Periodization – Get Fit and Lose Weight By Training Like Athletes

When it comes to your workouts do you take an all-or-nothing approach? Have you ever wondered how professional athletes get fit and lose weight through their training?

Perhaps it’s time to think about taking the athletes’ approach to training. There’s an exercise term called “Periodization” which basically means that you don’t always have to be working hard all of the time – sounds quite good!

Here’s what I mean.

Just What Is Periodization?

Professional athletes train for an event, a set of games or maybe a season. Their workouts are designed to bring them to peak fitness ready for the season or to be ready for the event itself.

And the rest of us? Well, we seem to want to be flat out all the time; to climb mountains every day!

We’d be better thinking of our training as a series of highs & lows and plateaus which run over days, weeks, months and even years.

The secret is to rotate the training intensity and keep your body guessing. Periodization is one tool in our kit which we can use to great effect and will help maximize results in a minimal amount of time!

Periodization Training is the Secret to Success for Most Professional Athletes

Periodization Training is the Secret to Success for Most Professional Athletes

Where did Periodization come from?

Tudor Bompa (author of “Periodization of strength: the new wave in strength training” “Serious Strength Training” and “Periodization Training For Sports” ), is considered the father of periodization.

He took the ideas of Russian sports scientists and, in the 1960s, developed them further. The results were spectacular.

Early training was aimed at maintaining the same constant levels of activity & intensity all year round. In other words, doing the same workouts week in and week out (if you’ve read the free 7-Secrets to Getting Fit and Losing Weight – Fast! report, you’ll know why this doesn’t work).

The new approach Bompa advocated was to utilise some training periods which were easier than others to promote rest and to let the body grow stronger.

Most training programs today are based on Bompa’s methods, and it’s how today’s successful athletes train.

How To Introduce Periodization To Your Fitness Program

By varying the following, you can create a program which brings you to a peak at a point in time – for example the photoshoot of a body transformation contest:

* Frequency – how often you train
* Duration – how long you train for one session
* Intensity – how hard you train in each session

Periodization goes through a number of phases as you attack different parts of your fitness program such as developing lean body mass, gaining strength, increasing endurance, gaining greater aerobic capacity. The types & lengths of these phases varies depending on your goals and on such things as the time period over which you want to achieve peak fitness, and what specific aspects of your fitness you want to maximise and perhaps which sport or event you are training for.

The Phases Of Your Periodization Progam

All the different approaches to phases, however, tend to follow a similar overall plan:

* Preparatory Phase – This usually consists of general preparation and, especially for sports related periodization, specific preparation. Usually the general preparation is the longer of the two prep phases.
* Competitive Phase – This is the phase in which you reach the peak levels of fitness for the goals you have set whether this is a sport, an event or simply looking good on the beach!
* Transition Phase – This is the rest phase and covers psychological rest, relaxation, and your body’s biological rebuilding. But this isn’t a ‘do-nothing’ phase. Alternative exercises are used in this phase to help maintain an acceptable level of general fitness.

As part of your approach to getting fit and losing weight fast, take a look at Periodization – it could be the answer to your dreams!