Unleashing Your Athletic Training: Force Velocity Curve (EconoFit: Opportunity Costs)

Running up and down the field to practice my left-hand pass, the rugby ball seemed to hit everything except the target. Muscled pumped, I looked down at my hands giving them three squeezes. Increasing blood circulation was my intentional remedy to my utterly lousy passing. Unfortunately, however, the more I passed, the further my balls fell from the target.

Disappointed, I trotted back down to the gym to the plyometric box section, only to find myself struggling to jump up an 18 in. box. My face wore a bewildered expression: Doesn’t seem like my day… I murmured under my breath. The reassurance I sought wasn’t enough. I wanted an explanation: What was I doing wrong?

Athletes, specifically, those who train in the gym – lifting heavy loads – are the most common victims of this afflicting hindrance. One minute you’ll be repping 2 plate deadlifts without an issue, while the next you are chucking balls at the willpower of muscles you have no control over.

Many of you are probably victims of this phenomenon. You go for an intense gym session – strength or hypertrophy training – only to be unable to train for your sport after. The idea that your muscles experience less of a negative impact in terms of flexibility and movement is supported by the Force x Velocity conjecture. In addition to that, what better way to look at graphs from an economic perspective?

Force Velocity Curve

Force Velocity Curve

The Force Velocity Curve is an illustrious and fundamental principle that unravels the relationship between the maximal force your body produces in a movement, and the maximal velocity, or speed, in which your muscles attain completion of movement (often sport/athletic specific movements). Briefly put, the greater the force your muscles exert, which is directly correlated to the weight of the mass you are exerting given that high force is equivalent to acceleration, and thus low velocity and high mass.

The repercussion of choosing high-force movements is that the speed of the activity significantly decreases. Nevertheless by decreasing mass the speed of completion can thus forth increase. With max force needing max mass, it reveals the idea that one cannot attain max force, and max velocity simultaneously, but rather pursue a combination of the two to establish what is known as an optimal training sequence (“OTS'')

How to Know Where to Start on The Force Velocity Curve?

Going back to my lousy passing. What you saw was a training sequence (Non-optimal training sequence “NTS?”) that jumped from force (high weight/strength training) to movement/running/passing (velocity training). Upon some research, I can assure you that my lousy passing perhaps wasn’t solely due to my weaker left-hand, but rather through the ubiquitous concept of the opportunity cost, an idea that is commonly referred to as having “no free lunch” or that everything, regardless of how trivial, must come at the expense of an internal or external factor.

In my case, strength training first came at the opportunity cost of training my velocity movements first – my passing. Beyond just this external opportunity cost is the internal cost: Applying more energy and concentration to the weighted exercises at the beginning of my workout leads to perhaps less attention and care to the forthcoming exercises due to my limited attention span.

Simplified, considering just the opportunity costs of my energy, time, care, and attention, this is what economists label a constant opportunity cost, where if I tradeoff a weight training exercise for 10 minutes of passing and speed work, I will lose a constant amount as I increase the number of weighted exercises or vice versa.

Constant Opportunity Cost

That’s Just the Tip of the Iceberg!

Beyond just weight changes, a core differentiator between force and velocity is the way it takes a toll on different parts of the body. Weight lifting, which is more force/heavy load oriented, centralizes muscle growth and protein synthesis. Conversely, velocity work, such as plyometric jumps and Olympic lifting is more focused on working muscle responses like reaction time, muscle flexibility, tendon/ligament adaptations, and much more.

Now say you allocate around 30 minutes of your time to each of the two systematic training sessions. Evidently with speed work being inherently less muscle growth orientated, the intentional muscular tears aren’t as accentuated, and have less of a negative impact on your body's ability to perform a task (say, my left-hand passes). On the flip side, force training (Deadlifts, Squats, Bench presses, etc…) will have a notable effect on how you perform as all of the allocated time goes into muscular development, compared to a mere 20% - 30% for movement-specific exercises.

If we broaden our scope to combine both types of training into a 60-minute workout, force training first has a greater opportunity cost as it’s more taxing on muscle growth, inhibiting our ability to maximize performance in the following velocity exercises. In other words, the opportunity cost – both external and internal – of doing force exercises first concerning overall performance in the workout is referred to as an increasing opportunity cost because the time spent allocating resources such as time and energy to heavy weight lifting, the more your output diminishes for the velocity exercises.

How About We Just Tell You How to Train?

With all that jargon being said, the most effective way to train is to fall back to the force x velocity curve and surf it. Quite literally, surf it! Starting with speed work, your body can perform the task of exerting a muscle response that will not solely revolve around muscular growth, being less taxing on your body's ability to perform upcoming exercises.

By then moving to power and speed strength, Olympic lifts or power cleans are my next up sector. Still, between full force and speed exercises, these lifts can ensure you get both without being exceedingly demanding on your core muscles.

Ultimately, finishing up on your strength and hypertrophy work you will attain the most effective way to train, by ensuring you don’t hold your body back by overshocking through an NTS – yes, I used NTS (Non-optimal training sequence).

Example: Lower Body Workout Framework (OTS!)

Step 1: Velocity/Speed/Speed Strength

Agility, Ladder Runs, Ski Jumps, Broad Jumps, Double/Triple Broad Jumps, 3-Point Extensions, etc

Step 2: Power

Power Clean, Snatch, Power Jerk, etc

Step 3: Maximal Strength/Strength Speed

Back Squat, Front Squat, Deadlift, RDL, Bulgarian Split Squats, Weighted Calf Raises

Key Takeaways

Mastering the force-velocity curve is essential for optimizing athletic performance. Balancing speed and power exercises maximizes results. Start with speed and velocity movements to preserve energy for subsequent exercises. Transition to power and speed strength exercises to bridge the gap between force and velocity. Conclude with maximal strength and hypertrophy work for comprehensive muscle development. Embrace the force-velocity curve to reach fitness goals effectively. Train smart, utilize the curve, and conquer the game! Follow this secret weapon to achieve peak performance in your sport and excel on the field or court.

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Business of Fitness: Production Possibilities Curve, Productive Efficiency, Compound/Isolation Lifts

As the title suggests, this article will look at fitness through a business/economic lens. This article will break down a simple principle and will apply this concept to compound and isolation lifts.

Compound/Isolation Lifts: What are they?

To simply put it, each lift or exercise in the gym is broken down into either a compound or isolation lift. As the word may suggest, a compound lifts targets multiple muscles through one exercise. They are essential to improving general functionality of the body as a whole through the movement of multiple body parts, as well as being a focal point for boosting strength. Think of compound lifts as a blanket that general trains your whole body.

Examples of Compound Lifts:

• Deadlifts

• Back Squats

• Barbell Rows

• Pull ups

• Shoulder Press

• Bench Press

In contrast to compound lifts, as the word isolation may suggest, isolation lifts simply target one muscle through 1 simple movement. Although isolation lifts may seem minimal and ineffective, individually training each muscle group is essential when it comes down to muscle growth. Isolation lifts provide the definition and specificity to muscle groups that compounds lifts don't provide.

Examples of Isolation Lifts:

• Bicep Curl

• Shoulder Shrugs

• Hamstring Curls

• Lateral Raises

• Bulgarian Split Squats

• Tricep kickback

• Sit-ups

• Pec Flyes

Essentially, compound lifts improves the general strength and movement to your body, while isolation lifts provide definition and individually improve respective muscle groups.

The balance between Compound & Isolation Lifts: Modelled Through Economics

How do you know how many compound lifts or how much time you should spend on isolation lifts isn't necessarily easy? That is because their isn't a golden ratio given that everyone has their own objectives, time constraints, and energy that can be spent per workout.

Economists are always looking at how efficient certain tasks are. Productive efficiency is one of the main ways that economists determine how useful and methodical certain things are. Similarly, compound lifts are probably the most efficient way to train as it targets multiple body parts in 1 single movement, saving time and energy or as an economist would describe it: Productively efficient. That doesn't mean you should neglect isolation lifts and solely rely on compound movements as both together is what creates an optimal outcome. It essentially boils down to the balance between the two lifts and how each can build on to one another.

This idea can be most easily explained through the Production Possibilities Curve. This business principles is most commonly seen as a bowed-out graph.

With compound lifts on the x-axis and isolation lifts on the y-axis the general purpose of the bowed out curve serves to demonstrate that as you increase the amount of compound lifts the lost of muscle development from isolation lifts simultaneously increases at an increasing rate (known as the increasing opportunity cost). In other words, due to the limited time/energy you have in the gym, the more time you spend on compound lifts the more time and hence benefits you lose from isolation lifts. This analogy can serve to show that simply doing 1 compound exercise doesn't take away much from the isolation exercise, and vice versa. Finding a ratio that is on the curve is efficient; however, only doing compound lifts or completely skipping isolation lifts is where their are some inefficiencies as each exercise need to build onto one another to build an overall effectiveness.

What's next?

Don't worry, you don't need to draw graphs before you create a workout split. This article simply allows readers to understand how business and economic principles can even be seen in the gym! Understanding how to balance your workouts to maximize effectiveness is what this article does for you. I recommend looking back at your workouts and seeing whether or not you are on the production possibilities curve and have a balance that is working for your own time arrangements, daily energy, and gym accessibility.

Want an even simpler solution? Check out the shop section and browse for the numerous different programs that have already been tested, researched, and are productively efficient!