Definition
The smallest repeating unit of a programme, almost always one week of sessions.
The microcycle answers the practical questions: how many sessions, which lifts on which days, and how the hard and easy days are spread. Hard sessions for the same muscles want 48 to 72 hours between them, and the heaviest session belongs where the client is freshest, often the day after a rest day.
A three-day full-body week: Monday heavy lower, Wednesday upper, Friday moderate lower. A four-day upper/lower: Monday upper, Tuesday lower, Thursday upper, Friday lower.
It does not have to be seven days. Shift workers and parents often run an eight- or nine-day microcycle that ignores the calendar, and it works as long as it repeats.