The Death of Periodization

<p>MOPs &amp; MOEs is proudly sponsored by Teamworks — the performance operations platform trusted by elite military units and professional sports organizations worldwide. Teamworks brings your scheduling, communications, athlete monitoring, and readiness data into one unified system — so your leaders stay informed, your people stay connected, and your unit stays ready. No more scattered spreadsheets or missed messages. Just one platform built for organizations where performance is the mission. Learn more at <a href="http://teamworkstactical.com/" target="_blank">teamworkstactical.com</a></p><p><br></p><p>We are also supported by TrainHeroic — the coaching and programming platform built for strength and conditioning coaches who train serious athletes. Whether you&#39;re programming for a military unit, a tactical team, or individual athletes, TrainHeroic gives you the tools to build and deliver professional training programs, track athlete progress, and communicate directly with your people — all through one app. Your athletes get world-class programming on their phone; you get the visibility to actually coach them. Start your free trial at <a href="http://trainheroic.com/" target="_blank">trainheroic.com</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>The Death of Periodization — Drew and Alex Go to War</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.mopsnmoes.com/articles/death-of-periodization" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Drew wrote an article called &quot;The Death of Periodization,&quot;</a> posted it on LinkedIn to see what would happen, and then got into fights with people on Instagram for a week. This episode is the full breakdown — what periodization actually is, why it doesn&#39;t work for tactical populations, and what to do instead.</p><p>What we get into:</p><p>Defining the thing first — because not a single person in the online discourse could do it. The NSCA definition: the logical and systematic process of sequencing training interventions to achieve peak performance at appropriate time points. Every version of periodization, whether block, linear, nonlinear, conjugate, or West Side, shares the same five assumptions. The most important one: that biological adaptations follow a predictable course. They don&#39;t.</p><p>Why periodization is a Soviet export — and what that means. Most of the foundational periodization literature is mapping sports science onto communist economic planning. </p><p>General adaptation syndrome is not a predictive model. It&#39;s a d