You’ve seen this term around, whether you're on running forums or you're doing different kinds of workouts, maybe weight training, you've seen this term periodization training, you’re trying to figure out what exactly is that? Well, I'm Jesse Funk and on today's episode Runner's High, whether you're a runner or not, I'm going to explain to you exactly what periodization training actually is.
The nice thing about the term periodization training really is that it applies just to training our bodies in any kind of means. I often talk about running because this is a show about running, but really these principles apply to anybody. When we're referring to periodization training, basically it's saying we're going to break up our training period. Oftentimes, this is a year but if you have a season, sometimes it's going to be a season, whether that’s six months, three months, nine months, whatever it is, into blocks, training blocks or periods where we work on a specific skill set. In the case of running, there's typically a few different phases.
The beginning phase is often referred to as base building, then we go through the build phase, and then the taper and peak phase. Now, these could actually even be broken into smaller periods; base one, base two, build one, build two peak. And then you know, kind of micro-segments from there as you go week by week. I often talk about periodization on this channel because it's very, very important to your training. One of the side effects of periodization is that you will not be at peak fitness all the time. And that's a little bit disheartening, I guess.
I know personally, as an athlete, I want to be in the best shape ever, all the time, but it's simply not physically possible. ?? 01:49>, I'll have this nice chart for you. It kind of shows you as you go through the phases at least in running. I can't tell you exactly how the phases will go for a different sport. But it should be pretty similar in that as you go through the phases, you build fitness, and then your fitness will actually taper off. And then as you build to the next phase, it’ll go back up even higher than it had before, and it'll taper off.
It's a little bit maddening when you're experiencing it because our progress is nonlinear. We want it to be this nice straight line. And we actually kind of go up and down through different cycles as we're learning to train. So, if you're here on the channel, and you want to learn more about running, that next video about what base building actually entails should be popping up on the screen. So, I hope you join me for that. Click onto that and I'll explain to you what base building is. I'll see you next time on the next episode of Runner's High.