Want a simple way to evaluate how you stack up in the 5 capacities of human performance (strength, speed, power, agility, and endurance)? Use the Capacity Rating System (CRS) to start getting more results from your training today.
The CRS can help you to identify your assets and liabilities across the performance spectrum. This knowledge will enable you to hone your strengths to maximize how your body functions in your sport. And, you’ll be able to shore up your weaknesses to keep them from detracting from your athletic performance and long term health. Basically, you’ll be able to train more effectively, and become/remain a complete, athletic athlete for life.
The 5 major capacities of human performance are as follows:
- Strength
- Speed
- Power
- Agility
- Endurance
All of these capacities are vitally important in every athletic, human beast…although to varying degrees depending upon sport, position, goals, body type, age, and other factors. We can further illustrate these capacities by providing some very simple definitions:
- Strength = Max Force
- Speed = Max Velocity
- Power = Force x Distance/Time (anaerobic and aerobic)
- Agility = Mobility + Stability + Reactivity + Fluidity
- Endurance = Fatigue Resistance (muscular and cardiorespiratory)
It’s important for every athlete to have a reasonable amount of proficiency in each capacity, and certainly high ability in one or several categories of specialization. That specific mix of desirable traits varies quite a bit from person to person, and it can even change over time within the same individual. You can dive a bit deeper into this topic in the video “Identifying and Leveraging Your Assets and Liabilities in Training.”
Here’s how the CRS Works. Regarding each of the 5 capacities, simply and honestly ask yourself the following question: “How is my performance in this category?” If it is high and you would rate yourself as good to excellent, give yourself a score of 3. If your performance is generally moderate and you’d describe your abilities as fair, decent, or average, rank that capacity as a 2. And if you feel your capabilities are low, with a self-rating of poor or deficient, give yourself a 1.
Be kind to yourself, but also be objective. We need to be realistic and not delusional. This is a “right-now” rating, not a reflection of where you were 20 years ago or your best levels ever. High proficiency means that capacity comes easy for you and you generally outperform most of your peers in that category. Moderate suggests that you are reasonably sufficient in that area. And low indicates that you have significant room for improvement in that capacity. Here’s a table to help you in this process.
| How is my Performance in the following capacities? | High Good to Excellent Score = 3 | Moderate Fair or Average Score = 2 | Low Poor or Deficient Score = 1 | Total Score |
| STRENGTH | ||||
| SPEED | ||||
| POWER | ||||
| AGILITY | ||||
| ENDURANCE | ||||
| SUBTOTALS |
Below is an example of how this table can be filled out. I used myself as an example.
| How is my Performance in the following capacities? | High Good to Excellent Score = 3 | Moderate Fair or Average Score = 2 | Low Poor or Deficient Score = 1 | Total Score |
| STRENGTH | 2 | |||
| SPEED | 2 | |||
| POWER | 3 | |||
| AGILITY | 2 | |||
| ENDURANCE | 2 | |||
| SUBTOTALS | 3 | 8 | 11 |
I’ll explain how I came up with those numbers. I have decent strength for a guy my size, but I’m no powerlifter. I work on my speed quite a bit, and it’s pretty respectable…but I’m more quick than truly explosively fast. However, those two combine and give me a very high power output capacity. Heavy pushes and carries, and sustained efforts in running and cycling that last several minutes are where I’m hard to beat. My agility is not bad but I have some issues with my left hip that make my ability to load and explode to my right not quite up to par. And my endurance is OK (might be better if I trained it more) but I tend to fade when the real beasts start to shine.
As you go through your own CRS journey, you can think of strength as your 1 RM totals in squat, bench, and deadlift. Look at speed as a 40-yard dash. Power is a 30-yard heavy sled push or 800-1500m run. Agility is anything that looks elastic and gymnastic, including direction change and graceful, fluid movement. And endurance is that ability to just keep going.
The goal with the CRS is to have a score of 11-12 (very respectable for most of us), and 13-14 for the most gifted and hard-working of athletes, with no 1’s in any category. A perfect score of 15 is unrealistic and impractical, as several of these capacities work against one another a bit. For example, rarely will you see the athlete with the absolute greatest strength being very fast and agile. Likewise, the most nimble or fatigue resistant athletes are typically not the most powerful. The reason why you don’t want any 1’s in your athletic armor is fairly obvious…these deficiencies can negatively impact long term performance or overall health if not eventually brought up to a level 2 proficiency.
We can also give consideration to the 5 types of training that produce those capacities:
- Strength (and hypertrophy): Resistance Training (RT)
- Speed (sprinting): Maximum Velocity Extended Rest Training (MVERT)
- Power: High Intensity Repetition Training (HIRT)
- Agility: Dynamic Movement Training (DMT)
- Endurance: Low Intensity Steady-state Training (LIST)
Taking the concept of complete and individualized athleticism even a bit further, we almost don’t care how an athlete actually trains. What matters most is that they have good function in all those capacities, regardless of how they get there. Approaches to training are infinite, and many forms of exercise have scientifically proven primary and secondary benefits — as well as crossover effects — which different athletes respond to in varying degrees. So I can’t tell you that there is one and only one way to get and stay completely athletic…I can only tell you that I want you to achieve this state and that you should periodically assess your status.