Periodization Training: A Body
Building Perspective
Periodization Training: A Body
Building Perspective
By:
Charles Carter
If you divide your yearly training into
phases or cycles, you'll maintain a better mental outlook, more motivation and
your body will also respond better physiologically.
The first phase of training is the one that builds muscle size and pre-orients
your muscles to be geared up (condition-wise) to go for strength and power which
will theoretically allow you to even add more muscle size. Plus, you will
condition your tendons and joints to handle the stresses of heavier weights to
come.
It is recommended that you do 6-15 reps per set for size with the great majority
of reps falling somewhere from 8-12 reps. Try 3-4 heavier "work" sets after a
systemic warm-up plus 2-3 warm-up weight sets per exercise. As you might note,
so far this sounds pretty much like a standard common sense bodybuilding
workout.
The strength and power phases are next. This will be another 8-week cycle. To
develop strength and power, the greatest athletes in the world generally work
with 2-6 reps. Since we are geared to bodybuilders we adjust this slightly and
in this phase, we advocate 4 - 5 sets of 5 - 7 reps. Here is how this cycle
works. We'll use our previous example for the Bench Press where you ended Phase
1 at 235 for 10 reps. Do an active system warm-up, then with weights 95 x 10 and
155 for 10. On your final warm up set do 205 for 6.
Then go to your "target weight" which is actually only 10-lbs. above the weight
you ended up at sets of 10 in your first phase. So, start at 245-lbs. x 3 sets
of 5-6 reps. You are leaving yourself some extra so you continue to gain
positively all the way through the cycle.
In physics, work is a measure of force and distance. (w = f x d). Power means
doing a specified amount of work per unit time. If you can move mass M over
distance D in 10 seconds and then (after training) move the same mass M the same
distance D, but do it in 5 seconds, you are twice as powerful!
Our experience has been to spend a maximum of four weeks in the power phase and
to use 2 -3 reps in benches and deadlifts, 3 - 4 reps in the squats and
bent-over rows, and 5 - 6 reps for all other exercises. Again, follow your 2-3
warm-ups, and 3 power work sets and then do a down set of 10 reps with about 70%
of your target weight, just as you did in the strength phase.
Phase 4 is the rest cycle, a must for great results and essential for building
strength and lean mass. Be sure to add about a week of rest into your online
workout program, about 1 week every 12. You'll love the way you feel afterwards!
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