ATHLETES PERIODISE! YOU SHOULD, TOO

EVER WONDERED what sports commentators mean when they say an athlete peaked at the perfect time? Shouldn't athletes be in tip-top shape year-round, or at least throughout the season? Well, the answer is no, humans generally cannot remain at full athletic will set in. Training is hard on the body and mind and requires periodisation to protect us from injury and overtaxing, while maximising

Periodisation refers to the principle of breaking training into periods called macrocycles (up to a year), mesocycles (two weeks to two months) and microcycles (usually a week). Training is planned around these periods during which training intensity, type, and volume, as well as other variables, are cycled.

Periodisation helps athletes to adhere to proven training principles such as the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) principle, which calls for periods of high-intensity training to be followed by periods of low-intensity in order to avoid injury and overtraining. Another example

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skills training, which can be easily achieved under a properly periodised training plan.

So how can periodisation work for you? For starters, if you have been training the same way day in day out, then your progress has likely stopped. Hopefully, you haven't been overtaxing yourself trying to squeeze out a little bit more