Question from the T-Nation article

For similar reasons, my athletes follow a very gradual training cycle where they encounter overload, then adaptation, then a recovery phase. For each athlete the cycle will differ somewhat in length from at least three weeks to as many as twelve weeks depending on their individual recovery abilities.

http://www.tnation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_interviews/all_muscle_no_iron;jsessionid=D60277B88698548D9EE1DE2A8A660A27-mcd02.hydra

I had the pleasure of rereading this and the above quote stuck out for me.

As individuals working through the WOD cycle how do we implement the three phases?

The above quote or the periodization idea sounded familiar, so I checked the book. Page 180 will give some answers - steady state. I know it's used, or can be, in the later FSP progressions, but how this relates to the more global scheme of a WOD cycle hasn't been adressed yet, as far as I know. Of course some ideas have been floating around on how to use it in other areas but nothing really WOD specific.

I would like to read coach response too, I´ve noticed some changes in the WOD along time respecting both volume and difficulty-intensity, I try to emulate them (for example in today wod the bridge walks passed from one set to two, first time I notice this increase, I successfully increased the set with good results) whenever I feel I am able to. Some times I have to stick to the previous level of exercises (of course I´m talking about fully downgraded WOD hehe). Some times I feel I am pushing a bit too hard and I´ve been trying to solve this and getting better results by sticking to the easier variation for one or two more cicles. Is a bit of feeling involved in my case , I would like to know if there are more precise methods of achieving this.

By the way almost 2 months have passed since I have retaken 4 Wods a week ( my second son´s birth gave me only 1 day a week wo) and the strength is improving fast, just the same sensation I had when I began using WODs one year ago (I had to stop by july ) . I try not to over think it right now as results are coming nicely.