The Duration Stack is Soma’s fatigue curve.
It maps how cognitive cost compounds over time — from light familiarization to full-system breakdown.
How It Works
The Duration Stack breaks cognitive loading into six time tiers.
Each one has a different psychological signature — and a different purpose.
The Six Durations (Blocks):
1 min — Familiarization
This isn’t training. It’s tuning.
Use it to get the brain locked in, baseline checked, and ready to go.
No meaningful fatigue.
3 min — Activation
Focus begins. Friction begins.
Sufficient to spark neural engagement.
Use to elevate mental readiness and test early drops in focus.
5 min — Load Begins
Fatigue takes the first bite.
Variation starts to rise.
Mistakes show up.
Ideal for warmup pressure or quick-burst exposure.
10 min — Accumulation
Cognitive control is now a skill.
Speed fades.
Inhibition slips.
Variation spreads.
Ideal for threshold sets or ramping cognitive load during the off-season or pre-season.
20 min — Exposure
Now we’re in system stress.
Cognitive and physiological systems split.
Performance holds… or it fractures.
Perfect for deep stress testing or extended neural fatigue.
30 min — Collapse
This is the wall.
Resilience isn’t a concept here — it’s required.
Expect full-system overload: mental, physical, emotional.
Used to break. Then rebuild.
Why It Matters
Every athlete has a breaking point. Most never find it. The Duration Stack forces it to surface — not through effort, but through time. Each minute adds pressure. Each block adds risk. And sooner or later, something cracks. This isn’t guesswork. It’s not about how you feel. It’s about what the data proves. That’s where Soma’s MoM (minute-on-minute) tracking goes deeper — exposing the exact moment control fades, focus drops, and recovery fails.
How To Use It
Choose duration based on your athlete’s goal: familiarization, fatigue, or collapse
Use 10–20 min blocks to drive adaptation under rising load
Use 30 min blocks to test true cognitive endurance
Repeat the same task across durations to expose decline patterns
Track MoM trends to pinpoint where control breaks — before it shows in behavior