Periodisation

Periodisation is the deliberate structuring of training over time, varying volume, intensity and emphasis across weeks and months rather than repeating the same session indefinitely.

The reasoning is that fitness and fatigue both accumulate, and they accumulate at different rates. Push in one direction for long enough and fatigue masks the fitness underneath, which is why a structured plan alternates loading with lighter periods so adaptation can surface.

The classical model runs blocks from higher volume and lower intensity towards lower volume and higher intensity, peaking for a competition. Undulating models vary the emphasis within each week instead. Block periodisation concentrates on one quality at a time. Comparisons between them are far less decisive than their advocates suggest.

That is the honest state of the evidence: periodised training generally beats doing the same thing forever, and no particular model has clearly beaten the others across the literature. Total volume and progression matter more than which template you followed.

For most people who are not competing, the useful version is modest. Progress a block of work for several weeks, take an easier week when performance stalls or fatigue accumulates, change emphasis every few months, and keep the long term direction upwards.

Where it earns its keep is in preventing the two common failure modes: grinding the same session until it stops working, and changing the programme every fortnight so nothing is ever progressed long enough to produce an adaptation.

In practice, plan in blocks of several weeks, plan the easier week before you need it, and keep a logbook so you can see whether the structure is actually producing progress. Our training volume calculator tracks the load side.