REF-949 · Mujika et al., 2018 · International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, Vol. · Paper · PubMed

An Integrated, Multifactorial Approach to Periodization for Optimal Performance in Individual and Team Sports

B+moderate evidenceMeasured on elite to world-class athletesWritten before October 2026, being re-checked

Periodization in sport has usually centred on exercise alone, leaving out other elements that shape an athlete's readiness to peak in competition. Integrated periodization brings together, in a coordinated way, whichever training components best fit a given phase.

The review weighs the evidence for periodizing recovery, nutrition, exercise training, skill acquisition and psychological skills, and also looks at altitude and heat adaptation, physical therapy and body composition. Despite recent criticism, various ways of periodizing exercise training can aid performance in elite individual and team sports.

Recovery interventions should themselves be periodized, withheld at some times and emphasized at others, to shape acute and chronic adaptation and performance. How much nutrient is taken and when, across the training and competition calendar, can promote adaptation and performance capacity.

Psychological skills should be periodized to the individual, and skill acquisition can be built into the periodized programme.

Participants

Not applicable (narrative review).

Protocol

Narrative review of the evidence underpinning integrated periodization across exercise training, recovery, nutrition, psychological skills and skill acquisition; heat and altitude adaptation, body composition and physical therapy also considered.
No search strategy or pooled analysis is described in the abstract.

Key Results

Across many elite individual and team sports, periodizing exercise training in various ways can help enhance performance.
In team sports such as soccer, physical and strategic periodization help manage travel, fatigue and injuries across a competitive season.
Recovery interventions belong in the periodization too: withhold or emphasize them to steer both acute and chronic adaptation to training, and performance.
Nutrient intake and timing, in relation to exercise and to the training and competition calendar, can promote physiological adaptations and performance capacity.
Psychological skills periodization should cater to each athlete's individual needs; skill acquisition can be integrated into the periodized programme.

Practical Application

"Is periodization only about the training sessions?" This review by leading authors in training, recovery, nutrition, psychology and skill learning argues that each of these can be planned by phase — and specifically that recovery interventions should be withheld in some phases and emphasized in others, depending on whether adaptation or performance is the aim. Plan the supporting pieces with the phases, not as a constant.
Inference, not tested here: in a build phase the aim is adaptation and in a race phase it is performance, so the same recovery aid or fuelling choice can be right in one and wrong in the other.
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: fuelling matched to the work of the session is in REF-543; the season layout is in SYNTH-76; the taper in SYNTH-34.
The abstract carries no doses or timings; do not cite this entry for a specific protocol.

Limitations

Narrative review; no systematic search and no quantitative results in the abstract.
Framed for elite individual and team sport; transfer to amateurs is an inference.
Written from the abstract and record metadata only (full text not read).
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level

authoritative narrative review from leading authors in each field; no systematic method and no numbers in the abstract