The Principles of Undulating Periodization and Cognitive Training.
Athletes need the ability to cognitively adapt and change depending on the situation. This is where undulating periodization can be useful.

What is Undulating periodisation?
Undulating periodisation is type of periodisation where volume and intensity go up and down.
Undulating periodisation involves more frequent variation in training variables which can either be daily undulating periodisation (DUP) or weekly undulating periodisation (WUP), this is where volume and/or intensity is manipulated. Athletes need the ability to cognitively adapt and change depending on the situation. This is where undulating periodisation can be useful.
Understanding your Athlete's Cognitive Data.

Undulating periodisation can happen in 3 ways:
- Increase/Decrease Task Intensity
- Increase/Decrease Task Duration
- Increase/Decrease Task Frequency
Increase or Decrease Task Intensity
Increase/Decrease the intensity of the cognitive tasks each week.
For example,
Weekly undulating periodisation (WUP)
- Week 1 70%
- Week 2 40%
- Week 3 80%
- Week 4 60%
Daily undulating periodisation (DUP)
- Session 1 40%
- Session 2 70%
- Session 3 50%
- Session 4 80%
Increase or Decrease Task Duration
Doing more or less cognitive reps by increasing/decreasing task duration and even pairing together different durations to optimise the cognitive load.
Weekly Undulating Periodisation (WUP)
Week 1 - 3 sessions
- 3m cognitive task duration x3
- 5m cognitive task duration x2
- Total session duration 19 mins
Week 2 - 3 sessions
- 10m task duration x2
- 20m task duration x1
- Total session duration 40 mins
Week 3 - 3 sessions
- 5m cognitive task duration x4
- Total session duration 20 mins
Week 4 - 3 sessions
- 30m cognitive task duration x1
- Total session duration 30 mins
Daily Undulating Periodisation (DUP)
Session 1
- Cognitive task duration 10 mins x3
- Total session duration 30 mins
Session 2
- Cognitive task duration 5 mins x3
- Total session duration 15 mins
Session 3
- Cognitive task duration 30 mins x1
- Cognitive task duration 10 mins x1
- Total session duration 40 mins
Session 4
- Cognitive task duration 3 mins x6
- Total session duration 18 mins
Increase or Decrease Task Frequency
Increase/Decrease the number of cognitive training sessions than the week before.
- Week 1 - 2 cognitive training sessions
- Week 2 - 5 cognitive training sessions
- Week 3 - 3 cognitive training sessions
- Week 4 - 4 cognitive training sessions

Remember,
Under or overloading your athlete for too long will always result in stagnation of results. Your athletes data will guide you. No matter what, without data on your athletes performance, you will be guessing and it can be difficult to accurately periodise when you guess. Paying attention to the data makes your job easier and keeps those performance improvements coming.


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