Anyone who takes the training
seriously knows that
to make progress in the gym, it's
largely a game of numbers.
Sets, reps and loads,
we manipulate these variables
to adjust the training outcome.
But for me, as a coach,
these numbers really only
tell me about the volume
or the quantity of my training.
How much did I do?
They don't answer that really important,
crucial question.
How well did I do that set?
When it comes to measuring quality,
coaches and lifters have largely relied
on subjective methods, RPE systems
eyeballing sets or getting a feel on
how movements going.
I believe the velocity
is the missing metric in your training.
When used well, velocity tracking
can unlock a whole range of metrics
and measures within your training.
Fatigue, readiness,
auto-regulation, intent,
all these factors can help drive
training outcomes
and improve your performance
Over this series,
we're going to explore the fundamentals
of velocity based training.
Diving into what makes it
such a useful tool
for coaches and athletes alike.
Let's take a look
at a simple application of velocity
based training in practice.
Here's two sets of a trap bar deadlift,
both with 100 kilos, both for five reps.
Which set do you think
had a better strength
and power adaptation?
Now a good coach
might be able to tell that set B
is a little more explosive
in the poppy than the first or set
A, but by how much?
When we use velocity
tracking instead of guessing,
we start to really see the difference,
and how much of a difference
there is between these sets.
From the data, we can see that
set A has a velocity
or an average velocity
across the set of 0.59 meters per second,
while set B was up
at 0.7 meters per second.
Now, that's a 16% differential in speed.
That could be as much as five
to 10 centimeters
on your vertically
or third of a second
over 20 meters on a sprint.
Now, when it comes to training,
you wouldn't train at, say,
84, 85 per cent on your sprints
and your jumps, would you?
You'd train with all that
maximum intensity
and the same rules apply
in the gym with your lifting.
If you're brand new to
velocity based training
or you're looking for a refresher,
we're going to dive into the basics
throughout the rest of this video.
We're going to cover
five key terms, think of this
as your velocity based training glossary.
These terms come up a lot
when we talk about the different
training concepts within VBT,
so these will be really important
for you to be on a first name basis with.
Velocity is the relationship
between displacement and time.
How far do you go
and how long did you take?
When we use Velocity in VBT,
we're typically talking
about the concentric portion of lift,
the upward part of that lift
only from bottom to top.
There are three different ways
to measure velocity,
and all of them have some
sort of a use in VBT.
The first and most common
is mean velocity.
That's the average velocity
it took you from the bottom
to the top of that rep.
Then we have peak velocity,
which is the peak moment
or instant of velocity within that lift.
That's a more valuable metric
for things like jumps and Olympic lift,
where there is a float
phase in the movement as well.
The third
and I think the most valuable form
of velocity or version of velocity
we can use in VBT
is mean propulsive velocity.
That's the average velocity,
but only the accelerated
portion of your lift.
So it doesn't count,
say, a float phase and a jump
or the decelerative portion of a lighter
standard strength movement.
Power is the second
most commonly used metric in VBT.
Just like velocity,
it can be measured in mean, peak
and mean propulsive,
and we talk about power
in terms of watts.
Unlike velocity,
which is just displacement
and time, power now
incorporates the effects of gravity
and the load on the bar
to give us that output metric.
The more weight
you try to lift, the harder
it is to move,
and so the slower it moves right?
This is grounded in physics,
in Newton's second law,
and we call this
the load velocity profile.
This relationship
between load and velocity
in the heavier we lift, the slow
we go, is really stable, consistent,
and it's even pretty linear.
We can estimate 1RM,
we can use to profile our strength
or even as a way of adjusting
and setting readiness
on a day to day basis.
When you start tracking
velocity in your training,
it becomes really
intrinsically motivating.
You really want to make those numbers pop
and get those velocity
as high as possible.
We call this concept intent to move.
It's the idea that
no matter what the weight on the bar
is, you try and lift it
as fast as possible.
Think of that set B energy
from earlier in the video.
We want to lift that weight
with good explosiveness.
One thing that's important to note
with your intent to move, though,
is that the more weight on the bar,
the less the actual difference
in velocity between a high intensity
and a low intensity.
It's really important, though,
that you still are implying
that maximal intent on every set,
trying to explode through the bar
no matter what the weight.
With lifting, the more
reps you do across a set,
the more your fatigue.
When we start tracking velocity,
we can measure this fatigue
as a decrement in your velocity
from your best rep or your first rep,
all the way through to your last reps
where your fatigue
and the velocity slows down.
For most people,
they'll reach a failure point
on most exercises,
around 40 per cent
velocity loss across a set.
Now, we can use this
velocity loss fatigue measuring idea
for a whole bunch of things
in our training.
But in particular,
it's really good
for manipulating a volume
so that we avoid fatigue.
For example, in season for an athlete,
keeping them fresh
so they can perform on the weekend.
So while we haven't gone
super deep into any one
specific application of your velocity
based training by now,
you should be getting a pretty good idea
that it's a broad and really useful tool
to get more out of your training
and your performance.
We'll be exploring
these concepts and many more,
so I'll see you in the next video.