When I first encountered the idea that effort is the ratio of task demands to capacity, I had to sit with it. The definition makes sense on paper—if something demands 110 units and I can only produce 100, there’s a gap. But I’m not entirely sure this captures what I actually experience in training. There’s a difference between the effort that’s required, which is objective, and the effort I actually exert, which is subjective. What is (perception of) effort? | Horme Lab draws this distinction clearly: what we perceive and what’s actually demanded aren’t always the same thing.
The confusion crystallizes when I think about specific workouts. I’ve pushed hard and felt exhausted, only to realize by this definition that the actual effort—the gap between what was needed and what I could do—might have been smaller than my subjective experience suggested. The objective demands are genuinely hard to know in the moment. I’m focused on what I can perceive and know, which is my own sensation of strain. Actual Effort in Cognitive Tasks | Horme Lab explores this split between what we measure objectively and what we feel, and it’s exactly where I get lost.
Progress measurement shifts when you think about effort this way. Instead of just tracking weight or distance, I’d need to account for the gap between what’s demanded and what I’m capable of. But here’s the thing—as my capacity improves, the same workout becomes easier even if nothing else changes. That’s almost obvious. If my capacity grows, the ratio shrinks, and so does the effort. This means I’m constantly chasing a forcing function to keep that gap real. What is (perception of) effort? Objective and subjective effort during task performance - Southampton Solent University documents exactly this problem: effort is slippery because both sides of the ratio are moving.
I think Steele defined effort this way instead of just calling it intensity or strain because people are always trying to objectify these things. We want to quantify and measure, to turn feeling into numbers. But by defining effort as a ratio—demands divided by capacity—he’s actually highlighting why that’s so hard. You can chase the question of how much work is enough, but the answer depends on knowing your capacity, which you can only really know by testing it. The definition is honest about the problem, even if it doesn’t solve it.