Edit: The 12 Days of ChristMASS competition is over. Thanks for reading and be on the lookout for any future competitions.
This is the third and final part of the What is Periodization series. Read parts one and two if you haven't already. The information will be needed for this article.
Daily Undulating Periodization
Daily Undulating Periodization (DUP) is similar to block periodization, in that it too was developed to address the short comings in the linear model. The difference is, in DUP, your training sessions will vary within the same week. Each session will have a different focus, whereas with block periodization, you focus on one goal for a few weeks. The theory is, if you focus on all three areas in one week (hypertrophy, power, and strength), you will not lose the adaptations from the previous phase of training; however, you don't technically have to have hypertrophy, power, and strength days. You could focus on three different rep ranges instead.
The traditional model of DUP has the order of: hypertrophy, strength, power. Dr. Mike Zourdos investigated the order of hypertrophy, power, strength in power lifters. His argument against the traditional model was that a hypertrophy session causes a lot of muscle damage and will be a limiting factor for strength day. Placing the more moderate power day after hypertrophy day would allow time for healing before strength day. He found that the lifters in the modified DUP group gained more strength than those in the traditional DUP group. [1]
DUP Example Program
- Hypertrophy sessions are moderate intensity and high volume. They will typically be in the 6-12 rep range at an RPE of 5-8.
- Power sessions are somewhat heavy and low volume. Power days will typically be sets of 1-5 reps. You could think of power sessions as practice for strength sessions. Remember not to go too heavy on a power day. The goal is to work on technique and recover for strength day. Stay at an RPE of 5-7.5
- Strength sessions are high intensity and moderate volume. They will typically be 1-5 reps at an RPE of 7-9 (near maximum).
Which periodization model is best?
Asking which model is best is not the question to ask. In asking this, you assume that they are mutually exclusive, which is not the case. In fact, I could write up a DUP program that is segmented into blocks and progresses linearly, molding all three models into one, in fact, I've done this. A good program will likely have this overlap.
Thanks for reading! At the end of the 12 days of ChristMASS, I am giving away a $100 Amazon gift card! There are multiple ways to enter. The following things will give you one entry each:
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This gives you 5 possible entries each day with 1 additional entry for liking the Facebook Page. God Bless and I'll see you tomorrow for the 12 Days of ChristMASS Day 10!
