Periodization
Is the organisation of training into blocks. Each with a specific goal. The general idea of the methods I will advise is to significantly increase the difficulty of training over a short period, 2-3 weeks for example. Then take a step back, and allow your body to catch up. The easier weeks will give you the most hypertrophy, as your body will be adapting to the stimulus from the very tough weeks.
Option 1 volume loading
As it sounds like, this entails increasing the volume(more specifically the number of sets) that you train with.
I would adivse starting with 3 wets per workout, and each workout, add a set.
The problem you are left with now, is how to know when to stop
adding sets, and when to have an easier week. I have found the best way to do this is to go by how you feel. If you feel overly lethargic in your high set workouts, take a deload.
I assume this would happen between 7 and 9 sets per workout, depending on the person.
Here is a basic 4 week cycle, assuming you train a muscle 2x per week in an upper/lower split:
week 1: first upper/lower days 2 sets, 2nd days 3 sets
week 2: first upper/lower days 4 sets, 2nd days 5 sets
week 3: first upper/lower days 6 sets, 2nd days 7 sets
week 4: first upper/lower days 8 sets, 2nd days 8 sets
week 5, the deload. You will perform 1upper and 1 lower
workout, 2 sets per exercise.
Next to come is intensity loading...ill do this when I come back from work. Any questions so far?
Option 2 Intensity loading
Intensity refers to the distance one performs from their repetition maximum.
for example if you failed at 10 reps with 100lbs on bench press, your 10RM would be 100lbs. 70% effort would be 70lbs, 85% effort 85lbs etc.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about intensity loading is HST. Using full body workouts. I will not write anything about HST, but I will post a link to the website, where a detailed explanation can be found:
www.hypertrophy-specific.com
a further description of HST can be found here
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hreadid=280813
I have not seen much literature about twice per week training, and manipulating intensity, but in the future I will experiment with something along the lines of this:
All weeks have 2 upper/lower body workouts. The above listed workouts can be used. All 3 sets of 6-8 reps
week 1 all sets 1 rep shy of failure(90% of 8RM for example)
week 2 all sets to failure
week 3 all sets to failure + 2 forced reps/rest pause reps
week 4 all sets to failure, followed by a dropset of 60% of the weight you just used
week 5 deload, as with volume loading.
Option 3 frequency loading
Indicates training with the same volume in workouts, more times per week.
For twice per week training. One may choose to increase the number of workouts to 6 per week(3upper/lower) much alike fortified irons hypertrophy program. There are however many options, I will list my favoutite ideas below.
All 3 sets of 6-8 reps
week 1: 2 upper + 2 lower workouts M,Tu,Th,F
week 2: 3 upper + 2 lower workouts M,Tu,Th,F,Sa
week 3: 3 upper + 3 lower workouts M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa
week 4: 3 upper + 4 lower workouts M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su
Week 5, and 6 if needed(as this will be very taxing) deload
For a full body split, you may like to do something like this:
Week 1: 2 workouts
Week 2: 3 workouts
Week 3: 4 workouts
Week 5: 5 workouts
Week 5: Deload
Option 4 Density loading
Density refers to the amount of work one does in a specific time. Say for example you perform 15 sets of 6-8 reps in an hour, increasing density would mean doing 16, or 17 sets. This can be achieved by reducing th rest time between sets. And/or adding more sets. This is similar to volume loading, but not entirely the same.
Week 1: 75secs between compounds, 60secs between isolations
Week 2: 60 secs between compounds, 45 secs between isolations
Week 3: 60 secs between compounds, 45 secs between isolations, add 1 set ofeach exercise
Week 4: 45 secs between compounds, 30 secs between isolations, add another set of each exercise
Week 5: Deload
Further options
You'll have to be very careful with the length of your loading weeks in the next cycles I suggest, as you will be loading more than 1 variable at a time. Overreaching will occur very quickly, so regular deloads would be required.
Volume + frequency loading
For this I would advise a 4 week cycle, 3 weeks load, 1 week deload:
Week 1: 2x upper+2x lower workouts, 3 sets per workout
Weeks 2 and 3: Upper/lower/rest/repeat every other workout adding 1 set per exercise. It will look like:
3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6 (sets per exercise)
Week 4(and 5 if nessecary): deload
Frequency + Intensity
Week 1: 2x upper 2x lower 3 sets per workout
Week 2: 2x upper 2x lower 3 sets per workout to failure
Week 3: upper/lower/upper/rest/lower/upper/lower 3 sets to failure + a dropset of 60% of the weight u used on the last set of each exercise
Week 4(and 5 if nessecary): deload
Summary of periodization
You can load Volume, Frequency, Intensity and density.
This is not an exhaustive list though. It is possible to load more than 1 variable at once, 2 or 3 can all be used concurently. The only difference being the length of the loading phase must be shorter, and the deload possibly longer.
Linear Mode
