Periodisation in bodybuilding

Do we need periodise our training to build muscle?

As most things in the sport, the answer is 'Not necessarily but...'
According to the literature, from a purely hypertrophic view point, Linear periodisation isn't necessarily for building lean body mass (22).
However, there is more to just bodybuilding than purely building muscle. We need to take in consideration, Competition preparation, additional cardiovascular sessions, the effects of dieting, Deloads & Recovery phases and so on.

Often periods of such as competition prep can vary in duration, being as short as 12 weeks or as long as 6 months. Nevertheless, the individual should somewhat of an idea of how the majority of this process will play out in terms of both training and diet.
Specifically within this period, scholars recommend either a block or undulating approach towards training is shown to have correlation with preservation and in some cases, an increase of lean body mass throughout a preparation period (2).

Having high levels of intensity throughout a certain block may causes numerous issues, specifically within a prep as someone's ability to recover maybe impended due to high stressors.
The addition of a monitoring system should be placed along side a linear periodisation to ensure the athletes rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is in line with what is prescribed, e.g. questionnaires, showing positive outcomes for training performance and sensitivity towards athlete's fatigue levels (25).
Paring LP with a monitoring system will creep into the realms of autoregulation, as training load will have to be altered to ensure the correct RPE is attained throughout the block.

As bodybuilding is a sport of numerous variables, we need to take into consideration that there maybe some interference upon our performance due to high number of stressors we are placing upon our bodies.
Autoregulation is a periodisation method that is adjusted to the individual's biofeedback on a day-day/week-week basis (23).
This allows the individual to progress/regress loads, dependant on an individuals RPE, so allowing them to continuously attain a novel stimulus despite decreased training loads as they are still training close to failure (24).
Research within the area shows much promise, often demonstrating greater physiological adaptions, specifically strength and strength endurance, compared to those who follow linear periodisation (23).
To summarise, the combination of both LP and autoregulation should be placed within training to ensure fatigue levels are managed, but also ensure adaptions are attained throughout macro/meso-cycle.

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