Last week we talked about basic linear periodization. But over the past decade, several studies have shown the high value of a different form of periodization: undulating periodization.
For example, see this.
But it’s interesting to note that comparisons of different periodization models for beginners does NOT show undulating periodization to be superior. (See this.)
I’ve seen evidence of this myself, so I suggest linear periodization for beginners, and even intermediates.
For more advanced lifters, undulating periodicity is quite valuable. But you have to do it right.
Undulating Periodization
One of the reasons you might not have ever done undulating periodization – or even heard of it – is that it’s much more complicated to do (not to mention hard to pronounce!). Some people also call in “nonlinear periodization” but undulating is more accurate.
To save on the typing, I’m going to use UP as the abbreviation.
If you are not keeping a training log, forget about UP. There’s no way you can keep track of it all in your head week after week.
The basic idea with undulating periodicity is that you switch among strength-hypertrophy-conditioning regimens much more frequently than in linear periodization.
Weekly vs. Daily Undulating Periodization
The original studies of UP were weekly. Meaning, you’d do a week of low-load, high rep lifts, then a week of medium load, medium rep lifts, then a week of high load, low rep lifts. Let’s call that WUP.
But when I mentioned earlier that UP is a relatively recent development in the history of resistance training, I was referring to the daily variation (DUP) – here you are changing the protocol within each week.
And since then, when most people talk about UP, they mean DUP.
An example of DUP for someone on a full-body routine lifting M, W and F is (more…)
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By now you’ve probably heard more times than you can count, that to keep progressing with your fitness, you can’t just keep doing the same thing week after week, month after month, year after year. Your body adapts and thus needs different stimuli to change.
- Periodizing your workouts is hard work,
but it pays off
You could randomly change your workout every time you enter the gym. Of course, you also could spend the day eating ice cream and watching reality TV. Is it easier than planning your workouts? Yeah. Is it smart? No.
What you want is a systematized way of changing your workouts, that helps you progress as fast as safely possible and is still fun.
The term for this is “periodization“.
I’ve previously alluded to an upcoming routine I’ll be talking about (currently calling it the “PPL Workout”) which inherently includes a form of periodization. But it’s not ready yet. So today I’ll describe periodization and then tell you how you can apply it using my 6x6x6 Routine (since that’s the routine most of you have already purchased).
There are many ways to periodize your workouts. For running, we’ll do a separate article but for today I want to talk about lifting.
Aspects To Periodize
The word “period” means “over time”. So periodization is how you change your workouts over time in order to keep progressing.
For beginners, that time frame is usually 1 to 3 months – you don’t need to change your program more frequently than that.
As you get more experienced, you might need to change every month or so.
But what do you change? (more…)
When I was in my 20s, I was a gym rat. I was in grad school and back then I had so much free time (compared to now at least; of course, it then still felt like I had barely any time, so I guess it’s all perception). I’d go (more…)
Continue reading about The 6 Things You Do That Drive Your Training Partner Crazy
Today’s article comes from guest author Cameron Stache. If you are paying attention to the free WorldFitnessNetwork forums, you have no doubt gotten familiar with Cameron. But what you might not know is that Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex (more…)
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Nobody wants to be a fatty. Whether you are now fat, on your way to being fat, or just want to get leaner, there are countless things to keep in mind.
Looking trim and being unfat requires work - here are the tips
With so many tips, I’ll overrule my usual verbose nature and dive in, somewhat tersely, with the 25 Ways To Be Unfat. Each of these could be its own article (or even its own book!). But I’m just giving you a sentence or two for starters. We’ll break these down into 5 categories: Overview, Attitude and Behavior, Eating, Lifting, and Cardio.
Since I focus worldfitnessnetwork.com on weight training and running, you might expect this article to be focused on weight lifting and running, right? Well, for sure, those are both part of the picture to be unfat. But eating habits are the most important factor for getting trim.
Final preamble: these are written for the person who wants to be lean, not super-lean. If you want to get into cover-model shape, there are more subtle techniques that come to play. But if you want to look good enough for the beach, these are for you!
1) 80% of the battle is what you eat – the cliché is true: you can’t out-train a bad diet. Eat smart and you’ll be lean.
2) 10% of the battle is resistance training – training with weights can help by burning some calories, increasing metabolism, and changing your body composition. Even for women. But many guys fall into the trap of building muscles that are still covered in fat. More on this later…
3) 10% of the battle is cardiovascular training - cardio (e.g. running) can help with calories but is only one-tenth as important as how you eat. And too much of the wrong running can burn muscle in addition to fat so you can’t over-rely on it.
All of these are mostly mental; if you learn the right techniques and then have the discipline to act on that education, even when you don’t feel like it, then you’ll win. Your attitudes and behaviors are key:
4) Don’t strive for perfection – getting your psychology about fitness right is most important; until you want to get ultra-lean, you are shooting for a 90% compliance; do the right thing 90% of the time and you’ll get lean.
5) Set goals – if you don’t set targets, it’s hard to know if you are making progress and it’s hard to know when you’ve “arrived” at your destination. Forget complicated goals – keep them simple by focusing on Measureable and Timebound. An example of a good goal for a woman: I will weight X pounds, at less than 20% bodyfat, by July 4.
6) Adjust your social life – avoid other fatties or soon-to-be fatties; who you surround yourself with influences who you become. If you’ve already had a junk-food meal this week, say ‘no’ to the group going out for a Chinese lunch.
7) Keep a log – write down what you eat, when you exercise, what you did, etc. Think of it as your fitness diary. You can do this online or on paper, I don’t care. But keeping a log will keep you on track even on days when you are less motivated.
Eating
8) Eat frequent small meals – eating smaller meals more frequently will (more…)
