Building vs Using the Body

Your client squats. It's been a regular part of their program. For the first twelve weeks, the load climbed each session. Small, steady increments. For the last six, it's stalled.

You've run through the usual checks.

• Do I need a new cue?
• Is it a skill thing?
• Are they not trying hard enough?

Nothing moves it. The cues are sharp. The effort is there.

Which leaves another possibility. The limiting factor isn't the squat at all.

The Continuum

Exercises live on a continuum.

At one end, we squat, jump, sprint. The goal is to lift more, reach a target, hit a top speed. Let's call this performance.

At the other end, we have exercises focused on the joints and muscles. The building blocks of every movement.

The squat doesn't happen without the hips, knees, and ankles doing their jobs - along with the muscles involved. If any of those pieces are weaker, performance falls.

Train at the performance end and your client is using their body. They're using what they have available.

The body's good at this. It figures out a way.

Until it doesn't.

Your client can only compensate for so long before something stalls or breaks. Their ability to perform is dependent on the status of their building blocks.

Two Modes: Build and Use

We call these two modes Build and Use. Some sessions sit at one end. Some at the other. Many hold both.

The squat your client is doing right now is in Use. Working sets, integrated output. They're using what they have.

Build changes what they have available. The same hip, the same ankle, isolated. Loaded to develop output and capacity - that they will use in the squat.

Both ends matter. Neither is wrong on its own. The question is whether the placement matches what your client needs right now.

The Move

Sometimes the stimulus doesn't have to look like the final goal.

Take the quads. The squat demands output from the quads (it's a quad exercise, right?), but if they've reached their limit, the body figures out a way to compensate.

It's the same with the lower back. The squat demands output from the spinal erectors. If they're weak, your client's nervous system won't load them further.

Doing more squats won't shift these weak links. So you isolate them. Build mode.

Two weeks later, the same squat. The quads and erectors have more to give. Your client pushes through.

It's like releasing the handbrake.

Your question: Pick one client whose progress has stalled. What piece is being asked to deliver more than it has? And where would you build it?