Opening scene
A person wants to make a pose harder.
What do they do?
They go deeper.
Almost everyone does this, and most people don't know there's another option.
Yet in this course I've handed you dials pose by pose, and now I'm going to count them.
Surface height. Knee angle. Thigh angle. Number of limbs lifted. Duration. Repetition. Support. Input. The lever arm. Stance width. Pace. Load share.
There are twelve of them.
And depth is one of the weakest members of the list, because it depends largely on things you can't change. You saw this in Y1.27.
Today we're gathering the twelve dials into a single list. And the list's real benefit is this: when you want to make a pose harder, you have twelve options, and which one you choose determines where the work goes.
What this lesson covers
First you'll see what intensity is and why it isn't a single number. Then we'll split the twelve variables into four groups and go through them one by one; each one comes with an example from this course. After that we'll match which variable increases which kind of work. Then you'll see why I've repeated the one-variable-at-a-time rule so many times. After that we'll talk about why depth is a weak dial. At the end we'll build how you'll use the list. We'll work through sixteen examples. By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to make a pose harder in twelve different ways.
Starting point
We defined dose in Y1.35: the total demand jointly determined by intensity, duration, and frequency.
So intensity is one component of dose. And it, in turn, breaks down into components of its own.
There are twelve of them, and you've used each one separately in this course. Now you're seeing them together.
Mechanism
Four groups, twelve variables
What did I group the variables by? By what they change.
The first group is geometry. The ones that change the pose's shape.
One: surface height. The height of the surface your hands or feet touch. We used it in Y1.33, Y1.40, Y1.42, Y1.52, and Y1.58; the course's most repeated dial.
Two: the lever arm. The perpendicular distance from a load to its turning point. Extending the arms in Y1.33, changing where the line ends in Y1.43, extending the legs in Y1.58.
Three: joint angle. Knee angle, thigh angle, torso angle. We used it in Y1.31, Y1.49, and Y1.47.
Four: stance width and length. The two numbers from Y1.46.
The second group is load. The ones that change the weight placed on the body.
Five: load share. How much of your body weight passes through that region. Y1.39 and Y1.42.
Six: amount of support. How much of the load a prop or the wall takes. Y1.32, Y1.51, Y1.52.
Seven: the number of limbs lifted. The dose splitting from Y1.56.
The third group is time. The ones that change how duration and repetition are distributed.
Eight: hold time. Y1.26, Y1.42, Y1.49.
Nine: the number of repetitions. Y1.55, Y1.56.
Ten: pace. How slowly you perform the same movement. We used it in Y1.41 for the scapular slide, in Y1.51 for the exit.
The fourth group is information. The ones that change the inputs the body uses.
Eleven: input removal. The visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive settings from Y1.50.
Twelve: base of support. The size of the area enclosed by the feet. Y1.46 and Y1.51.
Twelve variables, four groups. And notice: none of them is "go deeper."
Which variable increases what
Now the list's real benefit. The variable you choose determines where the work goes.
If you're working strength and endurance: load share, amount of support, the lever arm, number of limbs, hold time, and number of repetitions.
If you're working range: joint angle, surface height, and hold time.
If you're working control and coordination: pace, input removal, base of support, and number of limbs.
If you're working balance: base of support, input removal, and amount of support.
Notice that? Some variables fall into more than one category. Hold time increases both endurance and range; the number of limbs increases both strength and control.
This isn't ambiguity, it's possibility. The same dial can be used for different purposes. But you need to know which purpose you're using it for; the purpose-choosing principle from Y1.35.
One variable at a time
I've repeated this rule more than fifteen times in this course. Now I'm writing out the reason all at once.
When you change two variables together, you lose three things.
The first is attribution. When you see a change, you can't tell which one it came from.
The second is reversibility. When something goes wrong, you can't tell what to undo.
The third is magnitude. Two variables' effects can add up, and the total increase can turn out far bigger than you planned.
The third one is the sneakiest, so let me give an example. Someone who drops the Y1.42 plank step down one level and doubles the duration at the same time has increased the load twice over. They write "I dropped one level" in the log, and the next day they're more tired than they expected.
And there's an exception, and it should be said honestly. In Y1.53 I mentioned two ladders: support and input. The rule was the same there too: one step on one, a pause on the other.
So there's no exception. The same rule applies to all twelve variables.
Why depth is a weak dial
Now let's return to what I said in the opening.
The dial almost everyone reaches for first is depth. And it isn't on the list.
Why?
Because depth isn't a variable, it's an outcome. We established this in detail in Y1.27: depth is the sum of three things, and only one of them changes with practice.
So when you try to increase depth, you're leaning on things you largely can't change.
And worse: when you force depth, another variable usually shifts along with it. In Y1.47, pushing the hip forward increased depth and produced a leak at the same time. Two things were moving at once, and one of them was unwanted.
So is depth never used at all?
It's used, but indirectly. When you adjust joint angle, depth changes too; when you lower surface height, depth increases too. So you look at depth not as a dial, but as an indicator.
This distinction is the same pattern repeated throughout the course: a criterion should measure something you can change.
How you'll use the list
A three-step method for using it.
The first step is purpose. Which category is this pose working — strength, range, control, balance?
The second step is the variable. Choose a variable from that category's list.
The third step is amount. Make the smallest meaningful increase. The small-increment principle from Y1.03.
And a fourth step, the log: which variable did you change, and by how much?
Reading the examples
Master layer
Now let's refine this a little.
First: the number twelve isn't a limit. Some variables can be split more finely; amount of support and support height, for instance, could be counted separately. Twelve was chosen because each one was used separately in this course and can be held in mind. A list's job is to remind you of the options you have, not to build a taxonomy.
Second: some variables affect each other, and you need to know that. Changing surface height also changes load share and joint angle; I wrote this up as three benefits in Y1.42. So the "one variable at a time" rule doesn't mean a setting changes only one thing; it means you knowingly move only one setting. Knowing how many things a setting changes at once is separate knowledge.
Third: pace is the list's least used and cheapest member. It requires no props, adds nothing, and makes the same movement noticeably harder. It should be the first dial you try for control work. The likely reason it's used so little is visibility; a movement done slowly looks easier from the outside.
Fourth, and the subtlest: this list gives you freedom of choice, and freedom brings a burden too. Choosing among twelve options is harder than knowing a single path. What you get in return: someone who knows only one path stops the moment that path closes. Someone who can't increase depth still keeps progressing if they know twelve dials. This is the most general version of the trade-off we've made throughout this course; a little more deciding, far less getting stuck.
Common mistakes and misconceptions
Common mistakeFirst mistake: to make a pose harder, you have to go deeper.
Depth isn't a variable, it's an outcome; it depends on the sum of joint range, bone structure, and body proportions, and only the first of these changes with practice. To make a pose harder, you choose one of the twelve variables instead.
Common mistakeSecond mistake: changing two variables together speeds up progress.
Two variables' effects add together, and the total increase turns out bigger than planned; on top of that, when you see a change you can't tell which one it came from, and when a problem comes up you can't tell what to undo.
Common mistakeThird mistake: every variable can be used for every purpose.
The variable you choose determines where the work goes; the number of repetitions works for strength and endurance, hold time and joint angle for range, pace and input removal for control. A variable chosen from the wrong category changes nothing.
Common mistakeFourth mistake: reducing the amount of support is always progress.
Support is an intensity variable, and it's increased or decreased according to purpose. Increasing support in a session isn't a regression if that's the session's purpose.
Practice
Keep in mind
Intensity isn't a single number; it's the combination of twelve independent variables, gathered into four groups: geometry, load, time, and information.
The variable you choose determines where the work goes; the variables that work differ for each category.
You change one variable at a time; otherwise you lose attribution, reversibility, and control over the size of the increase.
Depth isn't a variable, it's an outcome; it depends on factors that largely can't be changed, and it's tracked as an indicator, not used as a dial.
Pace is the list's cheapest and least used member; it makes the same movement noticeably harder without adding anything.
Bridge to the next lesson
You've gotten to know the twelve dials and used them in the increasing direction.
Now we'll look at the opposite direction, and that's this section's longest lesson.
Decreasing intensity is harder than increasing it. The reason isn't mechanical; it's that decreasing feels like a regression.
The next lesson is a laboratory. We'll use the same twelve variables in the decreasing direction, and look one by one at what each one costs you and what it preserves.
And a single question will carry the whole lesson: when I lighten a pose, am I preserving the load-bearing action?