Edited by: Danielle Abel

Daily Undulating Periodization Program

Linear and daily undulating periodization are two different programming techniques that you can use in your program design.

Linear Periodization

In its simplest form, linear periodization can be thought of as different blocks of training that build one on top of another in a progressive, linear fashion. 

These blocks are generally organized into off-season, pre-season, in-season programs. This approach helps athletes prepare and adapt to the needs to the sport during the calendar year. As in-season approaches, the volume goes down because the athlete will likely be doing more sport-specific work so the intensity of the strength and conditioning increases in intensity, but at very low volumes to prevent too much fatigue accumulation. 

If you were to analyze a hypertrophy block, it might include 4 sets of 10 or 12 at say 67-72% 1RM. The intensity could vary throughout the week as well, so the athlete might start the week at a higher 1RM because they are fresher, and they might end the week near that 67% mark. 

As discussed above, it's perfectly ok to have some slight variations (as in the intensity range above) throughout the block; you just wouldn't want to have large fluctuations such as going from a 65% 1RM all the way up to a 92% 1RM within a week or two. Rather, you should build up the intensity slowly over the course of the training block.  

Daily Undulating Periodization

So instead of gradually increasing intensity and decreasing volume over the course of a training block, daily undulating periodization is programming different training goals on different days of the week. 

It might be helpful to think of daily undulating as going up and down over the course of a training block. For example, within a given week, you might have an athlete doing a power day, a strength day, and a hypertrophy day. 

Essentially what this equates to is that some days are going to be high volume, low intensity, some days are going to be moderate volume & intensity, and some other days are going to be low volume, high intensity. 

Which One is Better?

The answer, as you would expect, is "it depends." 

It might be more helpful to think about what adaptations or training characteristics you want to create. For example, a CrossFit athlete might want mixed adaptations of power, hypertrophy, strength, and endurance gains.

• In this example, there really isn't a primary adaptation, so daily undulating periodization might be the most helpful for these athletes because it allows them to train multiple adaptations during a given training block
• Football players might also fall into this category because they need to have power, agility, and strength to perform well 
  • So daily undulating periodization may be best for athletes who must express multiple characteristics 

Whereas athletes whose primary needs are one physiological variable like power, the linear periodization model may be better for them since they need to express maximal output in one training characteristic. 

• Shotputters
• Sprinters
• Powerlifters

Overall, just keep in mind that if your athlete(s) has mixed adaptation needs, daily undulating may be more beneficial, whereas for athletes with singular adaptation needs, linear periodization may be most beneficial. 

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