Have you ever trained in the gym consistently hard for months on end, only to stall out and stop making progress or suffer an injury?
Performing the same exercise routine week-in and week-out indefinitely is not an ideal way to make progress in training and worse can expose you to injury.
Maximizing progress while minimizing injury is critical, especially for athletes. That’s why pros lean on a trick of the trade known in the fitness field as “periodization.”
Vancouver fit-tech startup Pedestal wants to normalize periodization as a key part of physical training regimes.
The method of periodization, scientifically validated and used among professional athletes since the 1950s, has remained largely obscure to the layman due to factors of complexity.
Periodization is a system of fitness training that individualizes workout duration, muscle groups, heart rate zones, and recovery time. It’s an effective approach to improving athleticism—but seldom used by everyday gym-goers.
Why? Put simply, it can be complicated. Peter Bonac, a founder of Pedestal, found it to be a rather painstaking process when he trained to climb the Matterhorn—adhering to periodization demanded constant calculations and recalibrations.
And Bonac is hardly alone in questioning the value of old-school periodization methods when one is not a professional athlete surrounded by a support team of coaches and trainers who handle the logistics.
Recognizing an opportunity, Bonac, together with co-founder Sara Prestley, created Pedestal, an app that simplifies the periodization process and makes it accessible to everyone.
Pedestal uses software to customize fitness plans according to an individual’s goals and lifestyle—whether training for a marathon, enhancing overall fitness, or preparing for a mountain climb. The app offers a range of strength, cardio, and recovery classes, adjusting the plan if you miss a workout. Plan types are designed to meet various fitness objectives like body composition, athletic performance, and event-based preparation.
At the heart of periodization, and thereby Pedestal’s strategy, is the concept of “supercompensation.” This is a physiological response to exercise that allows the body to overcompensate for stress, leading to increased muscle tissue, enhanced energy reserves, and an overall improvement in performance.
There are multiple forms of periodization with different approaches to the length and focus of each training cycle and the progression of intensity and volume. Linear periodization follows a gradual increment in workout intensity and a corresponding decrement in workout volume over time, for example, while undulating periodization varies the intensity and volume of workouts on a daily or weekly basis. Block periodization meanwhile divides the training program into specific blocks, each dedicated to a particular training aspect such as strength, power, or endurance.
Periodization is broken down into different phases on Pedestal: Transition, Base, Specific, and Taper. The transition phase is about recovery and low-intensity activities, while the base phase increases training volume and intensity focusing on endurance and strength. The specific phase zeroes in on sport-specific training, and finally, the taper phase reduces overall training volume and intensity while maintaining fitness levels, ensuring the athlete is in peak physical condition for an event.
Ultimately, Pedestal aims to automate the complexities of creating an efficient periodization plan, offering everyone an experience tailored to individual goals. The startup joins an armada of BC-based fitness innovators seeking to disrupt Canada’s health scene with tech.
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