Why do people who train regularly sometimes go through periods of no change in whatever objective they have set themselves? Be it to lose weight, tone up or to put on heaps of muscle?
Well a number of reasons could answer the question of why. Very often though, it is because one of the fundamental rules of personal training have been broken.
And that is the need for periodization!
Simply put, Periodization means that unless your routine changes, your body will adapt and will no longer make the progress it once did.
Periodization is what any trainer worth his/her salt should use as a matter of course, unless the client has a goal that will take the shortest of time scales to achieve.
This makes sense if you consider that if you started training with great vigour and keenness in January, as part of a New Year’s resolution that you somehow managed to keep! By March of the same year you’ll have a very different body compared to the one you started with.
The March version of you may need a very different program than the January post-Xmas and New Year version of you!
Periodization breaks the oft quoted rule that if you keep on doing the same old things you’re going to get the same old results! Your body is a wonderful thing and will adapt to whatever stresses and strains you place upon it, so if progress is to continue, something needs to change. No matter how counter-intuitive this is, it remains the truth.
This does not mean you need to continuously increase the intensity of your sessions; therein lies the way of over-training and eventual physical breakdown. Rather, what you will need to do is to modify the routines and exercises so that your body has a different experience and is given new challenges to adapt to.
The way I work is to get very clear on my client’s goals and objectives, and also to complete a variety of tests to find out current levels of fitness and stamina. This enables me to create a training program designed to meet your overall objectives and one that is also broken down into days, weeks and months. You might call this is a plan–a proper one!
One rule that remains true is “Failing to Plan means you are Planning to Fail”!
So plan to succeed in your fitness and health objectives by contacting me at [email protected].
