Periodizing your training is important for avoiding plateaus and achieving the quickest long-term progress towards you goal.
It will help you avoid wasting time under-recovering or going backwards if you’re spending too much time in a particular type of training.
If you’ve followed us for a while, you’re probably familiar with the concept that there are different training stimuli, or effects and adaptations that come with how a particular program is written.
Periodization is simply a planned progression and ordering of using different stimuli (local metabolic, systemic, tension, neurological) at different times to work towards an overall goal (fat loss, muscle gain, strength, etc).
To help you get started, here are some general example periodizations that you could follow based on your goal and training experience.
Beginner (<1 year of training or coming back after several weeks off)
Program 1: Tension/Neurological
Program 2: Systemic Conditioning
Program 3: Local Metabolic
Program 4: Tension
Intermediate to Advanced (1-4 years of consistent training & moderate conditioning and strength)
Program 1: Systemic Conditioning
Program 2: Tension
Program 3: Local Metabolic
Program 4: Tension
Beginner (<1 year of training or coming back after several weeks off)
Program 1: Local Metabolic
Program 2: Tension/Neurological
Program 3: Systemic
Program 4: Tension
Intermediate to Advanced (1-4 years of consistent training & moderate conditioning and strength)
Program 1: Local Metabolic
Program 2: Tension
Program 3: Systemic
Program 4: Tension
Keep in mind that this are only general examples of the first four potential programs. The duration you may need to spend in each will vary by person.
These are general outlines you can follow for a given goal, but nothing will beat the experience of a coach who can interpret your biomarkers and help you customize a plan to suit your needs.
The length of time you stay in a particular program depends on how well you’re adapting and recovering.
Simply working through every program on the site that can be used for a particular goal (IE just doing every ‘Hypertrophy” program one after the other) is NOT going to be the fastest way to get there in the long run.
For example, if you’re focusing on hypertrophy you’ll need to de-load at times or even switch to a more metabolic or neurological program for a while to continue improving in other aspects of your training.
Then, when you come back to a hypertrophy program you’ll be able to progress faster than if you just kept trying to do the same stimulus non-stop.
Knowing when and what program to switch to is a combination of science and skill. The skill is being able to interpret and analyze an individuals biomarkers to determine where to go and when. That is what a good coach is for.
We all respond differently to various types of training and tolerate or adapt to some better than others. A good coach can evaluate these differences and help you pick which training stimulus to go to next and how long you should stay there for optimal results.
This is why we’ve built in both the Check-In and My Journey tools to help you assess your progress within a workout. With a some education on how to interpret it, the My Journey can assist you in coaching yourself and determining when it might be a good time to change programs.
If you use the Program Plans feature (HIGHLY recommended) we’ve taken care of building a periodized plan for you, based on your goal, to help ensure that nothing is getting neglected that will create a bottleneck for your progress.
Check out the Training App to elevate your progress
If you already have the app, view the App Support page for tutorials and education to help you get the most out of it.
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Rapidly customize your workout to your needs.
Drag & Drop from the right to re-order exercise groups.
Drag & Drop from the left to quickly create and update super sets.
Use the checkboxes to select exercises to combine into super sets or split up into straight sets.
Substitute or Add new exercises
Edit any exercise variables.
Use advanced set methods (like integrated partials)
Apply extended set techniques (rest-pause, drop sets, cluster sets, etc.)
After taking our training analysis quiz, you’ll have a long-term plan constructed for you. Your plan will consist of several Phases. Each Phase will present you with a few suggested programs to pick from. Each time you complete a program, you’ll move on to the next Phase and a new set of programs to select from.
This allows flexibility in the split and type of program you can choose, while we strategically periodize the stimulus you’re getting to keep making consistent progress without neglecting any weak links.
For example, a long-term plan with the goal of muscle gain will still occasionally include systemic conditioning or dedicated local metabolic work to keep your recovery capacity high (so you can grow and perform better during your hypertrophy-focused programs).