Episode 51: How to Get Strong With Block Periodization
Want to break through plateaus and keep making progress in the gym? In this episode, I break down block periodization and how it can help you maximize strength, muscle growth, endurance, and power.
I’ll walk you through:
✅ The four key aspects of muscular fitness
✅ The three phases of block periodization (accumulation, intensification, realization)
✅ The best rep ranges, weights, and rest periods for each phase
✅ My top tips for warm-ups, core stabilization, and mobility work
If you're serious about strength training and want a smarter, more effective way to program your workouts, this episode is for you!
🔗 Resources & Links:
🎯 Tune in next week for more expert tips to help you crush your fitness goals!
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Jayd (00:00):
As you become a more intermediate or advanced exerciser, that's when your progress begins to slow down and in order to continue to make significant progress as an intermediate or an advanced exerciser, it's a really good idea to focus your training on one or a couple of specific adaptations at a time in order to make gains and make a dramatic difference in your strength levels. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for about 10 years, and I also grew up in the fitness industry, so I've created this podcast to share some of the tips, tricks, and wisdom that I share with my own personal training clients. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about how to get strong and how to think about planning your workouts. According to block periodization, I'm going to give recommendations for how much weight you should use, how many reps to do in each set, and how long to rest between your sets in each different type of block. If you're interested in working with me as your one-on-one online coach, check out my website. I am accepting new clients to my body, sculpt and at home training programs. You can find information for those on my website, Jaydigains.com. That's J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com. And without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(01:37)
One of the most effective ways to organize your training in order to get strong and improve your strength is to use what's called block periodization. When you first start your fitness journey or when you first start lifting weights, you can make a lot of progress really, really quickly and improve all aspects of your muscular strength in a relatively short period of time. We call this newbie gains, and you can experience newbie gains for anywhere from the first six months to the first two years of your training. When you are in the newbie gains phase, you're often able to do more reps, add more weight, get faster, and improve your technique really, really quickly, and see huge jumps in progress. But as you become a more intermediate or advanced exerciser, that's when your progress begins to slow down and in order to continue to make significant progress as an intermediate or an advanced exerciser, it's a really good idea to focus your training on one or a couple of specific adaptations at a time and order to make gains and make a dramatic difference in your strength levels.
(02:49)
So there are four main aspects of your muscular fitness and strength is one of them. Strength is technically defined as the ability of your muscles to generate force, and this is usually measured in terms of how much weight you can lift, push or pull, but this is one of four main aspects of muscular fitness that you want to work on developing in order to have a well-rounded physique and to be actually overall strong. Hypertrophy is another aspect of strength, which refers specifically to your muscle size. So our muscles are actually made up of really long, very thin strands of tissue, almost like a bundle of hair, right? So a muscle is a bundle of these individual fibers, and in order to be able to push, pull, lift heavier weight, these fibers have to be strong, and often that means that they need to get a little bit bigger.
(03:47)
So when you work towards hypertrophy, you work on actually increasing the size of those individual fibers so that they can handle more tension. Another aspect of muscular fitness is endurance, which involves your muscle's ability to contract over and over and over again over an extended period of time or to hold a contraction and hold tension for an extended period of time. And finally, you have power. Muscular power is strength, namely how much force your muscles can generate, but it also gives a factor of how fast you can generate that force. Now all four of these aspects of muscular fitness are important to develop in order to be strong, and it's important to develop them in order to safely be able to train the way that you need to train in order to lift more weight. Now, like I said before, if you're a beginner and you're in that new be gains phase, all four of these aspects of your fitness are going to improve no matter what you do.
(04:42)
But as your body adapts to training and as you become more intermediate or advanced, you are going to need to focus your training in order to make significant gains in any of these aspects. So for this reason, most intermediate and advanced lifters, especially if they're interested in strength, are going to separate their training into different blocks where they focus on one or a couple of different aspects of their muscular fitness developing the different aspects of their muscular fitness will overall accumulate towards them. In the end being able to lift more weight. So the standard block periodization format that we tend to follow is a format of three different main phases or blocks. First, you have your accumulation phase or an accumulation block. Then you have your intensification phase or intensification block, and then you follow that up with a realization or peaking block. The accumulation phase is all about accumulating the skills, the muscle mass, the technique, the mobility that's necessary as a foundation for moving big weight during the intensification block.
(05:56)
Then you start to acclimate your body to lifting progressively heavier and heavier weights while also continuing to condition your body with hypertrophy, endurance, mobility. And then finally in the peaking or realization block, that's when you bring the overall volume of your training down to focus exclusively on moving big weight. At the end of a peaking block, people will often retest their maxes, either their one rep maxes or they'll do a three rep max or five rep max, and then use that number as an estimation of their one rep max. For each of these different phases, you're going to use a percentage of whatever your previous max is, whatever your previous one rep max is, and you're going to use that as a baseline to decide what weight to use in different parts of the training. So let's get a little bit more into detail of these three different phases or blocks of training.
(06:50)
So first is your accumulation phase. Now if you're a beginner lifter, your accumulation phase is going to be a lot longer because you have a lot more skills and strength and mobility that you need to accumulate. But if you are more in intermediate or advanced, your accumulation block might last somewhere between three and six weeks, or it may be even longer if you have something specific that you're trying to develop during the accumulation phase. Volume is the name of the game when it comes to your big lifts, and by big lifts I mean your squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, and other compound movements. So in terms of volume we are going to be working with is about 60% to 75% of your previous one rep max are your estimated one rep max. You're usually going to be working with higher reps in each of your sets, so somewhere between six and 12 reps.
(07:39)
I also have seen plenty of programs that do as many as 20 reps per set depending on what adaptation the program is specifically trying to get you to develop higher reps means more time at tension for your muscles, which going to lead a lot more buildup to lactic acid in the muscles and burning sensation, which is all great for developing hypertrophy. It's also really important to train this way in order to develop your muscular endurance and your overall work capacity. This will allow you to train the way that you need to train in the later intensification phase to actually make strength gains In the accumulation phase. You're also going to be working on mobility exercises so that you can get deeper into your squat. You're also going to slow the movements down so you have more time under tension, but also so that you can ensure that you are in total control of the weight throughout the entire movement.
(08:33)
So often in an accumulation block, I'm going to include a lot of tempo reps in my squats, bench deadlift, overhead press. I'm going to slow the movements down, and I'm also going to add some different pauses at different points in the movement to help my clients to develop their sticking points, work on their balance and ensure that they are totally in control of a weight before we progress that weight and add more. So a typical workout structure for an accumulation block would include some kind of cardiovascular warmup for five to 10 minutes, followed by dynamic stretches, which is always going to be the warmup for any block of any training that I do. And then there's going to be some kind of a core stabilizing sequence to fire up the core so that you can brace. And then you're going to probably have some priming exercises that are specific to your mobility issues, maybe help you to develop some balance, help you to correct muscular imbalances, and then you'll actually have your main strength training exercises, which will include one of your compound lifts or more, and then also some accessories In an accumulation phase, because the focus is high volume and hypertrophy, you're also likely going to see some isolation exercises like you would in a bodybuilding program.
(09:47)
For instance, I might put bicep curls in a bench day to help a client to develop their biceps so that they can better control the eccentric portion of their bench press, and I might also have them do tricep kickbacks so that their triceps are stronger so that they can lock out at the top of the bench. Rest periods are going to be a little bit shorter here, anywhere between 30 seconds to 90 seconds because the goal is to keep your muscles under tension for a longer period of time. Your goal is to go into each successive set of an exercise on a muscle group, less recovered so that you can accumulate that lactic acid and build muscle. An accumulation phase can really be an extended period of time as much as a year. However, if you are going to be doing a longer extended accumulation phase, I recommend breaking that phase up into multiple accumulation blocks.
(10:37)
This is what I typically do for my strength programs. I like to have my clients do at least two accumulation blocks before we begin to work into intensification. Now, your intensification workouts are going to include a lot of hypertrophy and endurance focused exercises just like the accumulation block. But in terms of your compound lifts, you're going to be working with progressively heavier weight and fewer reps per set. The goal of the intensification block is to gear you up towards being able to lift heavier weight so that when it comes to the realization or peaking block, you have the ability to push a lot of weight. So for this, you're going to be working for between 75 and 90% of your previous one rep max. The reps percent are going to be about three to six reps, and you're usually going to be doing a moderate to high number of sets, like three to four rest period is going to be a little bit longer for your compound lifts here in order to give your muscles the time to recuperate, rebuild a TP so that you can push as many reps as you can in each successive set at a higher rate.
(11:41)
Outside of the compound lifts, you're probably still going to be doing a lot of mobility work or hypertrophy work for other exercises. You still might be developing different muscle groups that are lagging behind, and you still probably include conditioning exercises that push your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. So this space can last anywhere between four and six weeks. But usually I'm not going to have my clients do this kind of a phase for very long. It is a lot of wear and tear on the body to be in an intensification block. So I typically don't have my clients in it for more than four to six weeks at a time. I'm also going to likely have them do a deload either before or after their intensification block. This allows the body the time to catch up with the recovery that maybe it wasn't able to heap up with during the accumulation block or during the intensification block.
(12:29)
It's not uncommon to feel like super, super tired and fatigued at the end of an intensification block because the point of intensification is to be intense, is to condition your body, get you ready to push big weight. In the realization or peaking phase, you're going to gradually taper off the amount of volume that you're doing so that you're not fatiguing the body as much while at the same time you increase the amount of weight that you're using for your compound lifts. You're usually going to be lifting between 85 and 95% of your previous one rep max for short sets of between one and three reps per set. Your rest periods here are recommended to be a lot longer between two and five minutes. That way, you are completely fresh and ready to rock with each successive heavy lift. The goal and focus of this realization or peaking block is to put all of the stuff that you've accumulated, all of the muscle, all of the hypertrophy, all of the skills, the mobility, all of that to work and training your muscles to work at the same time in the right order, firing up to push as much force as possible while also keeping good technique and keeping your body in alignment.
(13:44)
Now, the realization or peaking phase really should be the shortest. I don't like to have my clients in this kind of a phase for longer than three to four weeks because after a certain amount of time, without the stimulus of higher volume training, you can start to lose muscle and therefore you'll start to see a dip in your strength. So a really successful peaking block is about hitting a sweet spot where you are still able to push a maximum amount of force while not overly fatiguing your body. But in order to continue to keep muscle and build muscle, you do have to fatigue the body. So that's why most of the time lifters are in an accumulation or an intensification block because it's the actual stimulus of fatiguing the muscles that makes you get stronger over time. So it's not just about always lifting heavier and heavier and heavier weights.
(14:32)
Most of the time experienced lifters will be trying to build more muscle, trying to develop their overall control and mobility, increase their range of motion, and give their muscles the stimulus that they need to grow. That way they can actually eventually put more weight on the bar during a later peaking phase. Now, you don't necessarily even have to do a peaking block. You can just go right into a deload and then start back over with accumulation. The peaking block is kind of optional, and it's usually there to help gear you up towards testing your one rep maxes. Or if you plan on competing like in a power lifting competition, a peaking block can be helpful to prepare you for that. But a lot of people who don't compete will kind of just alternate between accumulation and intensification blocks, or they might just do an extended period of time where they just do multiple accumulation blocks successively.
(15:25)
But if you are trying to test your maxes or increase your maxes, this is a great format to follow, to build skills, build the muscle, and prepare your body for pushing or pulling more weight. Now, keep in mind that some intermediate and advanced programs are going to use the block periodization in a kind of different philosophy. For example, a juggernaut training systems based program that my coach wrote for me actually separated out my training into month long waves that included a week long accumulation block, a week long intensification block, and a week long peaking block followed by a week long, and then we just restarted with the next wave that way. Some programs also have what's called daily undulating periodization, where each day each workout day focuses on a different adaptation. So there are many ways to organize your workouts, and you might see intermediate and advanced programs that kind of play with the concepts of accumulation, intensification and realization. But there's also nothing wrong with sticking to the standard recommendations of working for three weeks at least in an accumulation block, followed by an intensification block, and then finishing off with peaking. So there you have it. Block periodization is a way that you can organize your workouts in order to maximize your strength gains progress in a way that's safe for your body, so that you can lift more weight and be more in control of that weight over time.
(17:02)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The Coaching Corner Podcast. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I hope that you found this discussion helpful in thinking about how to plan out your workouts so that you can get stronger over time. Now, let me know what questions you have. You can leave them in the comments below this video if you're watching on YouTube. If you are watching on YouTube, make sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel so that you always get the latest videos whenever I drop them. If you are listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Make sure that you followed the show so that you get the latest episodes delivered right to your device. If you're interested in working with me, I am taking on clients right now. Check out my website, Jaydigains.com. For more information on my programs, you can subscribe to my membership site to download and follow my strength training program, the one that I'm doing actually right now, or you can build muscle with me with one of the other downloadable programs. I will see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
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