The Effects of Periodized Training on Cardiovascular Fitness and Exercise Performance.
Periodization, or the systematic planning of exercise and athletic training, can be an invaluable asset to anyone pursuing serious fitness goals, from marathon runners and CrossFitters to Olympians. According to physiologist Pete McCall, it allows workouts to maximize gains while minimizing risks.
Linear and nonlinear periodization both produce similar results; nonlinear models tend to change load and volume more frequently – such as daily or weekly–making them better suited for endurance athletes. Undulating periodization involves cycling through different kinds of workouts.
Increased Muscle Strength and Power
As part of any training cycle, periods of high volume and intensity should be alternated with lower volume and intensity training periods in order to prevent stagnation in strength and power gains as the body adjusts to new stressors.
Periodized training can benefit all types of clients. From weightlifters striving to beat their personal best to runners looking to cut time on 5K races, using periodized programs can help achieve fitness goals more quickly and safely.
As soon as a client begins a periodized program, the initial step should be determining their current fitness level and goals. After this has been established, then progress should be based on specific abilities and needs. Once your overall plan is in place, break it down further into macrocycles and mesocycles with each mesocycle having one training block lasting weeks or months that provides hypertrophy, basic strength and power phases to follow during that training block period.
Improved Cardiovascular Health
Periodized training not only increases muscular strength and endurance, but can also contribute to improving your cardiovascular health. Its physiological principles involve gradually stressing your body over time before giving it time to recover before repeating this cycle until you see gradual improvements in overall fitness.
Studies have demonstrated the positive benefits of periodized resistance and aerobic training on cardiorespiratory fitness, physical performance and body composition among sedentary individuals. Furthermore, nonlinear periodized exercise (NLPE) improves established and emerging biomarkers of early vascular aging.
There are various non-periodized training models, including uniform, linear progressive, and random workloads; however, only a handful of studies have examined its effects in relation to sedentary individuals. Undulating and block periodization methods provide cyclical variations in workout volume and intensity; undulating periodization involves cycling through variables in order to impose multifaceted workloads and achieve desired results; while for newer models such as FNLP that uses changing workout volume and intensity according to pre-exercise state are popular methods.
Reduced Risk of Injury
Periodization helps decrease injury risk by providing ample rest between intense training sessions, and planning out all progressions logically to minimize unintended increases in intensity or volume that could cause injury.
Improve Motivation and Adherence: Periodization can boost motivation and adherence by keeping workouts interesting and challenging, which increases adherence and motivation when results take time to show themselves. This approach may be especially useful when results don’t show immediately.
Plateau Avoidance: Periodization can help avoid stagnant strength gains by including specific peaking times for each exercise for specific performance goals like Olympic lifting and powerlifting. Powerlifters need to train multiple repetitions close to their one-rep maximum in order to achieve the best lift at competition.
Though the benefits of periodized training are evident, it is crucial that each client evaluate their starting point and goals prior to beginning any periodized program. Furthermore, there are different forms of periodization models such as linear progressive and undulating (Kramer & Fleck 2004) with linear progressive offering gradual intensity increases over time while undulating or nonlinear allows more drastic shifts in intensity levels.
Increased Self-Esteem
Periodization can be daunting for trainers and gym-goers. In order to successfully implement an exercise program, it’s wise to seek advice from an exercise expert such as a strength and conditioning coach or exercise physiologist in order to ensure your client’s individualized programming meets all their fitness and recovery needs resulting in optimal performance.
Periodization models typically consist of traditional linear progressive (LP) and undulating periodic training (UP). With both models, progression occurs gradually with increasing volume and intensity over time while in UP there may be frequent alterations to load either weekly or daily, creating wave-like progression towards an ultimate goal.
UP may be more effective than LP in improving max strength, power and isometric strength for sedentary adults due to its capacity to foster greater muscular hypertrophy through novelty in training programs and increased training variety. More research needs to be conducted regarding long-term adherence and training satisfaction when considering the effectiveness of UP among this population group.
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