When it comes to fitness writing, we’re often guilty of focussing too much on people who want to lose weight and body fat. It’s an easy trap to fall into, because as personal trainers that is what the majority of people who come to us want help with.
What happens when we get people lean though? Then what?
Usually, the answer is they want to build muscle. In today’s article we’re going to discuss the concept of periodisation and how you can apply it to your training year. You can take the principles of periodisation and use them to structure your workouts, your diet, your travel plans or whatever you’re aiming for!
What is Periodisation?
The principle of periodisation is structuring your training to achieve a particular physical peak at a particular time.
It comes from sports coaching and was first practiced as far back as the 1950’s when Russian physiologist Leo Matveyev compared the training plans of successful and non-successful athletes from the 1952 and 1956 Olympic games. He noticed that athletes whose training plans varied in intensity and outcomes were more successful, so using this data he began to plan annual training cycles that varied in intensity and allowed periods of focus on particular physical capabilities.
Proving successful, the concept was further developed by the Soviets throughout the 60’s and 70’s, where it spread around the world. The method was expanded to include ‘Macro’, ‘Meso’ and ‘Micro’ cycles which varied depending on the sport.
The macro cycle would take up the majority of the programme, with the underlying main physical requirement would be the focus for the course of the year. If we use a distance runner as an example, the macro cycle would be where there’d be a focus on pure stamina building - not particularly intense, but gradually increasing the underlying stamina.
The meso cycle would be a shorter, 2-6 week block where there’d be a focus on a particular overarching goal. Using our runner example, it might be speed endurance - the ability to increase the pace for a sustained duration.
The micro cycle would be much shorter periods of time, perhaps 1-2 weeks where the body would be allowed to recover from the macro and meso cycle work by focussing on a very nuanced aspect of training. In runners, it might be their sprint finish. Not important enough to require huge amounts of training, but a good chance to allow recovery from the longer duration work and switch focus for a while.
Applying Periodisation to the Muscle Building Year
Adding muscle is great, but we have to increase calories to allow the muscle to grow. This is never an exact science so we usually end up with some extra body fat. This is fine for the most part, but applying a periodised approach to muscle building means we can’t focus on pure volume of training all year, because we’ll burn out. Instead, it’s worth picking a time of the year for a reduction in training volume, where the focus switches from muscle gain to weight loss, allowing us to be lean enough to enjoy the hard work we’ve put in!
Look at the example below to see how this might look…
This approach shows you focussing on adding as much muscle as possible in the winter months. You’re not on the beach anyway, so the gain in body fat isn’t a huge issue. You just keep working at a high volume and intensity to force the muscle growth. Your aim isn’t to go too crazy on the weight gain though, because it’ll take longer to diet the weight away in your meso cycle of weight loss.
After three months of intense muscle building, the April/May switch up in training focus will help with motivation and also injury risk. Research shows that it brings about better outcomes in strength training and in part that may be down to managing the longer term training loads and intensity, allowing us to avoid injury and stay fresher for higher workloads throughout the year.
In the summer months, June through August, the focus is to maintain. That includes eating sensibly, training at a level that will maintain fitness and avoid injury. Enjoy your hard work!
Towards the back end of the year, you can relax the diet a little, ramp up the training and add more muscle ahead of next year. There may have been some muscle loss as the intensity dipped throughout the summer, but those meso cycles are important because they allow your body to recover and allow your mind to enjoy a new challenge and a switch in focus for a while, both of which are important for long term motivation.
We’ve written about how to gain strength muscle before, so follow our tips here… Increasing Strength - How to do it Properly.
Applying Periodisation to Muscle Building: Concluded
We wrote this article because we wanted to show you there’s life after fat loss and that your fitness goals can shift with time. When you’re in the midst of a fat loss mission it might feel never ending, but there is a point when you’re lean, so keep going!
It’s also helpful to view your training year as something that evolves and changes throughout. It’s not just about 'training all year with no change in focus’ - it’s good both physiologically and psychologically to mix up your challenges.
Embrace the mindset of multiple targets within the year and see your fitness and nutrition as something you’re in charge of, not at the mercy of!
At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!