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01-05-23 07:19 PM - Post#924167
I didn’t know any monstrous Easy Strength squatters.
I doubt you ever will. Here it's useful to come back to my concept of the four levels, the 25% chunks of world record performances. Like, walking 5km in an hour is 20-25% of world record, and a middleweight woman or many squatting 60/80kg is 25%.
0-25% is just what many people are naturally even without working out, just living life. The healthy young ones who did some sport in the last couple of years will be closer to 25%, the older deconditioned ones more like 10%.
25-50% is what the young ones get to after 3-12 months of training, maybe longer if they're really untalented. But you basically don't get previously untrained people who can do a 50% 5km (under 25-30') or 120/180kg deadlift. So the 25-50% is where most train to.
Past 50% almost everyone is going to focus on just one quality. After all, 75% would be a guy deadlifting 240kg and running 5km in 17' or so. But that 50-75% zone is where some people will be for some sports. If you are a soccer player then a 35% squat will be plenty, but you probably want a better than 50% 5km run. If you're an NFL linebacker it'll be the other way around.
Above 75% is very specific indeed, and requires some combination of talent and many, many years of training.
You can think of how these 25% chunks tie in with DJ's Quadrants, which he talks about here. Pause and watch it, and then I'll come back to it later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718NRSzPUdY
Now, as for Easy Strength, or my version Accessible Strength. It most certainly does work for squats. However, ES/AS does not apply to everyone, it's for the middle. If your squat is 60kg, then you are firmly in the 0-25% band. You don't really have a "max" to get percentages from, you're a novice. It's like if you're 300lbs and haven't walked further than the distance from the fridge to the couch for two years, you don't need MAF, you just need to go for a walk around the block. The 60kg squatter doesn't need percentages, they just need to squat a few times a week and add weight to the bar on a regular basis.
Up in the 75-100% band, the person is close to their individual potential, and indeed to what humans are physiologically capable of. No generic programme is going to work for them. It'd be like trying to teach a PhD in a class of 30. They need individualised coaching to get that extra 1-2% here and there.
Easy or Accessible Strength, then, works for the people who are in the 25-50% band especially, and those in the 50-75% band, too, though not as well.
Now, how this ties in with DJ's quadrants:
Quadrant I doesn't need E/AS. They just do stuff, they're learning skills.
Quadrant II is talented kids with lots of qualities. They need sports-specific coaching.
Quadrant III is few qualities at a low level - let's say, 25-50% of world record. This is where E/AS comes in, and MAF numbers and all that.
Quadrant IV is also sports-specific coaching. They're well above 75% in some specific quality, most of us will never get there.
The presentation mistake DJ made here was calling them "quadrants". That's useful in a taxonomy sense, but it implies to some readers that there are equal numbers of people in both - thus his lengthy explanation in the video that there aren't.
It's more like a flowchart. Quadrant I is the base, we all have childhood PE. Some then branch off into II or IV, most of us just go along in III - and the IIs and IVs eventually join the rest of us back in III. Others fall off along the way into Quadrant 0 - being sedentary. Don't do that.
E/AS are useful for people in Quadrant III. There might be people who've coached IVs and IIs who think differently, but I don't work with them. Accessible Strength, MAF etc will work for people in the 25-50 and 50-75% bands of performance, Quadrant III. That's all I'd personally claim.
Most of the Western world is sedentary. The ones who are active all want to be IIs and IVs, but if you're over 18 and had the potential, someone found you already, so you're III instead.
And of course every trainer or coach wants to talk about the IIs and IVs they've trained. But there just aren't many of them. I've had over 300 people in 1:1 trainer, I can count on a hand or two those who went much above 50% in any lift. You can read that as me being incompetent as a trainer, or you can consider the time and effort and focus it takes for a person who was previously sedentary to get there. But the IIs and IVs are where the glory is, nobody is asking a Quadrant III coach to write for Men's Health. Still, that's where we make a difference in people's lives.
Edited by Kyle Aaron on 01-05-23 07:24 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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