HOW LONG SHOULD YOUR TRAINING CYCLES BE?

When it comes to training, there's a certain point where your body will need some sort of change or variation from what you are currently doing. Why does this happen? Well, our bodies are very adaptable. This means that while something may seem difficult at first if you continue to do that same movement or training, your body will adjust, and it will become easier. This sounds great initially, although, as you have probably noticed, you reach plateaus in your training. Either you stop running that mile faster, or you can't lift that one more pound on the bar. So, what do we need to do to get the results we want? We have to slightly modify our training and add a new stimulus so our body can improve.

Deciding how long you want your program to be.

This can be easy if your training for a specific event because you can just count the weeks and train until that specific event or season. If you're just exercising to get stronger or more conditioned then theres some play in that amount of time.

Generally, the best place to start is somewhere between 6-12 weeks. The reason this is a good choice is because

the program will need to change every 2-4 weeks in order to keep your body from normalizing to what you are doing. In addition, having 3-4 phases of that program is an ideal place to begin.

For example:

Weeks 1-3

Weeks 4-6

Weeks 7-9

Weeks 10-12

Now each of these weeks can have different goals but overall they should build on each other. So whether you’re building strength, cardiovascular output, or learning a new skill. There needs to be change that builds on the previous weeks.

So if we use the example of getting a faster 40 yard dash. It may look like:

Weeks 1-3:

 positional drills like starts and wall drills for leg switches, A skip, B skip, some 5-10 yard accelerations.

Weeks 4-6:

Flying 10-20 yard sprints, broad jumps single effort and repeated, low and medium hurdle jumps

Weeks 7-9:

Full 20-30 yard sprints from a start, bounds and other single leg jumps

Week 10-12:

work on full 40 yard sprints building to testing your best single sprint effort.

The progression of exercises and movements keeps your body adjusting to new stimulus but still working to an overall goal at the end. Even within these few weeks the change of little things like rest time, amount of sets and reps, and equipment will keep the training varied enough.

Re-evaluate and Re-start

Once you reach the end of your cycle and test you can then go back and re-evaluate your goals and restart another training cycle.