Back to login. Already have an account? Login here. Consistently stacking on gains in the gym, requires one thing — progression. To achieve consistent success, you must design a training program with intent, purpose, and that progressively challenges the neuromuscular system for better muscle growth and recovery.

The goal is implementing a training program that consistently and effectively challenges you, with a planned systematic progression over time, and that requires training periodization and specificity.

Although relatively simply in theory, progressive overload is essentially the application of consistent heavier loads or physical recurring stress over time, as the body systematically adapts to neuromuscular changes.

To stimulate muscle growth and achieve consistent progression your body needs added physical stress resistance training to increase muscle mass and strength, by way of adaptation.

Periodization is characterized by dividing training into specific cycles or segments, inducing progression and adaptation and different stages, to progressively build more muscle mass, strength, power, and stabilization accumulating to improved overall athletic performance.

Periodization provides structure, a plan to get to your goals, while progressive overload is a component of that plan. Acute variables determine the amount of stress placed on your body, ultimately influencing the adaptations and changes that will occur.

Acute variables include training specificity variables such as volume, intensity, reps, tempo, rest intervals, exercise frequency, and duration. Training with the same acute variables week after week, with the same load, frequency, and exercises, will lead to muscle plateau, not hypertrophy. As your body adapts, it is crucial to progressively increase the load, the volume, sets, and repetitions to challenge and place more physical stress o your body, to force change.

Resistance training will induce the greatest changes when it comes to progressive overload. Reps or repetitions are the number of times you complete a particular movement of exercise. Most repetitions will involve three movements or range of motions: isometric, concentric, and eccentric. Repetitions are essentially the number of times a muscle is under tension.

By increasing the time under tension, your body needs to adapt physically with more muscular endurance, in order to handle the increase in volume.

Each phase of your training program under a periodization model, will have specific goals and a different number of reps, to induce physical neuromuscular adaptation and changes. In the beginning of a periodization training program volume is imperative to build more strength, stability, endurance, and connective tissue, to build a strong foundation to achieve greater gains in strength and muscle growth.

The number of sets or a group of consecutive repetitions will also determine strength and muscle growth adaptations dependent upon periodization and goal. Sets and reps are inversely related and combined, is daily training volume.

With more added total training volume, you will determine progression and load. Generally fewer sets are performed with more reps, and fewer repetitions are performed, with more sets and higher intensity.

Thus, performing fewer sets with performing higher repetitions and low intensity will induce greater changes in endurance and muscle hypertrophy, while more sets when performing low reps at higher intensity will induce greater changes in strength and power adaptations.

RELATED ARTICLE How Many Sets And Reps For Improved Performance. Intensity is the effort you give compared to your maximal effort and is one of the most important acute variables in developing a progressive overload training program.

Your specific training phase and goals will determine intensity in a periodization model as well as sets and reps for each exercise.

Training intensity for optimal physical stress is important for progression. However, training specificity is dependent upon your desired goal. For optimal strength, stick to high intensity low reps.

If you want to get shredded, build more mass, and have a set of six pack abs, then your goals are muscle hypertrophy and strength, considering both are linearly correlated.

Beginning lifters will want to develop their core foundational strength, by incorporating lower intensity as that will result in the most significant gains. Overtime however, intensity must gradually increase to prompt adaptation.

Training frequency refers to the number of times you train a specific muscle group each week. There are several ways to approach the necessary amount of training in a given week to achieve optimal progression. Again, this depends on your goals.

Optimal training frequency for strength and developing more muscle mass, is between days per week. You will however want to split your workouts accordingly to avoid overtraining and achieve maximal gains. Split workouts can take on many different variations such as push-pull splits, 4-day splits, 5-day splits, and lower and upper body splits.

RELATED ARTICLE How To Create An Effective Split Workout Routine. A meta-analysis published in the journal Sports Medicine analyzed the effects of resistance training frequency on muscle growth and strength. The analysis concluded that training muscle groups times per week, resulted in significantly more muscle hypertrophy and strength as compared to once per week [ R ].

A study in conjunction with Texas Tech University replicated these results, demonstrating that working each muscle group twice per week, resulted in increased muscle size and improved body composition [ R ]. As long as you have adequate rest and recovery between exercises that involve the same muscle groups, you can also incorporate full body workouts.

Perhaps the most obvious way to induce change, is by increasing the weight. I mean that is the whole point of progressive overload, right?

If your goal is to increase muscle growth, and your 12 th rep of your 3 rd set feels easy, then guess what, you need to increase the load. Exercise selection has a significant impact on your desired training adaptation, therefore training with specific exercises, will be paramount to your goals.

Any resistance training program will build and develop strength, as long as the load is sufficient to induce change. However, to develop full body strength, balance, coordination and stabilization, the use of functional full body compound movements is paramount for optimal strength and neuromuscular development.

Functional strength training incorporates compound movements; multi-jointed movements, which require more than one muscle group to be used throughout an exercise. Common compound movements such as squats , deadlifts , and push press can improve mobility, strength, and functionality.

Function translates to purpose, therefore, functional training and compound movements have a specific purpose of movement.

These types of exercises, mimic specific movement patterns used for everyday activities such as hip rotation, muscle stabilizers, flexor muscles, and ensure your joints are moving through a full range of motion.

Compound movements require free weights. We observed no statistically significant differences at baseline Table 3. The participants reported similar values of the impulse intensity measured by RPE than the pre-established ranges mean difference ± SD , 0. This fact confirmed that participants of WB-EMS group adhered to the protocol designed in term of impulse intensity.

BMI significantly decreased in a similar fashion in the PFG and the TG from Between group changes comparisons were border of significance for maximal aerobic speed mean difference: 1.

Figure 1. PFG, Periodized, and Functional group; TG, Traditional Whole-Body-Electromyostimulation training. Figure 2. PFG, Periodized and Functional Whole-Body- Electromyostimulation training; TG, Traditional Whole-Body-Electromyostimulation training.

Figure 3. RE0 corresponded to the first running economy test pre-test ; RE1 corresponded to the running economy test performed in week 1; RE2 corresponded to the running economy test performed in week 2; RE3 corresponded to the running economy test performed in week 3. RE4 corresponded to the running economy test performed in week 4; RE5 corresponded to the running economy test performed in week 5; RE6 corresponded to the running economy test performed in week 6 post-test.

Repeated letters a—a; b—b, etc. PFG, Periodized and Functional Whole-Body-Electromyostimulation training; TG, Traditional Whole-Body-Electromyostimulation training. The pre-post changes in ABJ were, however, different between the PFG vs. Figure 4.

A,B Countermovement jump [CMJ m ], C,D Abalakov jump [ABJ m ]. This study shows that the effects of a 6-week periodized and functional WB-EMS training program on running performance-related parameters including VO 2 max, VT2, RE, and ABJ in recreational runners are better than those observed after following a traditional WB-EMS training program.

These findings reinforce the fact that the effects of WB-EMS training on running performance can be greatly improved if it is correctly designed. To our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the effect of WB-EMS on running performance-related parameters in recreational runners.

VO 2 max is considered one of the best predictor of running performance Tucker et al. We observed an increment of 2. These findings do not concur with an intervention program consisting on two combined strength sessions per week which lasted for 11 weeks while maintaining its endurance training volume in trained athletes, which increased several strength parameters and muscle fiber cross sectional area of both fiber type I and fiber type II, but no changes in VO 2 max were found Vikmoen et al.

However, a meta-analysis Sloth et al. These improvements are similar to those observed in the PFG. Traditionally, WB-EMS training programs do not vary electrical frequency, electrical intensity, width impulse, and duty cycle, within the training sessions.

Moreover, the selection of exercises usually consists on a set of non-functional movements i. We designed a training intervention that followed i an undulating periodization training model, and ii a functional selection of exercises to improve running performance.

We observed that absolute VO 2 max increased by 2. Periodized resistance training programs result on higher benefits over muscle strength compared to non-periodized training programs, which also seems to be the case in WB-EMS training programs Williams et al.

On the other hand, Nuhr et al. reported that a local electromyostimulation training program 10 weeks, 4 h per day, 7 days per week at low frequency 15 Hz applied in quadriceps and hamstring muscles of both legs in healthy men improve maximal aerobic-oxidative capacity Nuhr et al.

Interpreting our results, despite the fact that both WB-EMS training programs had the same time exposure same number of sessions and duration , we cannot discard that differences in overall training load e. It is well-known that VT1 and VT2, especially the latter, have an important role in long-distance running performance Jones and Carter, ; Barnes and Kilding, The effect of concurrent training on VT1 and VT2 is controversial.

Two studies reported little changes on VT2 in runners Mikkola et al. In contrast, others observed substantial improvements in VT2 Guglielmo et al.

However, the increase of VO 2 max percentage at which VT2 is achieved suggest that a direct improvement of VT2 was observed in the PFG. RE, defined as the oxygen consumption required at a given absolute submaximal exercise intensity, is considered critical for running performance in trained individuals with homogenous VO 2 max Saunders et al.

Our findings concur with those of Taipale et al. who reported substantial improvements in RE after 8 weeks of combined explosive strength and endurance training in runners Taipale et al.

Although we cannot know whether the periodization or the use of functional exercises are the main cause of the improvement in RE, the performance of functional exercises with running actions at maximal speed with superimposed electromyostimulation could be an important factor to improve RE.

The PFG included a period of high intensity short run intervals with superimposed electromyostimulation; this fact could determine some advantages over the TG inasmuch this training modality did not include running actions. Therefore, this fact could contribute to maximize performance at high speed intensity.

On the other hand, we cannot discard that following a periodization training model could increase the improvements obtained Harries et al. Several studies have shown the importance of lower body muscle strength in running performance, especially in RE Dumke et al. Our findings concur with those observed by other studies using WB-EMS and local electromyostimulation training 12—28 sessions on the lower body muscles in trained athletes Babault et al.

Filipovic et al. Our study showed an increase in CMJ in both training groups, whereas significant improvement in ABJ was only observed in the PFG.

This fact could be explained by differences in the exercises used and the electrical parameters applied in both intervention groups e. Since the main difference between CMJ and ABJ is the contribution of interlimb coordination, the improvement obtained in ABJ in the PFG when compared to the TG, suggest that a periodized and functional WB-EMS training program could have a considerable impact on inter-limb coordination Dal Pupo et al.

However, more studies are needed to elucidate which physiological or biomechanical mechanism may explain the differences reported between groups. Possible reasons which could explain the physiological improvements observed are: i a better efficiency of mitochondrial metabolism, what is related with an increase in the rate of lipid utilization [it is well-known that this fact produces an important descent in rate of glycogen depletion Esfarjani and Laursen, ], ii an increased capillary density after an specific training program, yet we applied low frequencies in different parts of PFG sessions and it is well-known that low frequencies produce a development of capillarization process Miyamoto et al.

All of the previous items could produce a delay in local and peripheral fatigue resulting in a decrease of oxygen uptake for a specific speed and, consequently, getting a better running performance.

The results of this study should be considered with caution as there are some limitations. The main limitation of this study as all WB-EMS previous studies is the lack of information about the total electrical impulse magnitude applied. Indeed, the best methodology to control WB-EMS training load is currently unknown.

Moreover, the low sample size and the inexperienced participants in WB-EMS training may have influenced the results, since improvements produced by the application of a novel stimulus are expected. In addition, we cannot know whether these results extend to longer training programs, and or to not professional athletes or patients.

One of the strengths is that we included a positive control group which allowed to avoid the existence of false positive cases. A 6-week periodized and functional WB-EMS training program produces considerable higher on VO 2 max, VT2, RE, and ABJ in recreational runners compared with a traditional WB-EMS training program.

Our findings indicate that WB-EMS training, as a novel stimulus, could complement or even modify the common training methods in runners. In addition, our results strongly support that WB-EMS training must be carefully designed and supervised, not only for safety reasons, but also for efficiency issues.

This concept is particularly relevant in the commercial context where this type of technology could be understood as a completely autonomous training methodology.

More studies are needed to better understand the practical applications of this new training methodology in other populations, to elucidate whether the improvements obtained are due to the exercises selected, or to the electrical parameters, or to its combination, and also to elucidate whether a traditional strength program get higher improvements in running performance than WB-EMS training.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher.

FA-G, AD-l-O, LR-G, and AG conceived and designed research. FA-G, AD-l-O, LR-G, and LJ-F conducted experiments. FA-G and JR analyzed data. FA-G wrote the manuscript. AG and JR revised the manuscript.

All authors read and approved the manuscript. The study was partially supported by the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación , Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health UCEES. This study is part of a Ph. Thesis conducted in the Biomedicine Doctoral Studies of the University of Granada, Spain.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The authors would like to thank all the runners who participated in this study for their time and effort.

We are grateful to Ms. Carmen Sainz Quinn for assistance with the English language, and to Manuel Castillo for constructive scientific discussions. Amaro-Gahete, F. Could superimposed electromyostimulation be an effective training to improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity?

methodological considerations for its development. doi: PubMed Abstract CrossRef Full Text Google Scholar. Babault, N.

Effects of electromyostimulation training on muscle strength and power of elite rugby players. Strength Cond. Balsalobre-Fernández, C. Effects of strength training on running economy in highly trained runners: a systematic review with meta-analysis of controlled trials. Barnes, K.

Strategies to improve running economy. Sport Med. Beattie, K. The effect of strength training on performance in endurance athletes. Sports Med.

Borg, G. Psychophysical bases of perceived exertion. Sports Exerc. PubMed Abstract Google Scholar. Bosco, C. A simple method for measurement of mechanical power in jumping. Dal Pupo, J. Stiffness, intralimb coordination, and joint modulation during a continuous vertical jump test.

Sport Biomech. Dumke, C. Relationship between muscle strength, power and stiffness and running economy in trained male runners. Sports Physiol. Esfarjani, F. Manipulating high-intensity interval training: effects on VO2max, the lactate threshold and m running performance in moderately trained males.

Sport 10, 27— Filipovic, A. Effects of a whole-body electrostimulation program on strength, sprinting, jumping, and kicking capacity in elite soccer players. Sports Sci. Electromyostimulation-A systematic review of the influence of training regimens and stimulation parameters on effectiveness in electromyostimulation training of selected strength parameters.

Electromyostimulation-a systematic review of the effects of different electromyostimulation methods on selected strength parameters in trained and elite athletes. Gregory, C. Recruitment patterns in human skeletal muscle during electrical stimulation.

Guglielmo, L. Effects of strength training on running economy. Harries, S. Systematic review and meta-analysis of linear and undulating periodized resistance training programs on muscular strength.

Holmes, K. Effects of 3-weeks of high-intensity interval training on running economy and endurance. Google Scholar.

Jones, A. The effect of endurance training on parameters of aerobic fitness. Kemmler, W. Impact of whole-body electromyostimulation on body composition in elderly women at risk for sarcopenia: the training and electrostimulation trial TEST-III. Age 36, — Effects of whole-body electromyostimulation on resting metabolic rate, body composition, and maximum strength in postmenopausal women: the training and electrostimulation trial.

Effects of whole-body electromyostimulation versus high-intensity resistance exercise on body composition and strength: a randomized controlled study.

Based Complement. CrossRef Full Text Google Scholar. Whole-body electromyostimulation as a means to impact muscle mass and abdominal body fat in lean, sedentary, older female adults: subanalysis of the TEST-III trial.

Aging 8, — Effect of whole-body electromyostimulation on energy expenditure during exercise. Lee, D. Running as a key lifestyle medicine for longevity.

PubMed Abstract CrossRef Full Text. Lehance, C. Optojump system efficiency in the assessment of lower limbs explosive strength. Sport 20, — Lucía, A. The slow component of VO2 in professional cyclists. Machado, F. Sport 16, —

FW Exercise Physiology. FW Exercise Physiology Matt Sanders. Chapter 16 Plyometrics. Chapter 16 Plyometrics kristenpelley. section 5, chapter 9: types of muscle contractions.

section 5, chapter 9: types of muscle contractions Michael Walls. Acute effect of steady level exerise on vital parameters. Acute effect of steady level exerise on vital parameters nikita manjanwal. Effects of exercise on endocrine system. Effects of exercise on endocrine system PravinRaj Periodization framework of athletic training.

Periodization framework of athletic training Taisuke Kinugasa. Bompa's Periodization for Sports Training. Bompa's Periodization for Sports Training Joel Smith.

Ergonomic aspect of exercise on oxygen. Ergonomic aspect of exercise on oxygen aakankshabajpai2. Fitness and strength testing in sports.

Fitness and strength testing in sports Dr. Rajal Sukhiyaji. Anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise pratigya deuja. Endurance martajuanicorena. Concept of speed. Concept of speed Ashish Phulkar. Periodisation Explained.

Periodisation Explained Becki Knight. Periodization Kit Wong. The Process of Endurance Training. The Process of Endurance Training Stephen Magness. What's hot 20 Respiratory adaptation to exercise. Respiratory adaptation to exercise. Viewers also liked The 6 steps of persuasion applied to Personal Training.

The 6 steps of persuasion applied to Personal Training Max Icardi. Добробут в кожну оселю. Добробут в кожну оселю Денис Ковалевский. Project in-english-copy. Project in-english-copy jeremy martin. A eucaristia. A eucaristia Rafael Espinoza. Digital Marketing Intro by Amitesh Kumar IDMM Way2ads.

Digital Marketing Intro by Amitesh Kumar IDMM Way2ads Amitesh Kumar. Neuronas jose luis. Cl spoorthyirrigationequipments. Cl spoorthyirrigationequipments Spoorthy Irrigation Equipments.

Βυζαντινή μόδα και μαγειρική,Εύα Συνοδινού. Βυζαντινή μόδα και μαγειρική,Εύα Συνοδινού Iliana Kouvatsou. Software Requirement Spesification. Software Requirement Spesification wida dwitiayasa. Asmaa asmaa manasrah. Nutrition at the office. Nutrition at the office Max Icardi. How to motivate your Personal Training clients.

How to motivate your Personal Training clients Max Icardi. Blake powerpoint. Blake powerpoint jsnart. my agenda is full. my agenda is full Max Icardi. How to become a successful personal trainer. How to become a successful personal trainer Max Icardi. TRIATHLON - Periodization in Functional Training.

TRIATHLON - Periodization in Functional Training Max Icardi. Viewers also liked 20 The 6 steps of persuasion applied to Personal Training. The 6 steps of persuasion applied to Personal Training. Similar to Periodization in functional training ಆರೋಗ್ಯಕರ ಸಕ್ರಿಯ ಜೀವನ. ಆರೋಗ್ಯಕರ ಸಕ್ರಿಯ ಜೀವನ HARIOM The Importance Of A Training Program For An Obstacle Race.

The Importance Of A Training Program For An Obstacle Race Sonya Johnson. Periodization in functional training Max Icardi. Principles of Exercise Training and Adaptations to Anaerobic. pptx marielleolicia1. uk Shared Resource. uk Shared Resource peshare. Principles of Sports Training.

Principles of Sports Training SyedAnwar GOAL SETTING FINAL. pptx SannySumulat1. Designing a training programme. Designing a training programme selbie. Designing A Training Programme.

Designing A Training Programme selbie. In one week you might see a training block that looks like this. As you can see each workout has a different rep range and intensity range. To some that have only done linear periodization this can look a little crazy, and disjointed, however there is some solid research that both shows DUP to be very effective, and not at all effective.

As I said earlier it does work, but only for a certain population. The vast majority of strength training research is done on college students as many of them are required to participate in research to get full credits for their classes. This is good because we have a huge population of healthy subjects but bad in the sense that most of them are year old males with limited training experience.

This means that you can really only generalize the results of studies on them to year old folks with limited training experience. This really affects DUP research. If you like fitness articles and want to get our 3 free training guides, then click here to join the Tier Three Team. This study was done on high school football players with an average of one year of training experience.

Researchers found that over the 12 weeks of the study both linear and undulating periodization produced the same results.

This study looked at college volleyball players with one year resistance training experience and found that weekly undulating periodization to be slightly superior to daily undulating periodization.

Notice these research papers found no effect and they were all on almost untrained populations. This research study examined powerlifters with a minimum of 6 months lifting experience. In simple terms they were as strong as the 50th percentile male functional fitness athlete.

They found that those participating in DUP gained 40kg in their squat, bench, deadlift total in only 9 weeks! That is 88 lbs to their lifting total in a little over two months for fairly strong lifters!

This study is even more promising for DUP. The participants either did a linear program or a DUP program with the same amount of total volume, and intensity relative to one rep max. The DUP group crushed the linear group by almost double the results. I should also mention that participants had around 5 years lifting experience, and most reported having done linear periodization in the past.

Want to learn even more about fitness, strength, and creating your own programs? Then check out the ebook! However, it does work for lifters that have significant lifting experience previously, and are already pretty strong.

As an athlete progresses they will need to vary their training methods to continue to reach their potential. I recommend signing up for our email list above because I will be writing a DUP program for functional fitness athletes to help them break through their training plateaus. It will be written for those in the 2 year range that have started to stagnate in their training.

Until then, keep training and stay tuned for the new plateau breaking program. The opinions and information expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not affiliated with any corporation, group, public or private entity.

This web site is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by Crossfit Inc.

All product and company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.