Rate Limiters - Their significance and how they can guide out training

this is a concept that has come up recently for me in both my own training and when coaching others

Essentially, we need to figure out what is holding back progress and then deal with that

Let’s take the example of a deadlift

If the only thing holding you back from lifting more weight, doing more reps, slowing the tempo, etc. is your lower body strength, then we are all good, continue training and getting those gainz

But if what’s holding you back is something else than the goal of the task (in this case lower body strength) then this might be a case where we want to intervene to remove the rate limiter

This factor could be technique, grip strength, ability to control/stabilise your back, etc.

Let’s roll with grip strength, with a bit of context:

If grip strength is what’s holding back your gainz on a deadlift, this isn’t ideal

If deadlifting is your actual sport, then you will need to develop this quickly because progress in lower body strength without grip strength will not see you any benefit in competition

Whereas if you’re athletic population on the court or field, this might be less of an issue.

In both cases though, a possible solution is using an aid for the rate limiters in the time being (straps) and working on grip strength through your training to help improve your performance

Your context might just affect how you do this

Those are my current thoughts on the topic, let me know what you think. It’d be good to get some discussion going here!