The Conjugate Edge #01: An Introduction to the Edge
Choose the illusion of linear safety—or step onto the edge of conjugate, where Point B becomes actualized into reality.
Welcome to Installment #01 of The Conjugate Edge. Each month, we publish one essay designed to help programmers in strength and clinical settings step off the linear path and onto our conjugate strategy—one that propagates athletes from Point A→ Point B. This is the programmers go-to source for the most up-to-date thinking on Conjugate—not as a method, not as a system, but as a living programming strategy that treats and trains concurrently in real time. Want to join the conversation? Become a paid subscriber to access comments and our private chat. Want to go deeper? Check out our online course: The Art & Science of Programming.
The Edge of Conjugate
There’s a space in treatment and training where systems break down—but intelligence breaks through. It’s the razor-thin edge between mastery and mayhem. And it’s where the Absolute Conjugate Programming Strategy lives and breathes.
Understand: When an athlete’s neurology is synthesizing their biology to generate the special strengths required for high performance, the nervous system operates at the edge of chaos—a volatile zone where structure dissipates just enough to allow new, more complex forms of strength and function to emerge—to actualize.
This edge isn’t a place to visit once—it’s the space we must intentionally seek, return to, and recalibrate our programming strategy around—over and over—as the athlete evolves.
The Edge of Chaos
Physicist Norman Packard introduced the term edge of chaos1 to describe this phase space in dynamic systems. Biologist Stuart Kauffman later expanded on it, showing that evolution and adaptation happen fastest—not in order, and not in disorder—but at the edge between them. The Absolute Conjugate Programming Strategy exists to treat and train here—concurrently, in conjugation.
Not in perceived safety. Definitely not in linearity. But at the threshold—that edge where biology and neurology must interface and synthesize in a way where the four fundamental elements of Point B are stimulated to actualize into reality:
These are the fundamental elements of Point B—measurable, trainable, treatable, and the prerequisites for sustained high performance. But they only emerge when the system—that is the athlete, is treated and trained at…you guessed it: the edge.
This Edge Isn’t Just for Athletes:
It’s for you—the strength programmer. No matter your title—strength coach, chiropractor, athletic trainer, manual therapist, physical therapist—your job is the same: to program propagating work that moves the athlete toward Point B. We all converge here. We all work in conjugation—through programming.
Working within this strategy pushes you to the edge—not just your athletes. Your own development as a programmer to Point B becomes nonlinear, adaptive, and, in the best way possible, chaotic. A chaos that allows your potential as a coach, therapist or whatever you title is, to emerge into reality.
Chaos is a science of process rather than state, of becoming rather than being.—James Gleick
To evolve your athletes, you must evolve in conjugation with them—constantly working at their individual edge, that violent phase space where feedback replaces prediction, and where your own instincts sharpen through trial, error, and recalibration…skin-in-the-game.
That means leaving behind the illusion of certainty and embracing uncertainty. Systems and methods still have value—but only when they serve the athlete in front of you. The Absolute Conjugate Programming Strategy doesn’t follow conventional rule-of-thumb timelines—it follows feedback—it’s alive. Adaptation isn’t a date on the calendar. It’s a response to the work we perform in reality.
A method says:
“Do this to get that.”A system says:
“This is how we do things.”But a strategy?
A strategy adapts.It asks:
“Given this Point A, how do we get to Point B?”
This is the essence of the Absolute Conjugate Programming Strategy. It’s not rigid. It’s not linear. It’s fluid and shapes itself to get the athlete to Point B.
It’s a living strategic interface between—synergizing the athlete’s Point A to Point B via programming and your instincts. That’s why programming isn’t just science. It’s not just the application of methods and systems. It’s art. And it’s strategy—at the edge.
Conjugate 2025: From System to Decentralized Strategy
At Absolute, we observe Conjugate at an inflection point. It’s teetering on the brink of obsolescence—not because the method or system failed, but because it hasn’t evolved into a fluid strategy that has a specific target.2 Instead, it’s become a static hashtag, stripped of its original potency.
Historically, Conjugate emerged from centralized top down origins. The Soviet Union developed the method within a state-sponsored framework to dominate the Olympic Games. Louie Simmons transformed the method into a system inside his Westside Barbell club, creating a centralized stranglehold on the sport of powerlifting. These centralized models were effective in their time, producing winner take all high performance outputs at their respective Levels of Competition—the Olympic Games and the Powerlifting platforms.
However, this centralization also created limitations. One limitation, was a focus on constant neurological scaling (neurocentric training) to chase ever-larger loads (totals), which often outpaced the lifter’s biological adaptation3—leading to joint dysfunction and bottom-up reactive strength connective tissue injuries. We’ve witnessed this firsthand, assessing and treating these lifters—including the American strength coach responsible for conjugate adoption in the West, Louie Simmons himself—for years.
This amplifying biological constraint in the sport of powerlifting eventually led to non-treatment/training solutions like geared powerlifting: bench shirts, squat suits, deadlift suits. While these innovations let the neurological scaling continue pushing the boundaries of neural output well past the biological edge, they also exposed a growing disconnect between neurological and biological development—hence why we label this time in the the evolution of strength programming the The Neurological Training Paradigm.
Today, in 2025, many coaches and athletes continue to replicate the same special exercises, percentages, and templates from the 1990s—originally designed for the sport of powerlifting with athletes who’s Level of Competition isn’t a squat rack but is a field or court. The question for today is:
Are we adapting Conjugate to meet the diverse, evolving needs of modern athletes across sports?
To solve today’s high-performance problems, we don’t need another method or system—we need a strategy. And this strategy must be decentralized. The future of Conjugate lies not in a singular gym or under one leader, but in the hands of strength programmers worldwide. It’s our collective responsibility. Each strength coach, chiropractor, athletic trainer, manual therapist, physical therapist—whatever your title is, must adapt and apply a Conjugate strategy contextually, responding to the unique demands of their athletes and environments. We are in the business of high performance so our conjugate strategy has a very specific aim: Point B.
Subscriber Feedback: The Edge is More Elastic Than We Thought…
At Absolute, we’re witnessing the potential of this decentralized approach. Our subscribers report that our mental models enable them to treat and train all four fundamental elements of Point B in conjugation within a week—in real time. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive: athletes are reaching their Point B, confirming that we’re moving out of the valley of death—yet we remain there, collectively.
But it’s not just their positive outcomes—it’s their insights. We’re receiving bottom-up feedback about subtle nuances in our heuristics. And this feedback has been overwhelmingly positive—not just affirming, but expanding. Programmers operating at the edge in real time are letting us know: we can push further—and rest assured, we are aggressively acting on this feedback. The deload is long in the future for this cycle we are in.
We’re grateful for this stimulatory feedback. We’re learning in conjugation with you where the edge truly is. And we’re realizing: the edge is more elastic than even we thought—exciting times! You’re showing us there’s more hidden potential—that we can push further and need to—to stimulate that potential into capacity, into reality, into high performance.
It’s like a training max for the neural network of absolute strength. We think about Louie saying, “Don’t get too greedy.” But we’re going to keep loading it up—and take one more. And yes—sometimes, we do get too greedy. And we learn via skin in the game—training, just like programming is much different than theory. Training > Theory.
Because to learn, you have to live and operate… at the edge. No risk, no reward.
This is why we’re launching The Conjugate Edge concurrently with The Art & Science of Programming which is a learning module for our Absolute Conjugate Strategy. Our commitment is to evolve Conjugate for 2025 and beyond—to push it to the edge so that it is relevant and effective for today’s athletes and programmers.
To do this requires collective effort—effort in conjugation with collaboration. Together, we can revitalize Conjugate, ensuring it thrives not just as a method or system, but as a living, decentralized strategy at the very edge.
The Choice You Now Face
As a strength programmer in 2025, you face a real choice.
You can stay with the status quo—repeating legacy programming, avoiding uncertainty, and mistaking control for development. You can unknowingly become a driver of biological accommodation and neurological stagnation, confusing predictability with progress.
Or—
You can choose the edge. You can program training and treatment in real time. You can learn to navigate complexity and uncertainty instead of avoiding it. You can evolve with your athletes—and in doing so, actualize human potential so deeply hidden, most don’t even know it exists.
Step Onto The Mat: The Gorilla Weighs More, But It Will Exhaust
Choose the illusion of linear safety—or step onto the edge of conjugate, where true development toward Point B is actualized into reality. You’re more than welcome to step onto the mat with us—and the 800-pound gorilla of stagnation and accommodation we’re wrestling. We need all the help we can get.
The only way to beat the gorilla is to engage with it—and wrestle in conjugation: together, strategically, relentlessly. We can only win by exhausting it—and when the opening comes, doing what needs to be done. We push the gorilla over the edge…we have no other choice—it’s a zero sum game, the gorilla or us.
What Is The Conjugate Edge?
The Conjugate Edge is a recurring series that introduces a single concept, tactic, or insight that gives you a distinct advantage in applying the Absolute Conjugate Programming Strategy.
Each installment sharpens your programming ability to turn treatment and training into strategic levers—work that propagates athletes closer to Point B—enabling you to actualize your potential as a programmer.
You’ll get:
The Concept, Tactic, or Insight — what it is and what problem it solves
Why it Matters — how it shapes strategy
In Application — how to implement it in the real world
This is your edge. Step onto the mat with us...
For deeper programming specifics and more advanced concepts, explore our The Art & Science of Programming.
Want more?
The Conjugate Edge is an ongoing series delivering the most up-to-date insights in Conjugate as a strategy—designed to sharpen your programming to stimulate athlete development to Point B.
Explore all installments here.
If you learned something from this Conjugate Edge, the best compliment you can give is to share it with another strength programmer—or simply Restack it.
Adaptation Toward the Edge of Chaos, Norman H. Packard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Complex Systems Research, 1988
The Absolute Conjugate Strategy specific programming target is Point B.
The neurological outpaced Biological Point B—creating a neurological-biological asymmetry.
Thanks so much! Looking Forward to the future of conjugate training!
Fired up!