Trying to understand programming without knowing the terminology is similar to navigating a country without knowing the language: you can do it, but it won’t be easy.

Improving in the sport of powerlifting is simple if you know how to approach it. I prefer using a series of three macrocyles: hypertrophy and volume, general strength, and competition preparation and peaking.

Rather than explain, in great detail, when and how I think it would make sense for you to do this, I’m simply going to recount how I did it while coming back from a pec injury.

Before there were a bunch of fancy training programs, and after Milo carried the growing cow a bit further each day, there was traditional periodization. Let’s review.

This basic template gives you five, 14-day microcycles to revamp that old-school program and give you new-age gains.

The idea to write this article came to me while thinking of ways to improve my interviewing skills.

As opposed to the first part of this series, which could benefit anyone who trains seriously, this part is more targeted to an elite audience. Peaking isn’t of much interest to someone who doesn’t compete. Although deloading can be beneficial for any athlete, peaking goes way beyond deloading, and its temporary nature makes it irrelevant for non-competing athletes.

Complete recovery after a hard day of training may last more than 48 hours, and training every other day isn’t really an option for elite performance (there are exceptions to this rule).