Macrocycle
You will learn to construct the complete training process, sequence major phases, develop strength qualities over time and control the relationship between volume and intensity across the plan.
For personal trainers + strength coaches
Melbourne · Two-day in-person professional education course · 5–6 December 2026
Essentials of Advanced Program Design
A good session can still fail the plan.
Learn to design the session, organise the training week and construct the complete macrocycle.
Dale will teach the exact reasoning behind repetitions, sets, tempo, rest, loading methods, exercise selection, structural balance and the sequencing of training phases.
If the session, week, phase and macrocycle are not connected, the programme is not finished.
Essentials of Advanced Program Design teaches you to connect repetitions, sets, tempo, rest, loading and exercise selection to the complete plan they must serve.
- 01Prescribe the variables inside a session according to the target adaptation.
- 02Build connected microcycles, mesocycles and macrocycles—not isolated four-week blocks.
- 03Apply the decisions inside Periodization Lab, included with your course place.
inside one environment
MacroConstruct the complete plan
MesoDefine and connect phases
MicroOrganise the training week
SessionPrescribe every variable
Two days of live teaching with Dale Hansford
Course manual + programming resources
Periodization Lab access included
04 / Course application · Periodization Lab included
See the decisions built into the complete plan.
Throughout the course, Dale will demonstrate how the principles are applied inside Periodization Lab: first establishing the macrocycle, then resolving each phase into exercise selection, loading parameters and session detail.
Want to inspect the software in detail?
Explore how Periodization Lab builds complete macrocycles, connects every programming variable and removes hours of repetitive work.
Explore Periodization Lab
Construct the macrocycleLearn how to organise as many connected phases as the training problem requires.
Periodise exercise selectionSee stance, grip, exercise role and progression managed across the complete plan.
Coordinate loading variablesConnect sets, repetitions, tempo, rest and loading method to the phase objective.
Manage phase transitionSee what changes, what is retained and what the athlete must be prepared to express next.
02 / Course learning outcomes
What you will learn to do.
This is a technical programming course. Dale will explain the decision, show how the variables interact and then connect the prescription to the weekly and long-term plan.
01
Establish the correct programming targetIdentify the intended adaptation and strength quality before choosing exercises, repetitions, sets or loading.
02
Select repetition and set systems deliberatelyChoose conventional, pyramid, stage, descending, ascending, wave, cluster and ratchet structures according to purpose.
03
Control volume without relying on one measureUse total sets, total repetitions, workload and tonnage appropriately, and recognise when each measure becomes misleading.
04
Prescribe tempo, rest and loading methodsConnect execution speed, pauses, recovery, density and advanced loading methods to the intended training effect.
05
Periodise exercise selection itselfManipulate stance, grip, implement, angle, range, stability and resistance profile across phases without losing the primary objective.
06
Use structural balance information properlyAssess left-to-right, agonist-to-antagonist and range/position relationships, then decide what requires direct programming attention.
07
Construct microcycles, mesocycles and macrocyclesOrganise session order, weekly stress, phase objectives, progression models and long-term sequencing as one connected system.
08
Manage fatigue, accommodation and transferRecognise what must change, what must be retained and how one phase should prepare the athlete for the next.
03 / How Dale teaches the programming process
From the complete plan to the exact prescription.
Dale will show you how to move between each level of the programme without treating the variables as isolated rules. You will learn what the decision controls, which information it depends on and how it changes the levels above and below it.
Mesocycle
Dale will explain how to define a phase objective, choose a progression model, organise volume, intensity and exercise roles, and establish the criteria for transitioning into the next phase.
Microcycle
You will learn to organise session order, frequency, exercise distribution, weekly stress and recovery so the phase objective can actually be trained and recovered from.
Session
Dale will teach you to select the exercise, repetitions, sets, tempo, rest interval and loading method as a coordinated prescription—not six unrelated choices.
05 / Instructor · Dale Hansford
Dale Hansford. Program design, periodisation, performance + rehabilitation.
Considered one of Australia’s foremost strength-training experts, Dale has spent more than 15 years examining why a programme produces the result it produces—not simply whether it looks convincing on paper.
His expertise runs through the complete programming system: repetition, intensity and volume, loading, tempo, rest, exercise selection, structural balance, and the sequencing of those decisions across training cycles. Coaches seek him out for advanced training schemes that can be explained, implemented and adjusted under real-world constraints.
Periodisation is where that work goes deepest. Dale has travelled globally to learn from leading practitioners across strength and Olympic sport, and has educated coaches on nearly every continent. He teaches periodisation as the underlying decision structure of a programme—not a template to copy.
Studied under people who built the field
Charles Poliquin · Anatoliy Bondarchuk · Preston Green · Stephane Cazeault · Yves Nadeau · Mark Carroll · Daine McDonald · Wolfgang Unsöld
Dale also works on both sides of performance and rehabilitation as a strength coach and top-line soft-tissue practitioner. That gives him an unusually complete view of what a trainee can tolerate, what is limiting a position or range, and what the programme should do about it. Training and rehabilitation are treated as one system because that is how they behave.
Why that matters in this course
You will be taught the decisions a coach must make in real programmes: what to prioritise, what to progress, what to retain, and what to change when the athlete, objective or context changes.
15+Years examining program design
10,000+Coaching sessions delivered
100+Coaches mentored
06 / Complete two-day course syllabus
Exactly what is taught.
Saturday establishes the physiological target and exact session prescription. Sunday expands those decisions into exercise periodisation, structural balance and the organisation of the complete training process.
Saturday 5 December
Session prescription
01
Training theory, adaptation and strength qualities
Dale will establish the physiological target before showing you how to select the prescription.
- Training principles: overload, specificity, variation, individual response, fatigue, recovery and adaptation.
- Adaptation targets: hypertrophy; maximal, relative, absolute and optimal strength; strength endurance and work capacity.
- Strength qualities: concentric, eccentric and isometric expression; force, velocity and intent.
- Decision context: target adaptation × athlete × phase, and how volume, intensity, frequency and exercise selection constrain one another.
02
Repetition systems, set prescription and volume
You will learn to choose repetitions and sets as programming systems—not default ranges applied to every problem.
- Standard prescription: conventional set-and-repetition structures and adaptation-specific repetition brackets.
- Repetition systems: pyramid, stage, descending, ascending, wave, cluster and ratchet structures.
- Set selection: total sets, total repetitions, workload and tonnage—when each measure is useful and when it becomes misleading.
- Volume distribution: allocate work across movements, strength qualities, sessions and the training week.
- Progression: manipulate load, repetitions, sets and density without changing every variable at once.
03
Tempo, rest and loading methods
Dale will explain how execution, recovery and loading interact to produce—or undermine—the intended training effect.
- Four-digit tempo: eccentric, pause, concentric and post-repetition pause; X as maximal intended acceleration.
- Tempo effects: time under tension, positional exposure, technical execution, load selection and volume tolerance.
- Rest prescription: incomplete recovery, antagonist pairing, straight sets, session density and maximal-force output.
- Core loading methods: step/ramp, constant load and repetition-maximum prescription.
- Advanced loading: heavy-light, eccentric and isometric methods, accommodating resistance, bands and chains, and speed-strength methods.
- Method placement: progression rules and where each method belongs within the adaptation target and phase.
Sunday 6 December
Program architecture
04
Exercise periodisation and structural balance
You will learn to periodise the exercise itself—not only its sets and repetitions.
- Exercise attributes: stance, grip, implement, angle, rotation, stability, range of motion and resistance profile.
- Exercise progressions: planned regressions and progressions across phases, from general preparation towards greater specificity.
- Mechanical demand: resistance curves, loadability, technical demand and fatigue cost.
- Advanced variations: accommodating resistance, bands, chains, eccentric, isometric and speed-strength options.
- Structural balance: left-to-right, agonist-to-antagonist and range/position relationships; how ratios inform direct work.
- Programming process: assess, prioritise, program and reassess without losing the primary training objective.
05
Microcycle, mesocycle and macrocycle design
Dale will show you how to move from the weekly plan to the complete training process.
- Microcycle construction: session order, weekly structure, frequency, stress distribution and recoverability.
- Mesocycle design: define the phase objective, constraints, progression model and transition criteria.
- Macrocycle architecture: build the complete plan with as many connected phases as the training problem requires.
- Periodisation models: linear, undulating and coach-defined structures; what changes and what remains stable.
- Across-phase variables: volume, intensity, frequency, exercise selection, loading method, tempo and rest.
- Long-term sequencing: strength-quality development, phase relationships and the volume–intensity trade-off.
06
Fatigue, accommodation, retention and transfer
The final module examines whether the complete sequence can produce and retain the intended result.
- Fatigue: muscular, neural and systemic fatigue; readiness, accumulation and recoverability.
- Accommodation: when a stable stimulus stops producing the intended response and how variation is introduced.
- Retention and decay: detraining, residual effects and what must be retained while another quality is prioritised.
- Transfer: phase potentiation, transmutation and the relationship between general and specific work.
- Worked applications: general-population training, hypertrophy and bodybuilding, strength sport, field and court sport, and experienced PT clients.
- Periodization Lab application: map these decisions through connected phases without turning the weekend into a software tutorial.
07 / Enrolment · Melbourne
Choose your enrolment path.
Every place includes the two-day course, course manual, programming resources and Periodization Lab access.
Individual
A$849
Per coach · Incl. GST
Group of 3–4
A$699
Per coach · Incl. GST
Group of 5–6
A$599
Per coach · Incl. GST
DatesSaturday–Sunday, 5–6 December 2026
VenueHotel Grand Chancellor
Early birdCloses 11:59 PM Melbourne time, Sunday 27 September 2026
Course updates
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Essentials of Advanced Program Design
Melbourne · 5–6 December 2026