The 4 step plan
Periodization doesn’t work. I know this and if you train regular people with regular jobs and regular families you also know this. Writing a 12 week plan is useless because:
People get sick
People’s kids get sick
Work gets busy
Family joys or crisis happen
Vacation
The list goes on…
All of these things lead to acute poor nutrition and unplanned time off. It’s inevitable. Periodization research is exciting to read because it works in labs and with high performance athlete. Allow me to drop some sport sociology on you. If you’ve never read anything by Jean-Marie Brohm I suggest you do so. He’ll challenge your views and make you see organized sport in a different light. What he also recognized is that a professional athletes body is no longer owned by the athlete.
A professional athletes body belongs to the coaches, spectators, and sponsors. All the body has to do is perform at maximum efficiency in whatever way possible. That means life revolves around training. Not the other way around.