Threshold vs. Tolerance

When Allison and I walk our dogs, we typically try to find an empty field, so the younger one, Van, can run.

Fields near us are pretty browned out right now—a mix of dust, dry crabgrass, and these little balls of prickers that sometimes get stuck in their paws.

When we get out there, Van is ready to rock.

10-20 full-out sprints, chasing the ball I send flying with my chucker.

I can rocket that thing so he gets a solid 150-200 yards there and back.

As a rat terrier mix, Van needs this kind of exercise.

Pete is somewhere around 15. He’s all white now and moves gingerly. His hips hurt, he can’t see very well, and he has zero interest in this chasing-the-ball bullshit.

Also, the field kills his feet. He looks like he’s walking on hot coals, so I usually carry him.

Threshold is the lowest level of discomfort someone can handle.

Tolerance is the highest.

Pete’s feet threshold and tolerance have decreased immensely, which makes sense at his age.

Fairly soon, I will start coaching a top-ten person in my life.

This person is family and their experience in our program means a great deal to me, for obvious reasons.

I have no idea what the distance or level of threshold to tolerance is to them.

I think of the collision of subjective feelings with the objectivity of physiological objectivity that is necessary for metabolic growth.

To grow lean-body mass, there needs to be a release of something called metabolites. These substances are released when muscle tissue has been taxed to a point of near exhaustion or failure.

In order to achieve this safely, you need to train with sub-maximal effort regularly, so the tissue is prepared for what’s to come a couple of months down the road.

Eventually, once adapted, an athlete needs to work to failure.

Pushups are a great example of failure; we’ve all been unable to perform the next rep at one point or another.

But there are thousands of other movements that need to be defined as safe or effective for this type of effort.

Kettlebell swings would be a bad example for metabolite release but a great one for nervous-system recruitment, which improves overall conditioning.

The question is: how do we prepare someone or ourselves for this?

I would argue that, once adapted, we are dealing with the psychology of effort, and it’s going to be a daily discussion with ourselves.

I’m asking you to think about this the next time you are preparing for a workout.

What’s the point of this movement?

What am I recruiting? Which muscles? Which systems? To what result?

I love talking about this stuff, and I’m always available to go deeper if you’re interested.

Have a great week!

~TJ