Unlock Your Best Body: The Science-Backed Guide to Periodisation for Max Muscle and Strength Gains

Periodisation for Strength and Muscle

When it comes to building muscle or increasing strength, there are countless training methods to help you achieve your goals. While sticking to straightforward sets of 8-12 reps might produce decent results, it’s unlikely to be the most effective approach for maximising muscle growth, strength, and fat loss over the long term.

Enter periodisation—a key strategy that allows you to focus on different fitness aspects at different times, preventing you from spreading yourself too thin and compromising progress. By organising your training into structured phases, you can optimise performance, achieve long-term goals, and keep yourself motivated.

What Is Periodisation?

Periodisation is the process of planning and structuring your training to meet long-term objectives. By adjusting variables like training frequency, intensity, and volume, you can peak at the right time and sustain performance, aesthetic improvements over time. Think of it as a roadmap for your fitness or athletic journey, whether you’re training for a specific event like hyrox or simply aiming to build strength, muscle and improve fat loss.

For example, Olympic athletes often follow four-year training cycles to prepare for the Olympic Games, ensuring they’re in peak condition when it matters most. These long-term plans, known as macro-cycles, are broken down into three key phases: macro-cycles, meso-cycles, and micro-cycles. Let’s dive deeper into each of these phases.

The Macro-Cycle

A macro-cycle is the longest phase, typically spanning a year or more. It focuses on all aspects of training to achieve optimal results over the course of the year. No single rep scheme is universally ideal—different rep ranges serve different purposes. During a macro-cycle, you’ll dedicate specific periods to different training focuses, rep schemes such as strength, power, or muscular endurance, with each phase building on the last.

Think of this as the “zoomed out” view of your training year, like switching your calendar from a monthly to a yearly view.

The Meso-Cycle

A meso-cycle is a shorter phase, lasting a few weeks to a few months, and focuses on a specific training aspect, such as muscle conditioning, hypertrophy, or strength. Each meso-cycle consists of multiple micro-cycles and builds on the progress made in the previous phase. For example, a muscle conditioning phase might involve lighter weights and higher reps (those of you on the Peach Lab program are likely experiencing this phase right now). While this phase isn’t the most optimal for muscle growth, it improves oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscles, enhancing recovery and setting the stage for the more intense muscle-building phases to come.

Additionally, this phase strengthens the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of muscle failure due to cardio fatigue rather than muscular fatigue. In essence, the muscular endurance or high-volume phase lays the groundwork for the months ahead, helping you smash plateaus and optimize both muscle growth and strength phases later in the year.

The Micro-Cycle

The micro-cycle is the shortest phase, typically lasting a week or even just a single training session. It’s designed to deliver a specific stimulus to the muscles. Within a meso-cycle, you’ll have multiple micro-cycles, each with slight adjustments to keep progress on track.

For example, during a strength phase, the exercises might remain the same, but the reps and sets could change weekly. Week 1 might involve 3 sets of 8 reps of a hip thrust, while Week 2 could progress to 4 sets of 8 reps—ensuring you lift more total volume week after week. (Exercise volume is calculated as sets x reps x weight lifted.)

Alternatively, a common adjustment in a micro-cycle—one many of you reading this would have done—is simply adding a small amount of weight to the bar each week. This is why we always encourage you to track all your gym sessions, so you can ensure you’re progressing consistently on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Below is a diagram that will hopefully help you picture this all.

Peach Lab Macro-Cycle

Next is the macro-cycle we’ll be using at Gym Geek this year for our Peach Lab program. If you’re on our Group training program, we’ll be sharing the macro-cycle soon.

Phase 1: High Volume (Muscular Endurance)

• Duration: 8 weeks

• Focus: Build muscular endurance and work capacity

• Training Style: High-volume, lower-intensity workouts

  
  

Phase 2: Muscle Hypertrophy

• Duration: 8 weeks

• Focus: Maximize muscle growth

• Training Style: Moderate reps with moderate to heavy weights

  
  

Phase 3: Hybrid (Hypertrophy + Strength)

• Duration: 8 weeks

• Focus: Transition to strength while maintaining muscle mass

• Training Style: Combines hypertrophy and strength training

  
  

Phase 4: Strength

• Duration: 8 weeks

• Focus: Maximize strength and power

• Training Style: Low reps with heavy weights

  
  

Phase 5: Undulating (Mixed Focus)

• Duration: 8 weeks

• Focus: Prevent adaptation and maintain gains

• Training Style: Mixes high-volume, hypertrophy, and strength workouts
  

Why Periodise Your Training?

Periodisation helps you become a well-rounded athlete, capable of excelling in various ways. It ensures you’re prepared for different challenges while still looking and feeling your best. By following a structured plan, you can avoid plateaus, reduce the risk of overtraining, and make consistent progress.

My biggest piece of advice? Stick to a well-designed, periodised program, stay consistent, put in the effort, and be patient. Building muscle and gaining strength is a long-term process—especially as you become more advanced those newbie gains you experienced in your first few months soon dry up and that’s where clever programming becomes more important. If you need help getting your head around this, don’t hesitate to ask one of us!

What’s Next?

In the next blog post, we’ll dive into rest times between sets and what exercise intensity actually means. Spoiler alert: sweating buckets and feeling completely knackered isn’t necessarily a sign of effective training. We’ll break down how to gauge intensity properly and why rest periods can be important for maximising your results. Stay tuned!