Do you compete in a sport? Do you want to excel in fitness, rather than just be “generally fit” (whatever that means)? This is for you.

You won’t get a personalised program in this post (which you will ultimately need if you’re a high level athlete), but you will get guidelines that will help you to develop good strength and conditioning programs.

Firstly, what is periodisation?

Periodisation is the process of working through multiple training phases, each with their own specific goals, to accumulate into high level outcomes in a greater overarching goal, while avoiding overtraining. There are a variety of different methods to periodisation, but all the different models I’ve seen (with all their fancy, ambiguous names) are some strategy to systematically increase performance across a variety of areas of fitness.

Linear Periodisation

This is the simplest method of periodisation. Let’s say you have 20 weeks between now and when you’ll be competing next. In that time, you need to improve your strength and power in the gym in order to optimise your performance on the field. Here’s a basic rundown of what that might look like:

Weeks 1-8: Hypertrophy training. You’ll be using a relatively high training volume and eating in a calorie surplus in order to build some muscle. This added muscle mass will give you the mechanical means to lift more weight when you enter the next training phase. You will use a lot of the same exercises that you’ll be using for max strength and power later on, in order to practice the movement patterns as much as possible and minimise any delays caused by having to learn new movements later. Typically you’ll be training in about the 8-12 rep range, although it could be slightly higher than that. Your training intensity will be 60-80% of your previous 1RM, starting at the lower end of that range and working up to the higher end of that range as the weeks go by. You won’t go for lower reps/higher intensity than that, because that will come soon enough.

Weeks 9-14: Max strength training. During this phase, you’ll be taking the muscle mass and skill you built during the hypertrophy phase and maximising your force output. If you use an actual 1RM, you’ll be testing this in the final week, with each week leading up to that. Other than that, you’ll be focusing on your performance in the 3-5 rep range, and working mostly at 80-90% 1RM. Ideally, if you test your 1RM at the end, it should be more than 100% of your previous 1RM.

Weeks 15-20: Power training. During this phase, you’ll be taking all the force output you’ve developed in the max strength phase, and learning to apply it to external loads really, really quickly. This will require a lot of technique and a lot of effort with every rep. The intensity will typically be lower than the max strength phase, and depending on your sport it could be really low. I’ve seen programs where the intensity in this phase ranges from as little as 20% 1RM to as high as 80% on the regular strength lifts and even 100% on specific power exercises (eg cleans, snatches, jerks, push presses, which you would be practicing during the earlier training phases in order to make use of them now). The goal is not to do as many reps as possible, but to do your reps as fast as possible.

In 20 weeks, you’ve built more muscle. That muscle has allowed you to increase your max strength. That strength has allowed you to increase your power. Outside of the gym, that power has increased how much force you can apply rapidly to the movements of your sport, whether that be sprinting, throwing a ball, swinging a bat, or whatever the case may be.

In the example given, the phases are 8, 6 and 6 weeks long, respectively. This is enough time to see results in each area, but a small enough amount of time to prevent burning out in each phase.

Here’s a very simple depiction of what this might look like for you:

Hypertrophy
Week 1: 3x15x60%
Week 2: 3x15x65%
Week 3: 3x12x67.5%
Week 4: 3x12x70%
Week 5: 3x10x72.5%
Week 6: 3x10x75%
Week 7: 3x8x77.5%
Week 8: 3x8x80%

Max Strength
Week 9: 3x5x82.5%
Week 10: 3x5x85%
Week 11: 3x3x87.5%
Week 12: 3x3x90%
Week 13: 3x2x92.5%
Week 14: New 1RM: 105% previous max

Power
Week 15: 1x5x80%, 3x5x60%
Week 16: 1x4x85%, 3x4x70%
Week 17: 1x3x90%, 3x3x80%
Week 18: 5x2x65%
Week 19: 5x2x75%
Week 20: 6-10x1x85%