Undulating Periodization for Bodybuilding

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Undulating Periodization for Bodybuilding Myosynthesis

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October 7, 2011

Daily undulating periodization is a form of

planning that occurs over the weekly level (though

in practice the actual cycle may repeat anywhere

from every five to 14 days). This is the most

commonly cited version of nonlinear

periodization, where the actual progress from

workout to workout nonlinear so theres no

HIT-style must add weight every workout

thinking in play.

The easiest way to do this is simply to create

different kinds of workouts say focusing on

different rep ranges, exercises, or both and then

go through them in order. Once youve done them

all, start over. It really is that easy.


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I dont really want to labor the theory side of

things, since this is about laying out a workout,

but Ill touch on a few points.

Undulating periodization, at least using that

terminology, is commonly credited to Charles

Poliquin from a 1988 article he wrote for the

NSCA Journal. In that article, he laid out a

process for waving or undulating your workouts

over brief cycles of 3-4 weeks, moving from

accumulation to intensification training.

Accumulation is simply high-volume training

higher reps, more sets, more exercises, and so on.

Intensification is the opposite, with a focus on

heavier weights, lower reps, and an emphasis on

pushing up your working weights. The idea is that


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by alternating the emphasis every few weeks, you

prevent the body from stagnating and falling into

a rut. The stimulus changes, so you keep progress

going longer. Theres probably something to be

said for slowing down the rate of long-term gains

as well; its fairly easy to push yourself past your

bodys ability to handle gains if youre just

mindlessly focusing on getting stronger. The

variety keeps you from burning yourself out by

pushing too hard, too quickly.

More recent research from different parties has

looked into the concept of daily undulating

periodization, where you rotate between different

workouts over a weekly cycle, instead of Poliquins

weekly cycles. Depending on how you arrange


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things this weekly cycle could be anything from

five days to 14 days.

How does this work? You might pick three or four

different workouts and rotate them across a set

schedule. So if you only want to lift

Mon-Weds-Fri, and you have workouts A, B, C,

and D, youd just do them in that order on the

three days you lift. Youd end up doing A-B-C,

then D-A-B, then C-D-A, and so on. Its a

repeating cycle that doesnt necessarily have to fit

the seven-day week.

Of course, you can do a more normal workout as

well, if thats your thing. What you need to

remember is that undulating periodization is

going to alternate different kinds of workouts over


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a short span of time.

Setting up an undulating workout

If were just talking bodybuilding or general

strength and fitness, the idea with an undulating

routine is to get as wide a range of intensities and

volumes as possible. So you might want a high

volume/low intensity session, a moderate

intensity/volume session, and a high

intensity/low volume session. In practice this isnt

terribly different from the currently popular 55

intermediate workout. However, if you want to

make this more specific for bodybuilding, you can

tweak the philosophy a little the easiest way to

do this is to involve different rep ranges and more


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bodybuilding-specific exercises.

Three Workouts

Workout A 10-12 reps

Workout B 6-8 reps

Workout C 4-6 reps

This particular approach would be a good

introductory routine using full-body workouts

(although a split isnt out of the question). If you

want to do this on a three-day cycle, then youve

got Mon-Weds-Fri workouts. If you want to do a

four day version, then rotate through them

M-T-Th-F. Be advised that four full-body

workouts can be demanding, so you might want to


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alternate upper body and lower body if you go

that route, something like this.

Monday Upper (10-12 reps)

Tuesday Lower (10-12 reps)

Thursday Upper (6-8 reps)

Friday Lower (6-8 reps)

Next Monday Upper (4-6 reps)

Tuesday Lower (4-6 reps)

Thursday Upper (10-12 reps)

Friday Lower (10-12 reps)

And so on like that. You repeat the cycle in order,

as each day comes up.

Four Workouts


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With four workouts youre just expanding things

out a little more, with finer grades between the

sessions. For example:

Workout A 412

Workout B 58

Workout C 46

Workout D 63

In this instance, youve got two lighter,

high-volume workouts and two heavier, lower-

volume workouts. Same rules apply as before if

you want to split things into upper body and lower

body with four workout days, thats fine as well.

In that case, youd end up with a two-week

repeating cycle, where each workout is done once.


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Westside Style: Mixed Workouts

In this approach, youd mix and match a couple of

styles. I think this is a nice approach because it

gets you away from the theory and more into the

practical side of things. Like it or not, the

undulating workouts in the research are more of a

convention than something that would be useful

to someone actually training. I called this

Westside Style because its based on the

methods used by the namesake training system,

combining very heavy weights and light, fast

weights with more typical bodybuilding.

Jim Wendlers 5-3-1 workouts are a fine example

of this put into practice: do some heavy work,


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then move on to pure bodybuilding. Its nice, neat,

and right to the point. The mixed-workout

strategy will fit very well with split routines also, if

you want to get away from the full-body workouts.

Three Days a Week

Three workout days each week assumes youre

lifting on three non-consecutive days, so Monday

Wednesday Friday or Tuesday Thursday

Saturday (which is a great alternative to beat a lot

of the gym rush, Id add).

Option 1 Full Body

The full-body option is easy enough; Ive already


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given an example of the layout.

Monday Workout A (High Volume/Low

Intensity)

Wednesday Workout B (Moderate

Volume/Moderate Intensity)

Friday Workout C (Low Volume/High

Intensity)

If youve got four kinds of workouts to do, then

just stagger them. If you started with the above

layout, then the next Monday youd do workout D,

then Wednesday youd start over at A, and so on

down the line.


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Option 2 Upper Body/Lower Body

If you want to do a split routine, but still can only

train three days a week, just alternate them over a

two-week cycle, like so.

Week One

Monday Lower Body

Wednesday Upper Body

Friday Lower Body

Week Two

Monday Upper Body

Wednesday Lower Body

Friday Upper Body


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Four Days a Week

While you could maybe get away with four

full-body workouts, Id not suggest it. This is best

done with the alternating upper/lower split.

In this case, youd just do the same workouts on a

M-T-Th-F schedule, or Sun-M-W-F if youd

prefer. The former gives you two consecutive days

off, while the latter makes it easier to spread out

harder sessions. Your mileage may vary.

Wow, you really dont care about being

burned out

Although Id really not suggest it for most people,


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in some instances you can actually get away with

doing 4-6 workouts a week, although there are

some caveats involved.

You can get away with a upper/lower split, but the

best bet would probably be brief,

high-quality/low-volume full body sessions. At

least, full body in spirit, as its not what you might

expect; in reality you might only do two, at most

three, exercises. Youd just want to pick some

money exercises that have a large effect and will

benefit from regular practice.

The other option, which I tend to suggest even

less, would be hacking up some kind of

customized split based around upper/lower but

with extra sessions to train specific body parts


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like shoulders, calves, and da gunz.

Monday Heavy Upper Body (Chest/Back)

Tuesday Heavy Legs (Squats, thighs)

Thursday Moderate Upper Body

(Arm-dominant)

Friday Heavy Back (Deadlifts, barbell row,

hamstrings)

Saturday Light Full Body (Shoulders/arms

/calves assistance)

Something like that anyway. Its based around the

upper/lower split routine, but more specialized

towards bodybuilding goals. You can come up

with your own, depending on how many days you

have to train and what not.


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Keep in mind that youre following the same

principles of workout-undulation here: varying

different kinds of workouts across this schedule,

as opposed to just blasting yourself every day

without any change.

Accumulate and Intensify

The big thing that people tend to gloss over is

really changing the goal emphasis of the workout.

Doing a workout thats 412 is a big difference

from 63. The former is high-volume, meant

more to pump up the muscles than anything

else. The latter is a high-load session meant to

expose you to fairly heavy weights. Further, do

you do 412 by adding weight each set, or do you


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use the same weight?

Thats the difference in accumulation and

intensification. Accumulation is all about volume,

so youd do 412 with the same weight.

Intensification would be different, working up to

your best set of 12 reps. However, I would say that

I wouldnt write that as 412. Id just write

pyramid to best set of 12 to avoid confusion; if

you tried to actually do 412 in a pyramid, youd

wear yourself out before you got anywhere close

to your best set of 12.

I think that mixing accumulation and

intensification emphasis is just as important as

changing the set/rep scheme. In fact, you dont

even have to change the rep range, just the


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number of sets and how you go about them. The

accumulation phases will have you doing multiple

sets with the same weight. Intensification would

have you working up to a heavy top set for the day

(pyramiding). Case in point, lets use the

upper/lower split and the four A-B-C-D workouts.

Accumulation

Workout A 412

Workout B 58

Workout C 46

Workout D 63

Each week, youll have two workouts each for

upper body and lower body. So youd do workouts


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A and B the first week, workouts C and D the

second week. That two-week series makes one

cycle, so youd do this a total of four weeks, going

through each workout twice.

Intensification

Workout A pyramid to best set of 12

Workout B pyramid to best set of 8

Workout C pyramid to best set of 6

Workout D pyramid to best set of 3

Now we switch gears; instead of doing all those

sets, youd simply work your way up to your best,

heaviest set of the day. You still do the same

upper body/lower body split routine, and youd


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still keep the same exercises. The only difference

is your approach for the day. Since intensification

is about working with heavier weights (even with

the same rep range) and a focus on getting

stronger, thats what we do here: brief, hard

sessions.

I suggested going through two cycles for the

accumulation phase; you may or may not find that

worth your time here. Some people may be able to

set PRs going through the cycle twice, some may

not. At any rate, its still important not to ignore

the intensification phase simply because it breaks

the monotony and stimulates your body.

Picking exercises


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The exercises you pick are going to be determined

by a few things. Are you doing full-body sessions

or a split? Are you trying to get stronger on a few

key lifts, or are you trying to grow? Are you doing

accumulation workouts or intensification

workouts? These are the things you need to know.

This is important because youll see do a full

body workout, and on this day do 58. Now, to

me, when I see that prescription, Im thinking

OK, Im going to pick three money lifts, a squat, a

press, and a row, for 5 sets of 8 reps. In my mind,

the implicit assumption is that if I do more

exercises than that, I may stick to the 8-rep range,

but Im not doing 58 for everything. Not

everybody thinks like that.


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Ive seen people actually go through and do

squats, deadlifts, rows, chinups, overhead press,

bench press, biceps, triceps, calves, abs, and

anything else Im forgetting all for 58.

Dont do that.

Im a minimalist when it comes to exercises on

full-body sessions. I think most of your results

come from a small number of exercises. One big

lift for each movement is plenty a squat (or

deadlift), a press, and a row (or chinup). If you

want to do beach work after that (calves,

shoulders, arms, etc), pick a higher rep range and

go work them for a few sets. Thats all it takes.

If youre doing a split routine, you can do more


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exercises with a caveat. The advantage of a split is

that it lets you diversify the rep ranges and

exercises somewhat. You might end up doing 52

on your key lift, then go do another exercise for

that part where you do 10-12 reps.

The rule of thumb: for a full-body workout, stick

to a few key lifts and then a little bit of

beach-work if you must; for a split workout, you

can do more exercises but you need to mix and

match the set/rep schemes.


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Undulating Periodization for Bodybuilding

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