Uploaded April 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
I feel like I should mention some more on the topic of yearly planning, and to at least recommend reading Tudor Bompa and Gregory Haff’s work, Periodization. Especially for athletes who are interested in performing at the higher levels, structure is very important. There’s got to be periods of planned lower volume, periods of high volume, and periods of high intensity.
Essentially, training should make sense toward your goals. There’s still room for individualization and whatever approach you want to take in training frequency and structure at the mesocycle level, but studies and results can lend a hand in the structure of training for the powerlifter. A state or national level powerlifter should probably have a plan of how training will progress over the next 12 months. How will weekly average volume change? Will you be able to add or need an extra day in training, or bump in frequency on squatting, for example? And the plan doesn’t have to be finished either…I like adding in more detail as you progress through the year, but the “skeleton” should be in place.
The take-home point is that the understanding that yearly planning is important should allow us to fit things into better context. If we look at a video of someone’s easy set of squats, instead of thinking “damn put some more weight on the bar!”, we should be thinking “I wonder if they’re in a phase of lower volume in their yearly plan”.
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thestrengthathlete.com
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I feel like I should mention some more on the topic of yearly planning, and to at least recommend reading Tudor Bompa and Gregory Haff’s work, Periodization. Especially for athletes who are interested in performing at the higher levels, structure is very important. There’s got to be periods of planned lower volume, periods of high volume, and periods of high intensity.
Essentially, training should make sense toward your goals. There’s still room for individualization and whatever approach you want to take in training frequency and structure at the mesocycle level, but studies and results can lend a hand in the structure of training for the powerlifter. A state or national level powerlifter should probably have a plan of how training will progress over the next 12 months. How will weekly average volume change? Will you be able to add or need an extra day in training, or bump in frequency on squatting, for example? And the plan doesn’t have to be finished either…I like adding in more detail as you progress through the year, but the “skeleton” should be in place.
The take-home point is that the understanding that yearly planning is important should allow us to fit things into better context. If we look at a video of someone’s easy set of squats, instead of thinking “damn put some more weight on the bar!”, we should be thinking “I wonder if they’re in a phase of lower volume in their yearly plan”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Coaching and Prep:
thestrengthathlete.com
Supplement Sponsors:
Citadel Nutrition
I'll Pump You Up.Com
