of periodization, from Linear periodization, to Block periodization, to what we use, Concurrent periodization. But no matter what concept you adhere to, there are what I would consider to be universal truths of periodization, for example, volume and load should be inversely proportional to one another.
Why we use Concurrent periodization is that it allows you to train the 3 major methods: the maximal strength method, the dynamic method, and the repetition method, all within micro-cycles.
This is superior to block periodization, which is the traditional 6 week hypertrophy block, 6 week strength block, and 6 week power block, and also linear periodization (a gradual build up from hypertrophy intensities to absolute strength intensities) because both block periodization and linear periodization overlook the key fact that no single training characteristic exists in isolation of the others
So if you’re raising your hypertrophy at the expense of your strength, you’re actually inhibiting your ability to raise your hypertrophy
Which is why even as early as the 1980’s, Olympic athletes who continued to adopt block periodization were finding their performance diminishing (1).
In the hyper competitive world of sport, training concepts and methodology are constantly evolving in order to elicit greater and greater results, and the days of lazy “here’s your sheet” Team Workout block periodization is long over.
Concurrent Periodization is a far more effective periodization concept to structure training around, and gets an athlete the results they need.
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