Undulating periodization for bodybuilders

Weekly undulating periodization, where the training load changes from day to day, is a way of progressing in which the training load changes several times within a week. In practice, the same cycle repeats on average every 5 – 14 days.

Daily undulating periodization, where the load changes from day to day, is currently one of the most popular versions of “non-linear” periodization. Put simply, organizing your training according to this concept means that set lengths, and with them the weights used, change non-linearly from workout to workout across the week. You don’t have to add weight in every single workout, the weight in a set doesn’t have to keep rising, and the set doesn’t have to get longer at the same weight.

Translator’s note: in undulating periodization, “undulating” means that a repeating cycle contains several workouts with different training loads. In very general terms, we can talk about “heavy” weeks, “medium” weeks and “light” weeks. In weekly undulating periodization, one week with its own load range forms, so to speak, one small wave. The fact that a cycle (a big wave) contains several small waves means that the load undulates over the course of the cycle, that is, the volume and character of the stress coming from training change during the cycle. The changing load creates small waves within the cycle, and successive cycles can be treated as big waves.

The simplest way to apply this kind of periodization is to build workouts for each training day that cover different rep ranges. By focusing on different rep ranges, we can do this with the same exercise on different days, but we can also use different rep ranges on different days for different exercises. Once the cycle is finished, we start again from the beginning.

I certainly don’t want to feed you nothing but dry theory; I’d rather give examples of the different options. Still, a few things need explaining before the examples.

The term “undulating periodization of training” appeared in 1988, when Charles Poliquin wrote an article on training cycles for the NSCA journal. In it he describes short training cycles of 3 – 4 weeks in which the load changes in waves, alternating between an accumulation phase (volume phase or consolidation phase) and an intensification phase.

By the accumulation phase, Poliquin means training with high volume: more sets and more exercises per muscle group/body part, with relatively long sets. The intensification phase focuses more on shorter sets and heavier weights, and the aim is to work the weights up in pyramids within the chosen rep range.

Put simply, the idea behind applying load in waves is that by changing the character of the load every few weeks, you try to head off a plateau in training progress. When the character of the stimulus coming from training keeps changing, progress lasts longer and the body doesn’t adapt to the training very quickly. Another good feature of progression built this way is that by “playing” with the load like this, we give ourselves more time to develop in the long run. It isn’t very hard to exceed the body’s capacity to recover from training load, especially load that is uniform in character and lasts a long time.

Translator’s note: as I understand it, varying the load in waves began with weekly undulating periodization, that is, a new rep range every week.

In recent years research has gone even deeper, and a lot of work has been done on the concept of applying different loads (including set lengths) that change from day to day within the week. So whereas Poliquin originally proposed changing the load week by week over a 3 – 4 week period, daily undulating periodization involves changing the load within the week, on literally every day (translator’s note: here we are of course talking about training the same muscle group/body part several times a week).

How does daily undulating periodization work?

In the simplest terms, you choose 3 – 4 separate workouts, and the workouts (or exercise systems) built with different loads are rotated according to that split. Suppose you train three days a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and let’s also assume we train on a full-body split. Now, based on different rep ranges, we build four different workouts: workouts A, B, C and D. We could also build just three different workouts. But if we’ve decided to use four workouts across three training days a week, they simply rotate: workout A on Monday, workout B on Wednesday, workout C on Friday, and when Monday comes round again, workout D. On Wednesday we start over with workout A, on Friday workout B, and so on. The cycle repeats once all 4 days have been done. It doesn’t matter whether each training day falls on a fixed day of the week. What matters is that the different workouts use the different set lengths you want (different training loads). Set lengths are what dictate the weight used in the set, and together the two create the variety between workouts and, through it, the undulation.

How exactly do you use undulating periodization in your training?

When we talk about bodybuilding or strength training in general, the main principle of building load waves is that across the different workouts (translator’s note: per body part/lift or muscle) we cover the rep range that serves our goals and matters to us. Different rep ranges automatically determine the different intensities to use in workouts, as well as the training volume. For example, we can organize our chest training on the principle that we want one chest workout with higher volume but low intensity (weights), a second with medium intensity (weights) and moderate volume, and a third with high intensity (weights) and low volume. Here is an example of applying daily undulating load to pressing, assuming we do a full-body split and press three times a week.

Week – three workouts – bench press – load waves on different days:

Monday (workout A) – bench press – 10-12 reps
Tuesday (workout B) – bench press – 6-8 reps
Wednesday (workout C) – bench press – 4-6 reps

As mentioned, this particular approach, training a lift/muscle/body part three times a week, works great if you use a full-body split and you’re a beginner. But the split itself isn’t all that central when it comes to undulating your training.

Translator’s note: this kind of load undulation can also be used for all the exercises on your full-body days.

That said, we can also train four times a week, use three waves to vary the training load, and spread our three different rep ranges over two weeks. Say we train on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We use an upper/lower body approach. (Translator’s note: which is a very good way to split the body.)

In that case, the load waves develop as follows:

Monday – upper body (10 – 12 reps)
Tuesday – lower body (10 – 12 reps)
Thursday – upper body (6 – 8 reps)
Friday – lower body (6 – 8 reps)
Next week:
Monday – upper body (4 – 6 reps)
Tuesday – lower body (4 – 6 reps)
Thursday – upper body (10 – 12 reps)
Friday – lower body (10 – 12 reps)
And so the cycle keeps repeating.

Four different small load waves make up one cycle, or one big wave. How wide a rep range you try to cover, and which rep ranges (or constant rep count) you wave through, depends on your own goals and preferences. Clearly, if you want to use four different rep ranges or rep counts (four different small waves), the cycle spreads out a bit more than it does with three rep ranges.

Four rep ranges, or four different waves, that make up one cycle:

Workout A – 4 x 12
Workout B – 5 x 8
Workout C – 4 x 6
Workout D – 6 x 3

In this cycle of four load waves, two workouts have higher volume and lower intensity, and two have slightly lower volume but higher intensity (heavier weights). The waves, or four rep ranges, given above as an example can be used freely with full-body splits as well as with upper/lower body approaches. It’s just that if you use an upper/lower split and do 4 workouts a week, one big-wave cycle lasts 2 weeks and then repeats every two weeks.

Westside style: combined workouts…

With this kind of combined style, we mix different options.

Three days a week

Three workouts a week of course assumes that we train on non-consecutive days, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Option I…full-body

Monday – workout A (high volume/low intensity)
Wednesday – workout B (medium volume/moderate intensity)
Friday – workout C (low volume/high intensity)
If you have put together four different workouts with four different rep ranges, they simply run on a rolling basis, as explained earlier.

Option II – upper/lower body

This is an option if you don’t want to use a full-body split and want to divide the body into upper and lower body, but still want to stay at three workouts a week.
Week I
Monday – lower body
Wednesday – upper body
Friday – lower body
Week II
Monday – upper body
Wednesday – lower body
Friday – upper body

Four days a week

Although you might even get by with four full-body workouts a week, I still wouldn’t recommend it. With four workouts, it would be more productive to use an upper/lower split.

In that case, a specific rep range would always coincide with a specific day of the week, regardless of whether you train on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, or every other day: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It’s just that the first option gives you two consecutive rest days, while the second lets you spread the more intense workouts out more.

More than 4 workouts a week

If your genetics allow it and the ambition is there, it’s possible to train even more than 4 times a week, but I’m definitely in no hurry to recommend that. In that case, you can split your body into lower and upper body and add one more workout in which we train chosen body parts (muscles), for example shoulders, calves or arms.

For example:
Monday – heavy upper body (chest/back)
Tuesday – heavy lower body (squats, other exercises for the thighs)
Thursday – moderate upper body (with an emphasis on arms)
Friday – heavy back (deadlift, barbell row, back of the thigh)
Saturday – light full-body (shoulders, arms, calves, abs)

Something like this, for example; it doesn’t have to be exactly this way. The split above is built around the upper/lower split, but it has been adapted more toward bodybuilding goals. Of course, you can put the split together yourself, according to your own goals and possibilities.

But if you want to use undulating periodization, these principles still apply. Workouts set up around different rep ranges vary, rather than “blasting” through the same routine every session.

To be continued…

Author: Janar Rückenberg (translation)

Source:Turg.Fitness.ee

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