World Bodybuilding

The practice of cycling training intensity involves “down time” when no effort is made to produce new gains in muscular size and strength. There is some detraining because, by cutting back, you get a little weaker than your previous best, before pushing again to go into new (for you) poundage territory.

Taken to its extreme, i.e., if you cut back too much and for too long, cycling is a disaster. Do not abuse cycling. A 6-month “perfectly” organized stretch that brings you to a peak for just two new-ground workouts is a perversion of cycling. You need to train very hard for a darn sight more than a few weeks out of every 26 - for most of your workouts, in fact.

Some people see intensity cycling as a waste of time because they think that the more hard workouts they have, the better. They are so eager to get training flat-out, or very near to it, that they never develop the gaining momentum needed for long-term progress. Also, by dropping right into full-bore work, how are exercise form and mental concentration going to be learned or reviewed, and then perfected?

While you should push yourself to the limit for most of your workouts, “most” does not mean “all.” Learn not to push yourself to the limit during some periods. This is difficult to do if you have been locked into the “hard all the time” philosophy. Those who try to train full-bore all of the time have a built-in natural cycling format, whether they like it or not. Is there any typical working and family person who can train full-bore two or three times each week for 52 weeks of the year while being 100% healthy, 100% motivated for every single session, and not having work or family circumstances disrupt training? The disruptions and constraints of life force people to have ups and downs in their training, giving it a natural cycling format.

When planning your training routines, allow for more weeks and longer cycles rather than fewer weeks and shorter cycles.

When building back to your previous best weights, in readiness for the journey into new poundage territory, take an extra week, or two, or three. Build the springboard necessary for the big push into new poundage territory.

When adding poundage to the bar, use smaller rather than larger increments.

When you have made your last perfect rep and know there is only a partial rep left in you, keep it in and wait the extra workout or two until you can perform that rep perfectly. Do not drive yourself to exhaustion and stagnation by forcing out (with help) reps you cannot currently do. Save that energy and effort, and combine them with a bit more time and patience.

When in the final stages of a training cycle, get an extra hour of sleep each night.

Take an extra day or two between workouts when you do not feel 100% recovered.

Take more rest between sets, not less (unless you are experimenting with a faster pace of training).

When you are struggling to keep up with pre-determined poundage increments, delay the next planned increment and stay with the old weight until you have adapted to it.

Lots of little bits over half a year add up to far more than a couple of much bigger jumps over less than a month. This is especially true when, as so often happens, the latter is followed by stagnation, mental fatigue and physical injury, and having to start all over again.

Do not ruin the potential magic of abbreviated routines by adding poundage too quickly, in too large jumps, or by training too frequently.

Take more time to learn perfect form before piling on the weight.

Make time to study more about sensible training methods.

Find the time to develop a flexible body and then maintain it.

If in doubt, perform extra warmup work, but keep the reps low.