SS 133 – Periodization:  The Secret to Busting Thru Plateaus

Grant and Heavey discuss the idea of incorporating periodization in your training program and how this is basically superior to a non-periodized program. What is periodization in the first place? If you feel you’ve hit plateau in your training, or you’re aiming for muscle hypertrophy, or you simply want to ramp up your training to the next level, listen in to this episode.

[00:31] Is Coffee Good or Bad For You?

A quick update on Grant’s health progress, he says he is starting to feel better although he’s not sure whether it’s because of the supplements he’s taking or that he has decreased his coffee intake. An article Grant read called, Go Ahead, Have that Fourth Cup of Coffee, says that drinking up to four cups of coffee per day is safe. They went through 700 different studies on the safety of caffeine ingestion at various levels. It says they’ve found plenty of evidence that having four cups of coffee a day is completely healthy to digest although it’s not going to make you any healthier. There are no miraculous things from caffeine but they literally showed no downside. So Grant kept drinking coffee but a couple days following that, he saw another article that says, Healthy Teen Dies of Heart Problems After Too Much Caffeine. The teen actually had an energy drink, a latte, and one Diet Mountain Dew in a two-hour period.

[03:48] How Much Caffeine Do You Take Everyday?

Grant presently drinks three cups of coffee in the morning upon waking up and nothing else until the very end of the day where he drinks one more. Heavey, on the other hand, is trying to abstain from coffee for a little while. More than the flavor, he loved the habit of sitting down at his desk in the morning and getting started with work with a hot cup of coffee and enjoying that routine. What he has done recently instead so he can continue with the process is drinking tea and diluting it throughout the day as he refills the cup with hot water so the caffeine dose is a lot less. Grant calls this a habit replacement where you keep the habit and just replace it with something else. But Heavey still thinks this is a nice trade since he was trying to take out a lot of coffee from his routine. Most days, he will have a half cup of coffee right after lunch.

Grant thinks that after drinking so much coffee day after day, it was wearing him down. What Heavey uses coffee for now is a targeted thing where he drinks a cup of coffee whenever his energy is low.

[06:35] Getting to the Source

Back to Grant’s supplementation, Heavey will still keep track of his progress and probably pull the supplements out after a month or so on the full protocol to see if he notices any difference as a result of that then take it from there.

Heavey explains that you strategically use them to identify which one is making you feel better and then use that information to extrapolate what might be leading to this regulation that makes that supplement make you feel better.

For example, back in the hormones episode, Grant and Heavey talked about inflammation. If Grant pulled out the anti-inflammatory supplements he’s on and he starts feeling like crap, then they have something to hang their hat on so they’re now able to find that source of inflammation. Nevertheless, it’s good to know Grant is feeling better now.

[08:25] Getting Started with Your Training Program

Grant now seems pretty comfortable with creating exercise programs. Chris, for example, a former collegiate baseball player and who was previously on the show, came to Grant for his exercise. Grant’s first step was figuring out why he wanted a program. Chris has been working out longer than Grant has and he knows how to do all the exercises but he told Grant he felt he’s gotten in a rut and he didn’t know what to do. He wanted to incorporate kettlebells into it because he thinks it’s fun. His goal was to really lose weight and all these little things that added up to him needing a change. Ultimately, his goal was to shed off those pounds. Grant assumes this is different from his previous training experience which was more inclined to his athletic performance.

Heavey concurs on this being a great place to start when considering any training program, one, where the person is coming from, what their background is, what their current state in the gym is, and two, where they’re hoping to go. Grant knows Chris is a former athlete and he’s comfortable in doing all the movements so if he’s given a back squat, he wouldn’t be doing something crazy on his own. Plus, Chris is mostly interested in losing some fat and looking and feeling better, now that he has been in the real world for a long time and he feels detached from that athletic background.

[10:55] Grant’s Thought Process

Knowing Chris wants a little something more fun, Grant based his training program on what he has done with Heavey, which is the A1-A3, B1-B3, and C depending on what that is. Grant says you would have two to four movements depending on the size of the muscle or the reps scheme you’re doing. He also knew it would be more focused on strength training and that if he was trying to find the right number of reps for body comp, then they should shoot for the ten-rep range.

He then picked one or two big muscle groups and one or two small, supplemental one and put them in a metabolic format so it would be like A1, 2, 3, go back and forth without fully resting between sets that are not super heavy. Then he did a follow up with a fun, weighted metcon.

[12:10] German Body Comp

If you’re wondering what A1, 2, 3 means, Heavey explains it’s just doing supersets of training. You’re pairing two movements together. For example, A1 – Squat (8-10 reps) and then A2 – Bench (8-10 reps). You’re keeping the rest period short between those two movements so that the heart rate is continuing to move up.

This format where you have these supersets grouped together in A’s, B’s, and C’s is known as a German Body Comp. As the name implies, it’s for body composition change. You can really build a lot of muscle on those programs, but also, you can burn some serious fat.

Heavey has found this to be especially effective in males for body re-composition. Guys and girls respond differently to exercise. For women, Heavey found they usually need a little bit more cardio elements to stimulate fat loss more so than men in general.

[13:40] Categorizing Movements into Buckets

As far as picking out the movements, Heavey finds it helpful to categorize them in different ways. One would be the double leg movement such as squatting. For example, A1 is squatting and A2 is benching, which is a pressing movement. So then in B1 and B2, you can do a hip-hinging movement like a deadlift or an RDL and pair that with a pulling movement like a pull up.

Heavey stresses the importance of putting them in those buckets so you can mentally walk through the checklist of movements you need to do (pushing, pulling, bending, double-leg, single-leg, and core-specific stuff). Heavey’s feedback on the training program Grant made was pretty good. Grant was focused on not having too many similar movements.

Grant recommends not working two major muscle groups in the same area in one day. have one big one and another supplemental ones. Heavey adds this is a great way to go considering Chris’ circumstances.

[15:53] Careful, Pushing It Too Hard Can Hurt You

Grant gave Chris the routine to be done for three days and then asked for feedback after the first week so he can figure out his current level of strength and fitness. He asked how each one was and he started some suggestions on weights based on what he had been using.

Heavey explains that people with athletic background can push too hard when they come back to exercise even after spending a bunch of time off.  They will usually just go balls to the wall and that can cause some problems. In fact, Chris ended up hurting his back a bit, getting ambitious with the kettlebells.

[18:00] Periodization and Linear Progression

After the first week of feedback, Chris wanted to weave in other exercises such as swimming, running, and biking. They are basically doing the three days over two weeks. Heavey comes in with this idea of periodization. As much as there are components of an individual session, there’s also this concept of periodization, which is a way of organizing your training by which you manipulate different training variables.

For example, in training, there are a bunch of variables you can manipulate such as volume, intensity, and tempo. Volume is the number of sets and reps and the weight you use for your workout. Intensity is the weights you’re using relative to your max like do reps at 60% or do reps at 90%.

Heavey suggests pairing this with a linear progression program which is more in line with the instruction Grant gave to Chris. Linear progression is, for instance, A1 is back/squat for 8-10 reps starting with a 135 lbs then increase it to 140 the next week and then 145 the week after that. But after so many weeks, that stops working. Heavey says you can’t just keep adding five pounds per week forever or you’d be the world’s strongest man very soon.

[20:33] Examples of Periodized Programs

Heavey explains there are different ways of organizing your training. A perfect example of periodization is when Grant did three weeks of progressively heavier lifts at lower rep ranges and then on the fourth week, he pulled back the intensity and did a deload week. So you’re basically ramping up the intensity and trying to go to a place where you’re over-reaching a little bit in that third week and then do a much lower intensity week to let your body fully recover. After that, they tested one reps and across the board, everybody is getting new maxes. This is just one example of periodization. Other examples of periodized programs include 5/3/1, Smolov, and Hatch Squat. Most of the research on these things demonstrated that periodized programs are superior to non-periodized training programs over the long run.

[22:05] The Goal of Periodization

The main goal of a periodized program is to keep that line going in an upward direction to avoid that plateau. By periodized programs being superior, Grant points out that it doesn’t mean superior in strength gains but it’s more on longevity. But Heavey says it’s more difficult to tell because with 5/3/1, for instance, instead of just trying to add five pounds per week, you’re adding more than that every week but you’re lessening your reps. So it’s not an apple to apple comparison. Nevertheless, the idea is to avoid plateaus and to keep pushing forward. Heavey adds that the caveat here is that if you’re a beginner, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing. You can just do anything and continue to make progress.

[23:15] Block Periodization

There are different types of periodization. Block periodization, such as Wendler, consists of short-term blocks (training phases) which is an average of 46 weeks in duration where you have a specific focus during that block. The idea for Wendler was to increase your max so the focus of that block was for absolute strength. In a block periodization program, for example, you can do six weeks focusing on absolute strength and follow that up with six weeks focused on hypertrophy or muscle-building. It’s complementary as you build muscle and work on your strength again to recruit that new muscle more efficiently. So you got that ramped up, do the deload then you can tag on another block right after that.

[24:43] Hypertrophy, Strength, and Power Blocks

If your goal is body comp, Heavey says it makes sense to do a training program where you’re bouncing back and forth between hypertrophy and strength. Hypertrophy is driven largely by the volume you move in a session but volume is influenced by the amount of weight you can do. So if you increased the amount of weight you can do during a strength block and follow that up with a hypertrophy block, Heavey says you may be able to make more use of a more effective hypertrophy block since you just finished the strength block.

You can basically design a block and call it anything but the common ones are strength, hypertrophy, and power. Strength block would be moving the largest load possible while power is more of the speed stuff that involves moving a large load fasts.

[26:30] Powerlifting vs. Weightlifting

Powerlifting traditionally focuses on squat, deadlifting, and bench press. Olympic weightlifting consists of the snatch and clean and jerk, which are fast movements. Bar speed is of utmost importance in those movements but it’s not important in a powerlifting sport environment but the total amount of weight you can lift.

Strength has this whole spectrum of absolute strength to power and speed strength, etc. So these are just a couple of options for power, strength, and hypertrophy. But all these stuff exist within the spectrum. If you’re a wide receiver, for instance, your blocks might look a lot different than if you’re a lineman.

[28:00] Conditioning Program for Stamina

You can also periodize condition work if your goal is stamina. This is something you need to do if you have a progressive program or you will otherwise plateau just the same way.

Back in the gym, Heavey ran an endurance program where his wife, Nicole, had that whole periodized program built into it. Grant actually almost ran under 6-minute mile as he was part of the pilot program. Throughout the course of that six weeks, Grant decided to hit the six-minute mile goal but he felt like it was random things of doing sprints, 5k, or medium.

[29:11] Undulating Periodization vs. Block Periodization

Another type of periodization is called undulating periodization. One example of this is the daily undulating periodization where each day has its own focus. In a week, you may have a strength day, a hypertrophy day, and a power day. When Nicole built that conditioning program Grant did, they may have had three different focuses throughout the week and this is known as daily undulating periodization.

One study that Heavey found about this compared a group of women and a block periodized program against a weekly undulating periodization program. Each week, they had a different focus and these were trained women, not beginners. They trained three days a week for a period of ten weeks and did body composition before and after assessments and strength before and after assessments. Both groups increased their lean mass and lost fat. The undulating group saw a 5.8% increase in their thigh cross sectional area compared to a 1.6% increase in the block group. So there was much greater hypertrophy in the legs in the weekly undulating periodized group. Then they also took a look at the strength measures. The bench press stayed fixed for both groups but deadlift and squat went up. In the weekly undulating periodized group, they saw an increase of 28% in their squat compared to a 15% increase in the block group. So they saw pretty significant differences between the weekly undulating group and the block group. For this particular study as well as the other studies Heavey has read, the undulating approach seems to have an edge over block periodization.

Again, block periodization is the 5/3/1 for instance. Daily undulating periodization is where each day is focused on a specific goal like strength day, hypertrophy day, power day. In this study, the women did weekly undulating periodization so they’re broken into strength week, hypertrophy week, power week. It doesn’t mean the strength weeks were always the same thing, but that was the focus in those particular training sessions.

[32:20] Validation through Scientific Research

Grant is wondering though how early day bodybuilders were able to get good without all of these studies. Heavey is not sure if these studies actually do more harm than good because they can be completely manipulated. There are so many different studies that lead to different conclusions. At the end of the day, there is probably a little better performance from undulating periodization but any sort of periodization seems to be beneficial. Heavey thinks the reason they looked at undulating periodization because that’s what people were doing  20 years ago in the gym and it was working. They didn’t need research to tell them, they were just doing it. Those people experimented and found what worked for them and this led to scientific research. Hence, scientific research ends up validating the things already working in the gym.

[33:30] Making Your Own Periodized Program

It seems harder to make these periodized program compared to linear programs which are super simple. Heavey thinks beginners need this simple program and it works perfectly well for them. Then once you graduate from that, you can broaden your horizons. He recommends doing a google search to find example of undulating periodization programs online.

It would obviously benefit you if you work with a coach because they can ask you the right questions and they can help shape the program that is perfect for you. But if you’re willing to do some of the work yourself and you’re satisfied with somewhat lesser results then there’s no reason you can’t do it on your own.

Links:

Go Ahead, Have that Fourth Cup of Coffee

Healthy Teen Dies of Heart Problems After Too Much Caffeine