The Importance Of Periodization Plan

When designing a client’s program, it is very important to have a long-term plan. While day to day workouts are what most people think of when picturing their personal trainer, the real results do not come overnight, or as the result of a single workout, or even after months of workouts. The cumulative effects of months and years of workouts produce the dramatic results. Haff and Triplett summarize periodization as the “theoretical and practical construct that allows for the systematic, seqwntial, and integrative programming of training interventions into mutually dependent period of time in order to induce specific physiological adaptations that underpin performance outcomes” (Haff & Triplett, 2016). Logistically, periodization is the practice

The three parts of a periodized plan are the macrocycle (the entire program, usually a training year), mesocycle (2-6 week periods within the macrocycle), and microcycle (the actual training week within the mesocycle) (Haff & Triplett, 2016). A successful training program allows for management of the adaptive and recovery responses to specific interventions that are delivered in a structured way. The reason a periodized plan is so successful is because it never allows the body to fully adapt to the imposed stresses being placed on it.

Intensity refers to the percentage being lifted of your one repetition maximum (1RM); the higher the percentage, the higher the intensity level. Finding a client’s 1RM should only be attempted with those clients who have an experienced fitness level and no medical conditions. A periodization model typically begins by laying a fitness foundation first. The foundation involves basic exercises and movements to strengthen tendons and ligaments and preparing the body for the training stress ahead. This phase usually employs a relatively higher number of reps (10-15) and low to moderate volume. This is usually referred to as a hypertrophy phase and lasts

Absolute strength is the basis for all other types of anaerobic strength for any type of athletic exercises. Specifically for football, power, strength, acceleration, velocity, muscle endurance, flexibility, hand-eye coordination, balance, grip strength, and Speed & Agility are all physiological performance factors that need to be address in the mescocycle. Day one and three of the mesocycle, targets lower body adaptations, and two and four focuses on upper body. Polymeric training is performed every other training session to prevent overtraining and proper anaerobic muscle adaptations. Moreover, these sessions will be thoughts of as power training rather than cardio respiratory conditioning exercises, so the rest times between exercises are between 2-3 minutes (Haff & Triplett, 2016). In addition to ploymetrics, sport demand exercises will be performed at each training session in order to specialize this program toward the football team. Using the needs analysis, most exercises will target grip, core, and arm strength since those are the main requirements for a football