Absolute's Conjugate Strategy + Point B → The Aggregation of Marginal Gains
How Absolute's conjugate strategy generates weekly Aggregation of Marginal Gains to Point B.
Point A + Point B + Matthew-Like Effects
Let’s continue to build off of Point B, which we at Absolute believe is the most potent concept that we have proposed to date. Point B can be simply understood as the optimal physical state the athlete must attain to ensure success in sport. Once Point A is acquired, it is Point B that allows us, as strength practitioners, to construct a logical training strategy that is specific for the athlete and the environment in which they must perform. Point B is the position (i.e., physical state) that, once acquired and then sustained via training/treatment work, stimulates the emergence of Matthew-like effects at the Level of Competition.
Point B + Absolute’s Conjugate Training Strategy
All four of the physical capacities of Point B are systematically programmed on a weekly basis. This means: joint function, absolute strength, speed strength, and reactive strength are all programmed into the athlete’s training for Point B and trained concurrently. This comprehensive (i.e., conjugate) training serves as a feedback loop for us as strength practitioners to assess the athlete’s joint function, the status of the athlete's neural network of absolute strength, how that neurological function outputs force in compressed time frames, and the overall state of reactive strength.
In mentoring strength practitioners in adopting and managing our conjugate strategy for Point B, a common challenge arises in understanding how to regulate the intensity for each specific capacity of Point. Understand: not all training work for the neurological and biological aspects of Point B has to be executed at a stimulating intensity. To illustrate, let’s use an example of a hockey athlete with high-functioning hip joints; this does not mean the hips are not specifically trained, it simply means that the corresponding joint-specific training continues, but at a retaining or retraining intensity. In this way the system is repeatedly stimulated regarding the hip joints but not to a level that uses valuable resources that could be used in training for other physical capacities within the athletes Point B.
The key takeaway when utilizing our training strategy for Point B in the off-season is the consistent weekly incorporation of training work dedicated to each capacity, ensuring we are stimulating cumulative multifaceted training effects to acquire and sustain all necessary physical attributes the athlete requires to maximize their performance within the external environment.
The Aggregation of Marginal Gains + Weekly Conjugate Training of Point B
In an article by James Clear, we encountered an interesting principle credited to British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford, known as the aggregation of marginal gains. The article is a compelling read, and for the context of this article, it’s important to note that Brailsford defines the principle of marginal gains as follows:
“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”1
For strength practitioners employing the Absolute conjugate strategy, it becomes evident that on a weekly basis, we are actively stimulating marginal gains (see image above). This incremental multifaceted improvement, accumulated over time, contributes to the athlete reaching a critical mass and ultimately attaining Point B. Once at Point B, the acquisition of skills will also start to experience marginal gains. Before you know it, the athlete is in a physical position to elicit Matthew-like effects at the level of competition - which is our aim!
Matt Slater, “Olympics Cycling: Marginal Gains Underpin Team GB dominance,” BBC.