How To Cycle Accumulation And Intensification Phases!

Are you curious about how to cycle accumulation and intensification phases?

Do you wonder how to periodize your workouts like Charles Poliquin?

Then you’ve come to the right place.

In this comprehensive guide, I will show you how to cycle accumulation and intensification phases to take your training to the next level!

Introduction

Part 1: What Is Training Periodization?
Part 2: The Drawbacks Of Linear Periodization
Part 3: An Overview Of Accumulation And Intensification Phases
Part 4: The Principles Of Effective Accumulation Phases
Part 5: The Principles Of Effective Intensification Phases
Part 6: Planned Overreaching
Part 7: Neurotransmitter Based Program Design
Part 8: Planning A Complete Training Cycle
Part 9: Other Sample Routines
Part 10: Conclusion

If you want to maximize your progress in the gym, then you have to use some form of training periodization.

In other words, you need a long-term strategy for how you will make progress over time.

There are many different forms of training periodization. For example, linear periodization, conjugate periodization, and undulating periodization are all popular choices.

However, many world-class strength coaches like Charles Poliquin believe that the accumulation / intensification system is the fastest way to build size and strength.

So what are accumulation and intensification phases?

The accumulation / intensification model of periodization involves alternating back and forth between higher-rep accumulation phases and lower-rep intensification phases.

The higher-rep accumulation phases are used to build muscle mass and overload your muscular system. On the other hand, intensification phases are used to build maximal strength and overload your nervous system.

For example:

Weeks 1-3: Accumulation Phase
Weeks 4-6: Intensification Phase
Weeks 7-9: Accumulation Phase
Weeks 10-12: Intensification Phase

Charles Poliquin believes that alternating back and forth between these two phases is one of the fastest ways to make long-term progress.

By alternating back and forth between higher-rep and lower-rep blocks of training you trick your body into becoming bigger and stronger as quickly as humanly possible.

But before we talk about accumulation and intensification phases, let’s take a quick look at the topic of training periodization, and the drawbacks to other forms of training periodization.

Note: If you have any trouble reading the training routines in this article then go ahead and check out this article.

Now let’s get down to business…

Part 1: What Is Training Periodization?

If you are serious about getting results as quickly as possible, then you MUST use some form of periodization in your workouts.

Training periodization is a system that you use to plan your long-term progress.

Bodybuilder rarely use periodization in their workouts. They go to the gym, do whatever they “feel like” doing, and leave.

If you want mediocre results, this is an acceptable strategy. However, if you are serious about reaching your goals, then you have to use some form of periodization.

Before you design a training program, you MUST define your goal.

What is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?

Here is a great quote by Arnold Schwarzenegger on the importance of having a goal:

“You can have the best ship in the world. You can have the best cruise liner. But if the captain doesn’t know where to go, you are just going to drift around at sea and you are never going to end up anywhere.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s goal was to be a world champion bodybuilder.

In other words, Arnold wanted to go from point A (15 year-old boy) to point B (world champion bodybuilder) as quickly as possible.

Point A ——> Point B

Training periodization describes the strategy you use to go from point A to point B.

Periodization involves manipulating all of the key training variables over the long-run to maximize training-related adaptations and minimize the risk of overtraining or regression.

Here are some of the variables you could manipulate in a training program:

Variable #1: Training frequency
Variable #2: The choice of exercises
Variable #3: The order of exercises
Variable #4: The number of sets
Variable #5: The number of reps
Variable #6: The precise tempo for each exercise
Variable #7: The length of all rest intervals

And son on.

As you can see, training periodization can get pretty complicated. Don’t worry – I’m going to keep things as simple as possible in this article.

The important point to understand is training periodization helps you go from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible.

Part 2: Drawbacks Of Linear Periodization

Linear periodization is a simple as it gets.

With linear periodization, you increase the weight lifted on each exercise from one week to the next.

Most bodybuilders and powerlifters use some form of linear periodization. It can be very effective in certain situations. However, Charles Poliquin believed it was not the best way to train.

According to linear periodization, getting bigger and stronger occurs in 3 simple steps:

Step #1: You Train!

You perform a workout. This workout stimulates size and strength gains, but fatigues your muscles and nervous system. You are smaller and weaker immediately after the workout.

Step #2: You Recover And Grow!

After the workout, you rest, and your body “super compensates” to get bigger and stronger.

Step #3: You Train Again!

After your body super compensates, you train again and repeat the process all over again!

As you can see, linear periodization is as simple as it gets.

Linear periodization works great for beginners and gifted athletes. Many beginners can add 5-20 pounds each week to major exercises without hitting a plateau.

Linear periodization also worked well for Ed Coan, the greatest powerlifter the world has ever seen. Ed Coan admits that he reached a 500 pound squat very quickly simply by maxing out on the squat twice per week!

Ed didn’t need any fancy programming to reach a squat that most mortals can only dream of achieving! He continued to use a relatively simple form of linear periodization throughout his career and it clearly served him well.

However, there are some serious drawbacks to linear periodization.

The average trainee has a MUCH harder time adding weight to the bar each week. For “Joe Average” to make long-term progress, he may need a more sophisticated periodization plan.

So if simple linear periodization isn’t the answer, then what is?

According to Charles Poliquin (and many other world-class strength coaches), the accumulation / intensification model of periodization is a faster way to build size and strength.

Part 3: An Overview Of Accumulation And Intensification Phases

The accumulation and intensification model of periodization was popularized by German sport scientist Dietmar Schmidtbleicher in the 1980s.

Here are a few of the world-class strength coaches who use this periodization model:

So what is the accumulation / intensification system, anyway?

The idea behind the accumulation / intensification system is very simple: you alternate back and forth between accumulation phases to build muscle mass, and intensification phases to build strength.

Most of the time, these training blocks last 2-4 weeks each.

For example:

Weeks 1-3: Accumulation Phase
Weeks 4-6: Intensification Phase
Weeks 7-9: Accumulation Phase
Weeks 10-12: Intensification Phase

And so on.

The first training block is an accumulation training block.

Accumulation blocks are designed to build muscle mass and improve your work capacity. Charles Poliquin says accumulation phases should include LOTS of sets performed in the 6-20 rep range, and several exercises per body part.

In other words, accumulation phases are where you do bodybuilding-style workouts.

Intensification phases are the opposite: they are designed to build strength and create neurological adaptations. Charles Poliquin says intensification phases should include sets in the 1-8 rep range, and a smaller number of exercises.

Some people try perform high-rep sets and low-rep sets in the same workout. I talked about this training style in my article “Powerbuilding: The Ultimate Guide!”

These powerbuilding style workouts can be effective. However, Charles Poliquin believed the accumulation / intensification model was a better way to make progress.

With this model, you go all in one one goal at a time (size gains, or strength gains).

Alternating back and forth between these phases prevents your body from getting “bored” with your workouts, and stimulates faster overall size and

Part 4: The Principles Of Effective Accumulation Phases

The primary goals during an accumulation phase are to build muscle pass and improve your work capacity.

Accumulation phase workouts usually have the following characteristics:

Item #1: High rep ranges (6-20 reps per set)
Item #2: High time under tension (typically 30-70 seconds pet set)
Item #3: Lots of exercises (2-5 exercises per body part)
Item #4: Several sets per exercise (2-4 working sets per movement)
Item #5: Lots of “high-intensity techniques” (tri-sets, drop sets etc.)

Accumulation phases are designed to stimulate muscle growth. In other words, these are your typical “bodybuilding style workouts” with high rep ranges and short rest periods.

There’s no need to perform any low-rep sets during an accumulation phase.

For example, a bodybuilder might focus on sets in the 10-20 rep range during an accumulation phase, while a powerlifter might focus on sets in the 6-10 rep range during an accumulation phase.

This is also where you would use “high-intensity techniques” to stimulate more muscle growth. Here are some good examples:

Option #1: Supersets
Option #2: Tri-sets
Option #3: Giant sets
Option #4: Drop sets
Option #5: Mechanical advantage drop sets
Option #6: Rest-pause sets
Option #7: Forced reps

For example, here is an accumulation-style arm workout that Larry Scott used to build up his world-class biceps:

The Larry Scott Bicep Workout

A1: Dumbbell Preacher Curls, 3-5 x 6-8**, 2/0/1/0, 10 seconds rest
A2: Barbell Preacher Curls, 3-5 x 6-8**, 2/0/1/0, 10 seconds rest
A3: Reverse Ez-Curl Bar, 3-5 x 6-8**, 2/0/1/0, 180 seconds rest

**Perform 6-8 full range of motion reps then 4-6 partial reps out of the bottom position.

Note: CLICK RIGHT HERE for a great training video of this workout.

This workout features tri-sets. The basic idea is to perform 3 forms of preacher curls in a row, with only 10 seconds rest between exercises.

These short rest periods create a TON of fatigue in the biceps, which is ideal during an accumulation phase workout.

Larry Scott also liked to perform partial “burns” in the bottom position of each exercise after reaching failure. Again, these partial reps were designed to create even more muscle damage.

There are a million ways to design an accumulation phase workout. I’ll cover this in more depth below.

For now, the important thing to understand is accumulation phase workouts are “bodybuilding-style workouts” designed to build muscle mass.

Part 5: The Principles Of Effective Intensification Phases

Intensification phases are the complete opposite of accumulation phases. the total opposite of accumulation phases.

During an intensifcation phase, the primary goal is to stimulate strength gains and neurological adaptations. To do this, we use low-rep sets and long rest periods.

Of course, the term “low reps” is relative.

For a bodybuilder, that might mean performing sets in the 6-8 rep range. For a powerlifter, that could mean doing sets of 1-3 reps.

Here are some common characteristics of intensification phases:

Item #1: Low rep ranges (1-8 reps per set)
Item #2: Low time under tension per set (typically 1-40 seconds per set)
Item #3: Fewer exercises (1-3 exercises per body part)
Item #4: More sets per exercise (1-12 working sets per movement)
Item #5: Lots of “nervous system” methods (cluster sets, wave loading, speed sets etc.)

Intensification phases are designed to stimulate strength gains and myofibrillar hypertrophy. These are the workouts where you perform lower-rep sets with long rest periods.

This does NOT mean you have to train like a powerlifter! A bodybuilder might perform sets of 6-8 reps during their accumulation phase. However, the reps should be lower than your accumulation phases.

This is also a great time to use “nervous system” methods. For example:

Option #1: The max effort method
Option #2: The dynamic effort method
Option #3: The modified Hepburn method
Option #4: Cluster sets
Option #5: Wave loading
Option #6: Contrast sets
Option #7: Eccentric training
Option #8: Isometric training

Intensification phases are a little more complicated than accumulation phases. For that reason, I want to talk about them in more depth here.

Intensification phases are all about creating adaptations within your central nervous system.

In other words, you are teaching your brain to recruit more muscle fibers, and to learn how to use these new muscle fibers to apply more muscular force during your exercises.

Powerlifters obviously care about getting stronger, as that’s their main goal! Bodybuilders SHOULD care about getting stronger as well. Let’s compare three hypothetical bodybuilders:

Bodybuilder A = Incline bench presses 135 pounds for 10 reps
Bodybuilder B = Incline bench presses 225 pounds for 10 reps
Bodybuilder C = Incline bench presses 315 pounds for 10 reps

Which bodybuilder has the bigger chest? You already know the answer: Bodybuilder C!

It doesn’t matter how much volume these guys are doing, or what their training looks like. Bodybuilder C will be so much bigger it isn’t even funny!

Bodybuilding is a complicated sport. There is WAY more to building muscle than just getting stronger. However, getting stronger is a VERY important part of the muscle-building gameplan.

And alternating accumulation and intensification phases is a shortcut to getting stronger over time.

Here are some of the benefits you can expect from a typical intensification workout:

Benefit #1: Increased motor unit recruitment
Benefit #2: Increased inter- and intra-muscular coordination
Benefit #3: Increased firing rate of individual motor units

Let’s take a closer look at each of these benefits.

Benefit #1: Increased Motor Unit Recruitment

This is especially true for the high-threshold motor units, or the fast-twitch muscle fibers.

We’ve all heard stories about the untrained mother who was able to summon the strength to lift up a large vehicle to save her children who were trapped underneath.

These stories are very real. The untrained person lacks the ability to recruit most of the motor units in their body. When this person begins weight lifting their nervous system “learns” how to recruit these dormant fibers and activate them during various activities.

Intensification phases are perfect for “teaching” the body to recruit these dormant muscle fibers, even in highly trained and experienced athletes!

Benefit #2: Increased Inter- And Intra-Muscular Coordination.

This refers to the ability of your brain to effectively coordinate the various motor units within the body together to perform a specific exercise.

For example, when you do a set of bench presses, you are primarily recruiting muscle fibers in the pecs, anterior delts, and triceps, although there are other muscle groups helping of course.

Your body has to learn how to coordinate all the muscle fibers located within the chest to lift the weight. This is known as intra-muscular coordination.

However, the body also has to teach these entirely separate muscle groups (chest, anterior delts, triceps) to work together to lift the weight. This is inter-muscular coordination.

Benefit #3: Increased Firing Rate Of Individual Motor Units

Imagine a boxer training with a reflex ball. They are not only striking the object with a ton of force, they are striking the object at an extremely rapid pace with very little time in between each strike.

Your body can accomplish something very similar to this by teaching the various muscle fibers to “fire” at a faster rate. When this happens, you can lift more weight than you could before.

As you can see, there are many benefits to including intensification phases in your long-term training plan. They make you stronger and “prime” your body for future hypertrophy gains.

A bodybuilder would generally perform 4-8 reps per set and would focus on sets lasting 20-40 seconds each during these strength phases.

A strength athlete, on the other hand, would probably perform 1-5 reps per set and focus on sets lasting 1-20 seconds each during an intensification phase.

Part 6: Planned Overreaching

The accumulation / intensification system allows you to incorporate planned overreaching phases.

Overreaching is just a fancy way of saying planned, temporary overtraining.

Imagine you are training with a lot of volume for several weeks and your body is starting to feel beat up. In this example, you have achieved a state of “overreaching.”

Technically, you are still recovering from your workouts. However, you are right on the edge. One bad workout, and you will be so beat up there is no way you can recover for the next one.

Overreaching can be very beneficial if you are trying to build size and strength as fast as possible.

Basically, you are pushing your body right to the edge of what it can recover from. Then, before you get too beat up, you back off and give your body some time to recover.

If yo do this correctly, you will “slingshot” past your previous levels of size and strength.

Overreaching is a very powerful training strategy!

So how do you incorporate an overreaching phase into your workouts?

The truth is, the accumulation / intensification system already uses the overreaching strategy. The accumulation phases have more volume, and basically act as an overreaching phase.

At the end of your accumulation phase, you should already feel pretty beat up. Then when you switch to the intensification phase, your body gets a chance to recover with the lower-volume workouts.

Let’s say a bodybuilder by the name of Joe Average wants to use a short-term overreaching phase to help him build more muscular hypertrophy. Here is how Joe might set up their training:

Joe Average Overreaching Strategy

Week 1: High-volume accumulation workouts
Week 2: High-volume accumulation workouts
Week 3: High-volume accumulation workouts
Week 4: Low-volume intensification workouts
Week 5: Low-volume intensification workouts
Week 6: Low-volume intensification workouts

Joe uses a 6-week short-term overreaching cycle. The first three weeks featured some very high-volume accumulation workouts. Joe might be performing 20+ sets per body part per week during this phase.

By the end of week 2 Joe was starting to feel the effects of the high-volume workouts. By the end of week 3 he was completely exhausted, slightly depressed, and taking naps on the weekend just to survive.

At this time Joe immediately switches to a very low-volume intensification routine for 3 weeks featuring only 6-8 sets per body part per workout.

After 2 weeks on the reduced workload Joe feels like a million bucks. Not only this, but he continued to get bigger and bigger during the super low-volume intensification phase!

What happened is Joe experienced delayed adaptations to all the hypertrophy training performed in the first 3 weeks. Joe continued to super compensate in weeks 4-5 even though he wasn’t doing anything training wise that should create a hypertrophy response!

Not only that, but Joe’s body is once again primed for another killer accumulation phase as his muscles are not bored of high-volume workouts.

On the contrary, his muscles will respond incredibly fast once again!

A strength athlete may also plan periods of overreaching into his training, but some of the details differ. You can always work with me directly if you want to learn more.

Part 7: Neurotransmitter Based Program Design

This is perhaps the single most overlooked aspect of the accumulation / intensification model of periodization. We are all different, and we all respond differently to a given training stimulus.

Some of us can build slabs of muscle with the typical high-volume bodybuilding workouts focusing on 8-20 reps per set. Others grow like frickin’ weeds on functional hypertrophy protocols where the loading parameters are changed as frequently as every 2 weeks!

If you want to design optimal accumulation and intensification workouts for yourself then one of the most important things you can do is to learn the fundamentals of neurotransmitter based program design.

There are 4 major neurotransmitters in the body:

Neurotransmitter #1: Dopamine
Neurotransmitter #2: Acetyl-choline,
Neurotransmitter #3: GABA
Neurotransmitter #4: Serotonin

Everyone has a unique ratio of these different neurotransmitters in their brain.

Your neurotransmitter is the single most important factor in figuring out the types of training routines that you will respond best to. It will also tell you the most effective strategies for structuring your accumulation and intensification phases.

For example, if you are an acetyl-choline dominant lifter then you will probably get your best results by performing some sort of deload every few workouts.

If you have never heard the term before a “deload” typically involves reducing your training volume, frequency, duration, intensity, or some other variable to give your body a chance to fully recover from the last few weeks of training.

One of my favourite ways to deload my acetyl-choline dominant lifters is to dramatically reduce their volume every third workout. This would be true for both accumulation and intensification style workouts. For example:

Workout 1: 100% volume
Workout 2: 80% volume
Workout 3: 20% volume

If this trainee was a bodybuilder looking to build muscle then I might have them do 12 sets per body part in their first accumulation workout, 10 sets per body part in their second accumulation workout and only 4 sets per body part in their third accumulation workout.

After the third workout I may have them switch to an intensification-style workout using the same volume-reduction strategy. Basically the trainee is temporarily overreaching in the first 2 workouts, only to finally be able to fully recover in the third workout.

The end-result is the trainee massively super compensates after the third workout and comes back for the 4th workout MUCH bigger and stronger and feeling like a million bucks!

Dopamine-dominant lifters and lifters with a more balanced neurotransmitter profile also respond best to specific tweaks to their accumulation and intensification phases.

If you understand your neurotransmitter profile and how to write your routines specifically for the “type” of trainee that you are then you will be able to design routines that deliver results you wouldn’t even believe!

Part 8: Planning A Complete Training Cycle

Now that we have covered the theory behind alternating accumulation phases and intensification phases we can now dive right into the practical application of this training model.

One of the more effective ways to design a training cycle is to rotate through 2 accumulation phases and 2 intensification phases where you are lifting your heaviest weights at the end of the 4th phase.

For example:

Sample Accumulation / Intensification Strategy

Accumulation phase #1 – high reps
Intensification phase #1 – moderately low reps
Accumulation phase #2 – moderately high reps
Intensification phase #2– low reps

Here is how a bodybuilder might organize their phases:

Accumulation phase #1 – 12-20 reps per set
Intensification phase #1 – 6-8 reps per set
Accumulation phase #2 – 10-15 reps per set
Intensification phase #2 – 4-6 reps per set

At the end of the four phases the bodybuilder is lifting weights in the 4-6 rep range, which is in fact quite heavy for the typical bodybuilder.

At the end of the 2nd intensification phase the bodybuilder could set up a similar 4-phase progression using slightly different rep ranges, exercises etc.

Remember, variety is the spice of strength training program design!

Here is how a strength athlete (powerlifter, strongman etc.) might organize their phases:

Accumulation phase #1 – 6-8 reps per set
Intensification phase #1 – 3-4 reps per set
Accumulation phase #2 – 5-6 reps per set
Intensification phase #2 – 1-2 reps per set

Our strength athlete is able to peak by the end of the 2nd intensification phase and is lifting loads in the 1-2 rep range, which is sufficient for his goal.

Let’s look at a full training cycle for a strength athlete looking to improve their conventional deadlift.

I recommend our strength athlete (let’s call him Joe Average) to train his lower body once every 5-7 days.

These are very demanding workouts so we don’t want to overtrain Joe’s lumbar spine by training his lower body more frequently.

Accumulation Workout #1 (perform this workout 4 total times)

A1: Deficit snatch grip deadlift, 3-5 x 6-8, 4/0/2/0, 10 seconds rest
A2: 90 degree back extension (barbell on back), 3-5 x 10-12, 2/0/1/2, 3 minutes rest
B1: Front foot elevated split squat (holding DBs), 3-5 x 6-8, 2/0/1/0, 10 seconds rest
B2: Front step up (holding DBs), 3-5 x 10-12, 1/0/1/0, 120 seconds rest

Here are the training videos: exercise A1, exercise A2, exercise B1, exercise B2.

This is an absolutely brutal accumulation-style workout. You are going to perform a superset consisting of snatch grip deadlifts and 90 degree back extensions.

The deficit snatch grip deadlift was chosen for a specific reason here. This longer range of motion exercise is great to perform first in our training cycle, when training specificity is less critical. This move is the single greatest exercise you can do for boosting hypertrophy so it is very appropriate in this phase.

In the subsequent workouts Joe Average will focus more on the conventional deadlift as boosting this lift is his main priority.

Yes, the lactic acid buildup in your lower back will be absolutely horrible. Don’t worry, there is a method to the madness. This workout will condition your lower back and your entire posterior chain like nothing else. If you bust your ass in this workout then you will be setting yourself up for a huge deadlift PR down the road.

Intensification Workout #1 (perform for 4 workouts total)

A1: Back squat (feet narrow / flat), 6 x 2-4, 3/1/X/0, 120 seconds rest
A2: Lying leg curl (Poliquin Method / ankles neutral)**, 6 x 2-4, 3/0/X/1, 120 seconds rest
B1: Deficit conventional deadlift w/ chains, 6 x 2-4, 3/1/X/0, 4 minutes rest

**Dorsiflex your ankles (point your toes towards your shins) on the concentric range and plantarflex your ankles (point your ankles away from your shins) on the eccentric range.

Here are the training videos: exercise A1, exercise A2, exercise B1.

This workout utilizes the patient lifter’s method. You are going to perform 6 sets of 2 reps on each exercise in your first workout. Then on every subsequent workout you are going to try and increase the number of reps that you can do.

Your goal is to eventually work up to doing 6 sets of 4 reps on each exercise. This is a very effective way to train for strength. No, it is not flashy like wave loading or cluster sets. However it is still an extremely effective way to train for all-out strength gains.

Accumulation Workout #2 (perform 4 workouts total)

A1: Front squat (medium stance / heels flat), 3-5 x 5-6, 2/0/X/0, no rest (not a typo, NO REST)
A2: Back squat (medium stance / heels flat)**, 3-5 x AMRAP****, 2/0/X/0, 120 seconds rest
B1: Romanian snatch grip deadlift, 3-5 x 5-7, 5/1/1/0, 10 sec rest
B2: 45 degree back extension (DB held at chest), 3-5 x 5-7, 3/0/1/2, 3 minutes rest

**Do not change the weight you used from front squats! This is a mechanical advantage drop set on squats. So do a set of front squats for 5-7 total reps, rack the weight, immediately duck under the bar and walk it out, then perform a set of back squats.

****AMRAP stands for as many reps as possible. Just rep the weight out, you should be able to get 1-5 reps on each set of back squats after just front squatting.

Here are the training videos: exercise A1, exercise A2, exercise B1, exercise B2.

Intensification Workout #2 (perform 4 workouts total)

A1: Conventional deadlift, 1 x 1**, 2/0/X/0, 3 min rest
B1: Conventional deadlift isometric at sticking point (have bar loaded w/ 135 → pull into pins for six seconds), 3 x 1, 1/0/1/6, 3 min rest
B2: Conventional deadlift, 3 x 2****, 2/0/X/0, 3 min rest
C1: Walking lunges, 3 x 5-7, 2/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest
C2: 90 degree back extensions (barbell on back), 3 x 5-7, 2/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest

**Conventional deadlift performed with your competition stance.

****These are “compensatory acceleration” sets. Use a weight that is approximately 80% of the weight you lifted on exercise A1 and accelerate as hard and fast as you possibly can through the entire movement. You should feel the bar absolutely exploding into your hips at the top position!

Here are the training videos: exercise A1, exercise B1, exercise B2, exercise C1, exercise C2.

This second intensification phase utilizes deadlift isometrics as popularized by Josh Bryant. For the deadlift isometrics you are going to pull a barbell loaded with 135 pounds into a pair of safety pins.

You want to pull as hard as you possibly can on these sets. Your goal is to literally break the pins in half! Just as importantly you are going to alternate sets of deadlift isometrics with sets of speed deadlifts.

The deadlift isometrics will teach your body to recruit additional motor units. Then when you perform your speed sets your body will learn how to recruit these additional motor units on the competition lift. In other words these will be some of the fastest, most explosive speed sets of your life!

This routine will surely set you up for a huge deadlift PR.

Part 9: Other Sample Routines

By now you should understand how to plan a full training macro cycle utilizing the accumulation / intensification model of periodization to achieve any possible training goal.

However, I realize that many of you are hungry for even more sample routines.

I can’t cover every possible accumulation or intensification routine that I use with my clients in this one article (that would require several books!).

Instead, I will give you links to 5 awesome accumulation workouts and 5 incredible intensification workouts that you may want to try.

5 Sample Accumulation Workouts:

5 Sample Intensification Workouts:

I am quite confident that each and every one of you reading this will find at least a couple of routines from these lists that will work for you.

In fact, I would venture to say that most of these routines will work for you if you do your due diligence and set up the routine correctly!

Conclusion | How To Cycle Accumulation And Intensification Phases!

Learning how to successfully alternate accumulation / intensification phases in your own training is a very difficult but highly rewarding task.

Far too many trainees fall into the trap of doing the same-old, same-old workout week after week with very little results to show for their effort. Don’t let this be you!

You now have all the information you need to start using the accumulation / intensification model of periodization today to get superior training results!

As Josh Bryant likes to say, “you have to be a whore for results.” At the end of the day, results are the only thing that matters.

“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of luck on your strength training journey!

How To Cycle Accumulation And Intensification Phases!

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