Hello, it’s Fitness Coach Will Levin of Older Guys Fitness here to talk about periodization and progression in creating an optimum fitness plan, for everyone but especially for men over 40.. Periodization and progression are fitness concepts which are intertwined; we could say they have a symbiotic relationship. To optimize your fitness plan periodization and progression are crucial. It is not enough to hit the gym when you have the time or inclination. Or to go for a jog now and then.
PERIODIZATION
Let’s start with periodization, which is also called planned fitness training. There exist three periodization cycles: macrocycle (annual plan), mesocycle (monthly plan), and microcycle (weekly plan). And within the weekly plan there are daily plans.
Within these periodization cycles, a proper fitness plan will advance toward your fitness goals. Depending on your current fitness level, you will generally start slow and low. For example, let’s say a 20 minute walk has you sweating and winded. So in the first week you will walk 20 minutes. The next week you will walk 25 or 30 minutes and so on. This increasing of the time of your walks is called progression.
PROGRESSION AND THE GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (GAS)
This brings us to the concept of progression, which is based on the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), which describes how the body responds and adapts to stress; such as a resistance training program. So using the GAS principle in relation to progression, you need to continue to increase the stress on the body to cause more adaptation. GAS applies to resistance training and cardiorespiratory training or any other human activity that stresses the body.
ACUTE EXERCISE VARIABLES
When progressing in a periodized plan we manipulate acute exercise variables, such as repetitions, load (weight), sets, volume, and intensity. We manipulate the acute exercise variables to put more stress on the body in accordance with the GAS principle and aimed at achieving our fitness goals.
Let’s look at definitions of the acute exercise variables mentioned above:
- Repetition: one complete movement of a single exercise
- Sets: a group of consecutive repetitions
- Load: the weight used to perform a set
- Volume: amount of physical training (work) performed in a specified time period.
- Intensity: the level of effort to perform a workout; how hard it is to do (sprinting 100 Yards is harder than jogging it)
- Frequency: number of workouts in a defined period, such as a week
OLDER GUYS FITNESS 40+ MUSCLE MASS: PERIODIZATION AND PROGRESSION
Let’s use the Older Guys Fitness 40+ Muscle Mass program as an example in order to develop the concepts of periodization and progression. My 40+ Muscle Mass program is 90 days, and so it has monthly, weekly and daily resistance exercises, which progress.
To demonstrate this let’s assume my client is a 48 year old man (Jack) who jogs regularly, has his body fat under control but who has not been in the gym, or done any resistance training, in two years. He wants to build muscle mass.
Jack is in decent cardiorespiratory health because of his regular jogging. That’s good because it will assist his desire to build muscle. The problem is he is 48 and has not done any resistance exercise in two years. And his muscles and connective tissue (ligaments and tendons) are not ready for intense hypertrophy (muscle mass) training.
In Jack’s case he needs to start out slow and low, which means high repetitions and low weight in order to establish stability in his muscles and connective tissue before he starts very intensive hypertrophy training. I know we men want to get right into “pumping iron.” That’s a bad idea because Jack risks injury that will set him back weeks or more.
Without getting into the entire 40+ Muscle Mass program let’s use the chest press as an example exercise. In week 1 Jack will do two sets of 15 repetitions at a light load for 3-4 days. In week 2 Jack will do three sets of 15 repetitions with the same load. The progression here is adding a set. And in week 3 Jack will do two sets of 12 repetitions with a higher load. The progression is increasing the load and decreasing the repetitions. In week 4 Jack will do three sets of 12 repetitions with the higher load. Notice that during the first 4 weeks, Jack has increased his volume and intensity on the chest press. Can you see the progression?
By week 5 Jack has prepared his muscles and connective tissue sufficiently to start hypertrophy training. He will reduce repetitions to 10 and increase load, which will increase intensity. Over the next 8 weeks Jack will continue to increase the load on the chest press and also increase the number of sets. That will increase his total volume. That’s progression! See my article the Right Way to do Hypertrophy Training.
In conclusion, it’s not enough to hit the gym when you have the time or inclination. To get optimum results, whether muscle mass gains or fat loss, you need a periodized fitness plan which progresses according to the GAS principle and acute variables throughout the time frame of the plan.
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