Workout of The Week (#72)

Make more gains and smash through plateaus with phase potentiation

Phase potentiation is a programming method that’s rarely given any attention. Let the instagram nerds debate whether linear, undulating, or conjugate periodization are the best. The truth is, you need a synthesis of all 3 to stir up a programming recipe that’s just right.

Phase potentation means emphasizing a training quality for a period of time. It can fit within any periodization model. I want to keep these weekly workout of the week’s simple for the non-exercise science crowd so i’ll keep the nerd terms to a minimum going forward. Simply put, you can work on gaining muscle but have a phase where you emphasize arm training. This would essentially be a phase potentiated arm training cycle.

You train as usual but may put other things on the back burner. This means doing less volume of other lifts; typically just enough to maintain or make a little bit of progress with. The advantages of breaking your training into phases where you focus on one aspect in particular is you can use a stair stepping approach where you can bring up weaknesses efficiently just by making shifts in volume.

It can be as simple as reducing a set or two of your accessory movements and adding them to a lagging body part or quality (muscular endurance, strength, speed, power, etc.). You could also use this strategy to bias exercise selection to bring up weak points. An example woul be switching from flat bench to incline bench if you had an overhead press focused training block.

Hope that helps you out when you create your own training, if you have any questions, drop them in the comments.

The Workout

Double KB Clean

KB Squat

KB Strict Press

x 1,2,3,4,5

5 Rounds with rest (rest as long as needed to use clean technique)

Example:

1 double kb clean, 1 squat, 1 press. Then 2 cleans, 2 squats, 2 presses. Then 3 each... etc. Rest after you do the set of 5.