In the beginning, you had a training routine. Your friend, someone at the gym, or an article you read in one of the magazines said to you, “This is what I do,” and you figured that you would give it a try. Nowadays, you might go on Youtube and follow a routine that a 27-year-old promises “will get YOU shredded bro.” But you’re not 27 anymore. As a dad, you have responsibilities. You have children. People rely on you. You have to train smarter.
Even though we know a lot more now than we did back then, we are still stuck with the idea that “we just have to find the right training routine” and then we’ll get fit. And we go from one routine to the next, from one Youtube personality to the next, from one Instagram reel to the next, trying one routine after another without any real plan or results.
Let’s change that.
Micro-Periodization is the key for consistent gains, fast results, and injury prevention.
Periodization is the process of systematically adjusting the volume and intensity of training over a year’s time. The training cycle would be divided into three cycles, each cycle lasting about three to four months. In the 1980’s, Russian weightlifters made periodization famous worldwide. If you read any of the muscle magazines back in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, like Flex and Muscle & Fitness, then you would have seen articles everywhere espousing the benefits of periodization.
The concept of periodization has trickled down – or perhaps a less generous word like recycled – over the years and transformed to the dime a dozen programs you often see today. Here’s how the typical periodization works. Weightlifters and fitness buffs train with heavier weight and few repetitions during the off-season, shift to an intermediate phase where the weight remains fairly high and repetitions low, then transition to the last stage of high sets and reps as a way “to get shredded.”
Does this process work? Absolutely. But when you’re 40 or over and working out naturally (meaning, no PEDS and well, we won’t say anything here about our opinion on many fitness personalities on Youtube), it’s not the most effective way to train.
There’s a better way.
What is Micro-Periodization?
Micro-Periodization involves compressing the traditional year-long periodization schedule into one week. You read that right. One week. The main problem with the traditional periodization model is that your body peaks (in the traditional shredded phase) only once or twice a year. That’s hard on the body. When you’re 40 or above? Forget about it. You’ll likely get injured. But most importantly, it’s unlikely your body will respond because we don’t have the same testosterone levels we had back when we were 18.
Micro-periodization allows your body to stay in peak condition throughout the year. Peak-condition doesn’t necessarily mean being “super shredded.” But it will mean being cut and defined and importantly, injury free. Again, do not compare yourself to some of the fitness profiles on Youtube. Those bodies are partly purchased from a lab.
Micro-periodization adjusts the following three factors in a week:
- Volume: What is the total weight you lifted in a session?
- Intensity: What is the average weight you lifted in a session?
- Rest Time: How much time do you rest between sets?
And each week is then divided in the following segments:
- The Endurance Phase
- The Strength Phase
- The Power Phase
Understanding Your Body’s Lag Time and How You Can Use That To Your Advantage With Micro-Periodization
There is always a lag time before your body adapts to a new stress. Take the common example of a modern diet regiment, where a person focuses on primarily reducing calories as opposed to manipulating their insulin levels.
Maybe as a dad you have tried a diet where all you try to do is eat less food. At first, you may see some dramatic results with your weight by eating more salads. Your body’s metabolism is consuming more calories than your intake of food and thus you are losing weight. But after a few weeks, your body adapts by lowering its metabolic rate to match the lower intake of calories. Weight loss comes to a standstill. And when your metabolic rate goes down, guess what goes up? That’s right. Your appetite. The diet yo-yo spins again.
Carb loading before a marathon or a long bike ride manipulates the lag time of your body. For at least three days, you would consume a diet with very little carbohydrates. When you do that, you reduce the muscle’s glycogen stores. In response, your body pulls as many carbohydrates into the muscle as possible in the form of glycogen. Following that carbohydrate starving, you then load on carbohydrates such as eating a big plate of spaghetti. Your body, since it operates with a lag, is still pulling carbohydrates into the muscle even after the normal glycogen levels are restored with the plate of spaghetti. The result? High energy and muscle fullness.
The same idea of lag time applies to micro-periodization.
A micro-periodization strategy manipulates your body’s lag time by adjusting volume, intensity, and rest intervals. Specifically, micro-periodization first ramps up volume and intensity, and shortens rest times between sets, over approximately 3-4 weeks. Then micro-periodization directs you to decrease the volume and intensity, and increase the rest time between sets, over the course of the next 3-4 weeks.
What’s happening to your body during a micro-periodization schedule?
When you increase volume and intensity, and reduce rest intervals, your body is put into essentially an emergency state as it is required to produce higher levels of energy to meet the demands you are placing on it. When you ultimately decrease the volume, intensity, and increase the rest time, your body still has that overabundance of energy that’s left over from ramping up all that volume and intensity. This is a time when you start making some serious gains because of that lag – you’ll be stronger which in turn will lead to dramatic gains.
A Micro-Periodization Training Strategy for Calisthenics: Maximize Your Gains with this 3-day a week, 6-week Program
Calisthenics is a form of exercise that primarily uses your body weight as resistance. It’s also referred to as Bodyweight Training. But let’s make one thing clear. Just because you are using primarily your body weight only for exercises doesn’t mean calisthenics are not challenging. To the contrary, calisthenics are VERY challenging because just about all calisthenics exercises are compound movements that put your whole body through space.
For example, when you are doing a pushup, you are not just working your chest, you are also working your triceps, front deltoids, abdominals, and even your back. Similarly, when you are doing pull-ups, you are not just working your back, you are also working your biceps, all three heads of your shoulder, abdominals, chest, and your neck. When your body is moving through space, the exercises activate all of your neural pathways more than most types of equipment in the gym.
The Review Dads are highly recommending that dads over 40 transition to more calisthenics based workouts. Bodyweight exercises limit injury, especially in the shoulder area, and allow you to workout without the need for a gym membership. That doesn’t mean you can’t use weights with calisthenics exercises. In fact, as you get stronger, you should be using weights in conjunction with a bodyweight exercise. One of the most effective things you can do for your chest and the back are weighted dips and weighted pull-ups respectively.
- You can either use a weighted vest or a weight belt.
- If you want to create a solid home gym for calisthenics, you only need two pieces of ancillary equipment: a dip bar and a free standing pull-up bar.
Below is a beginner micro-periodization program you can use to dramatically improve strength, muscular endurance, and overall fitness in 6 weeks.
| Week | MONDAY | WEDNESDAY | FRIDAY |
| 1 | 4 sets Pushups or Dips 4 sets Pullups/Chinups 4 sets Squats 4 sets Lunges 10-12 reps each set 2 minutes rest | 4 sets Pushups or Dips 4 sets Pullups/Chinups 4 sets Squats 4 sets Lunges 8-10 reps each set 2 minutes rest | 4 sets Pushups or Dips 4 sets Pullups/Chinups 4 sets Squats 4 sets Lunges 6-8 reps each set 2 minutes rest |
| 2 | 5 sets Pushups or Dips 5 sets Pullups/Chinups 5 sets Squats 5 sets Lunges 10-12 reps each set 90 second rest | 5 sets Pushups or Dips 5 sets Pullups/Chinups 5 sets Squats 5 sets Lunges 10-12 reps each set 90 second rest | 5 sets Pushups or Dips 5 sets Pullups/Chinups 5 sets Squats 5 sets Lunges 6-8 reps each set 90 second rest |
| 3 | 6 sets Pushups or Dips 6 sets Pullups/Chinups 6 sets Squats 6 sets Lunges 10-12 reps each set 90 second rest | 6 sets Pushups or Dips 6 sets Pullups/Chinups 6 sets Squats 6 sets Lunges 8-10 reps each set 90 second rest | 6 sets Pushups or Dips 6 sets Pullups/Chinups 6 sets Squats 6 sets Lunges 6-8 reps each set 90 second rest |
| 4 – 6 | 3 sets Pushups or Dips 3 sets Pullups/Chinups 3 sets Squats 3 sets Lunges 8-10 reps each set 180 second rest | 3 sets Pushups or Dips 3 sets Pullups/Chinups3 sets Squats 3 sets Lunges 6-8 reps each set 180 second rest | 3 sets Pushups or Dips 3 sets Pullups/Chinups 3 sets Squats 3 sets Lunges 4-6 reps each set 180 second rest |
| Notes | * Weighted Dips or Pull-ups should be used if bodyweight exercises are too easy *After week 6, go back to week 1. | -Aim for Full Range of Motion. |
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