Soon our gyms and weight rooms will be filled with the throngs of the ‘resolution crowd’, and to all I say “welcome”. Well done for joining the party, even if you had to wait until the end of the year to do it! Now is the time where proper structure and discipline are crucial to allow you to realise your goals and training potential. However, the question that many of us face – both novice and seasoned gym rat alike – is how to accomplish it? It’s time to bring out the big guns. It’s time for us to learn (and remind ourselves) of the Soviet Super-weapon: Periodization.

Periodization is defined as planned – according to certain principles – variation of the training variables such as intensity and volume within a specified period of time culminating in peak performance. Intensity, in this instance is the traditional reference of a percentage of a one repetition maximum i.e. if your max bench press was 100kg, 65% intensity would mean lifting 65kg. Volume refers to the number of sets and repetitions that you perform for a given body-part, work-out etc.

Why should you incorporate Periodization into your training? – For gains superior to those possible with any other training system. This is backed up by hundreds of former Soviet and Russian world champions that have embraced this doctrine.

Although its origins can be traced back to Tsarist Russia, Periodization did not come alive until L.P. Matveyev published his milestone The Problems of Periodization in Sports Training in 1964. Matveyev practiced what he preached in his own quest for a 100kg clean and press and in the process made a tremendous impact on athletic training as we know it.

In the West, Periodization has either been overdone with charts, graphs and complicated calculations complete with Russian terminology, or dumbed down to ‘do high reps, then switch to heavy weights’ – sound familiar?

Pavel Tsatsouline has made this outstanding training tool accessible to people of all athletic backgrounds with his no-nonsense approach to explaining its key principles. What follows are excerpts taken from his book “Beyond BodyBuilding – Muscle and Stength Training Secrets for the Renaissance Man”. Periodization will be explained no more complicated than it has to be, yet not watered down.

Pavel does not endorse creating extensive charts, graphs and prescribing every exercise, sets, weights etc. “Over-reliance on numerical computations in preparing a Periodization chart is a major reason why some coaches tend to dismiss their relevance”, state Drs Verkhoshansky and Siff. The authors of “Supertraining” proposed ‘cybernetic programming’, essentially old-fashioned instinctive training plugged into a Periodization master plan.

Indeed, many variables, from sunlight to your recent argument with your boss, affect your performance and it is difficult to map out a rigid twenty-week plan and follow it rep for rep. Bulgarian weightlifters, scientific as they are, use their judgement in determining the optimal training weight for every set. You should take this idea a step further. This piece is going to teach you how to strip Periodization down to its fundamental principles, namely:

• Cycling
• Sequential Development
• The optimal volume/intensity relationship
• Delayed Adaptation

These principles will then be super-imposed onto your workouts to realise your true training potential! Stay tuned for Part II next week where I discuss Cycling. Good Health!