Have you ever noticed how many guys walk into a gym and do the same weight, same number of sets, and even the same number of repetitions for weeks on end? Despite putting 100% of their efforts into every workout they just don't get any stronger. Why does this happen? Well, let's think back to how they probably started when they Cirst began training. A novice or beginner trainee will usually increase in strength every workout. It really doesn't matter how well designed his program is-‐-‐he can simply add weights to the bar every time he goes to the gym because his body is adapting to the new stimulus of resistance training. This linear progression in strength can continue for quite some time-‐-‐especially if the before-‐mentioned trainee is young and his body is still growing (juvenile gains). But eventually this kind of linear progression will stop. Our trainee will Cind himself training with just as much intensity as before, yet strength and size gains have all but ceased. The central nervous system will eventually adapt to doing the same thing over and over again. It gets burned out, causing trainees to get stuck in a rut as their bodies refuse to get stronger. Our frustrated trainee may wonder if he has simply reached his genetic limit and will never lift bigger weights. Fortunately there is a solution to this dilemma. It is called periodization-‐-‐learning to train smarter instead of harder. Periodization means following a strategic plan of lifting certain percentages of your one-‐rep max from one workout to the next. It means you will intentionally lift lighter (with more repetitions) for some sessions while lifting heavier (with fewer repetitions for others). One particularly effective variation of this is called DUP: Daily Undulating Periodization. "Daily" refers to the way you train from session to session-‐-‐you never would do the exact same workout in a given week. "Undulating" means that the load and rep ranges you use will vary within given week, giving you the beneCit of both strength and hypertrophy. "Periodization" simply means following an intelligently designed speciCic plan for your workouts. Does Daily Undulating Periodization work? Yes, according to the research. One study took twenty men who all had two years' worth of training experience. This means none of them were new to lifting weights. Ten of the men did a fairly typical routine, doing the same number of sets and reps every workout for 12 weeks. The other ten trained with the DUP method for the same length of time. Those who did DUP got signiCicantly stronger than those who trained with more traditional methods. Jason Maxwell and Mike Samuels have developed a program that has all you need if you are interested in trying this training method. Their program will allow you to customize your workouts for your speciCic goals (strength, hypertrophy, fat loss) and even to your schedule (everything from a 6-‐day-‐a-‐week schedule to a 3-‐day-‐a-‐week schedule). I would highly recommend you check out this review of the DUP Method training program if you'd like to see a full review and learn more.
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