When you start taking your training seriously, you need a proper cycle as opposed to logging in and doing random exercises based on how you feel or what equipment is free that day. And it doesn’t matter if you’re showing up and working hard when you do get to the gym if your workouts are sporadic and haphazard, with no thought to what you’re actually doing, you won’t get the results you want or need from what you’re doing.
The difference between a structured training plan and one you make up when you arrive is that the result is that simple, so let’s take a look at how you can build a training cycle that actually gets you the results you need.
Set Your Goal First
Everything that comes next needs to be in place due to your goals. If you don’t pin down your goals, you won’t know what you’re working towards, nor can you measure the changes you experience.
Hypertrophy, strength, weight loss, and athletic performance all require different training approaches to volume, intensity, frequency, and nutrition.
If you’re trying to implement multiple goals within a single cycle, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. The training stimulus becomes clouded and the body doesn’t have a clear signal for what it’s trying to achieve. So instead of following multiple goals, pick one per cycle to work toward, then build everything around it. You can save the others for the next block. Ideally, you want to be cycling through blocks like this every eight to twelve weeks, which is long enough to see meaningful adaptation but not too long that you need to rest and make changes where required.
Balance Intensity and Volume
Intensity and volume are two primary drivers of any workout. But they need to be managed in relation to each other. If you’re combining high intensity and high volume together, you’re going to burn out faster than you realize.
The most effective way to view cycles is to use a wave loading approach. This is where you build volume progressively over a few weeks, then reduce volume while you build intensity, and then reload and repeat.
In practice, this might look like three weeks of building volume, then one week of lower volume and increased intensity, then another at lower volume again and maximum intensity before you build in a recovery week and start again. This can help stop fatigue from impacting your workouts.
Match Nutrition
Your nutrition needs to match your training; it’s not static, and you shouldn’t be thinking you need to eat the same for every part or style of your training.
If you’re in a high-volume phase where the goal is hypertrophy, then you need a calorie surplus that supports muscle protein synthesis and recovery. But if you’re in a fat loss block, then a modest deficit over time with lower volume training will minimize muscle loss. Protein, however, should always stay consistent throughout, and you need to aim for around 1.6grams of protein per kilogram of body weight as a minimum each day.
One step further, or for more serious training and nutrition plans, is to pre-load your carbohydrate intake around training sessions to fuel performance and support recovery rather than spreading it evenly throughout the day.
Build in Deload
Deload isn’t an option; it’s required, or your progress will stall fast. You need to plan a reduction in training stress periodically, which means dropping volume to around 50% of a normal week. That allows the nervous system, connective tissue, and joints to recover in ways that regular rest doesn’t account for.
The truth is, most people skip this as they feel deload weeks equal losing momentum or strength, when it’s not true. Fatigue is actually more harmful to progress than deload weeks. And most people who do this come back the week after noticeably stronger and with better technique as they’re not pushing through fatigue or working out in a compromised state.
Track Progress
Whether you want to use a good old pen and paper to track workouts, reps, weights, sets, etc or you use an app to help you keep track of it, do it. Not tracking means you won’t have any measurable data to help you progress with.
If you have the right data, you can see what is and isn’t working and give yourself a base to work from week by week, so you can make the right adjustments, not just reactionary ones.
Let’s say strength is going up, but bodyweight isn’t moving, then calories need adjusting. But if your body weight is dropping faster than expected, then your protein needs increasing. If your performance is declining week on week despite adequate rest, the data from your tracking can help you assess if volume is too high. All of this is valuable data when chasing goals, whatever they might be. And your training plan will be better for it.
Add in Supplements
You don’t need a plethora of supplements, but certain ones can help you reach your goals. Creatine, as everyone knows, is one of the most widely scientifically supported supplements to add to your routine. It’s worth taking consistently regardless of your training cycle and what your goals are. Beta-alanine is great for endurance in the eight-to-fifteen rep range, and vitamin D and zinc are worth addressing if you’re lacking in those. On top of this, it’s worth doing research first before buying anything, especially if you’re moving outside of basic vitamins and minerals and pre-workout.
You can buy injectables and a range of pills online that support different functions within the body to help you progress to your goals. This is something that more serious enthusiasts look into as they move toward their goal or hit a level of consistency that supports adding in different supplements. It is always worth talking to your doctor before adding anything you like to make sure you’re going to be getting the benefits of it and not just take something you don’t need and won’t benefit from.
