A Simpleton’s Guide To Periodisation

What is Periodisation?

Periodisation is just a fancy way of saying ‘planning changes to a training programme over a particular period of time’, and it’s one of the most important elements of programming.

Simply having one solid workout plan that you repeat week-to-week, month-to-month works great for a bit. But if we REALLY want to continue making measurable progress, then our workouts must change over the course of our training journey. Planning those changes, and when/how to implement them, is Periodisation.

Do I need to use Periodisation?

Short answer: Yes.

Slightly less short answer: Yes (but maybe not straight away).

Let me explain.

When you FIRST start out in the gym as a complete beginner, you don’t need to worry about Periodisation all that much.

Pick an exercise, pick a weight, pick a number of reps, and either try and increase the weight lifted OR increase the number of reps every week.

This is known as ‘linear progression’, or sometimes ‘novice progression’, and it’s the structure most, if not all, beginner workout programmes follow - and with good reason. It’s SUPER easy to follow, and, if you’re a beginner, it works!

Here’s how you, as a beginner trainee, might approach training week-to-week, using linear progression and following a standard 4x6 sets and reps scheme:

You can see here that you’re successfully increasing your total volume (total work done/total weight lifted) every single week, simply by adding weight and keeping reps the same. This means you’re getting stronger week-to-week, which is awesome and one of the best things about being a beginner - enjoy this part while you can!

When To Start Using Periodisation

For as long as basic linear progression works for you, you should absolutely use it. It’s the quickest, simplest, most effective method to build strength that there is - milk it for all it’s worth.

However, after a certain amount of time (usually a few months or so), you will find that it becomes too difficult to simply add more weight/reps every week. 

This is normal, and isn’t a problem. It simply means that you’re now strong enough that just adding 2.5kg a week to all of your main lifts every week just isn’t a realistic option any more.

Think about it – even if you started off benching an empty barbell (20kg) for 5 reps, adding 2.5kg every week for just one year (52 weeks) would have you benching 150kg for 5 reps after just one year of training. After three years, you’d be benching 410kg, again for 5 reps. Considering that the world record bench press is ‘only’ 350kg for one rep, this should hopefully illustrate why linear progression - i.e. ‘just doing more’ isn’t a realistic option, past a certain point. 

So, if ‘just doing more’ isn’t an option any more, how DO we keep making progress?

THAT’S where Periodisation comes in.

How To Use Periodisation

There are a few different Periodisation methods that all have their own advantages and disadvantages - however the simplest, most-well known, and my personal favourite one to use with clients, is called LINEAR PERIODISATION.

In Linear Periodisation, we start with a higher amount of volume (more sets and reps) at the beginning of a training cycle. Then, over the course of that cycle, we REDUCE the amount of sets and reps, but INCREASE the intensity of the work being done (i.e. by increasing the weight lifted). 

Then, after a certain length of time (depending on the programme), we loop back around to the number of sets and reps we were doing at the start, and, if the programme was a success, we should be stronger than last time (depending on the kind of training you’re doing, you may also test your strength at the end of a cycle by ‘maxing out’, i.e. testing what the most weight you can possibly lift is for between 1-3 reps).

Thinking in terms of ‘training cycles’ is fundamental to how Periodisation works. Individual training weeks are known as ‘MICROcycles’. Blocks of training weeks (usually between four to eight weeks) are known as ‘MESOcycles’.

Linear Periodisation in Action

Here’s how Linear Periodisation might play out over eight weeks. For simplicity, in this example, we are simply repeating the same four week mesocycle twice, so you can clearly see the improvement from the beginning of one mesocycle to another (fully-fledged strength training programmes will usually consist of a few mesocycles, arranged in sequence - this is called a MACROcycle - but that’s more than I want to go into right now).

Here, all we’ve done is reduce the number of reps per set by one each time in order to allow us to continue increasing weight.

Although your total volume drops initially week-to-week, you can see in this example that it jumps up again every four weeks (Cycle 2 Week 1 is higher than Cycle 1 Week 1, etc). You’ve effectively ‘lapped yourself’ - surpassed where you were at the same point in your training four weeks ago - which means that your four week training cycle was a successful one! Brilliant.

It’s important to note that it doesn’t HAVE to be just the number of reps that is reduced over time - you could also, if you like, reduce the number of sets - or a combination of the two. As long as the total working volume (sets and reps) is going DOWN, and the intensity (weight) is going UP over time, you have yourself a Linear Periodisation-based programme - how exactly you want to structure it is largely dependent on personal preference and what you find works best for you.

Final Thoughts

Now, this is a VERY simplified overview of how Periodisation works. As I mentioned, there are other Periodisation methods besides Linear, and there are a whole host of other variables that can also be considered when putting together a training programme. BUT hopefully you at least now have a basic idea of what Periodisation is, and why it’s important.

Ultimately, having an appropriately periodised programme will ensure that your training adapts to you so that you continue to make progress at a rate that is realistic and achievable for YOUR particular strength level, while avoiding the risk of overtraining - or worse, injury.

The more advanced you get, the more important Periodisation becomes. When you start training, you can reasonably expect to hit a new PR (Personal Record) every week - but eventually this slows down, to four weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks, and beyond.

As for how to go about actually building a periodised programme, what sets/rep schemes to use, what weights to start on, how long to make each mesocycle, and what changes to implement when changing from one cycle to another - these are all things that, as a coach, I help people with on a daily basis. So if you’re struggling with planning these things for yourself and want a little help organising your training to help you get better results, drop me a message to arrange a free consultation and taster session, and we can go from there.

Happy training!

If you want to build strength, muscle and confidence, then drop me a message to arrange your FREE consultation and Taster session.