Typical strength and power programming and periodisation plans[1][2] rely on the manipulation of reps, sets and loads as a means to calibrate training stressors in the pursuit of specific adaptations.
[6] Most commonly, velocity based training is used on compound strength and power movements such as squats, deadlifts, bench press[7] and the olympic lifting variations.
By trying to lift weights as explosively as possible, an athlete will accelerate and increase the recruitment of their largest, most powerful type II motor units through the Henneman Size Principle.
This higher effort and intent in training in turn increases rate of force development, preferential type II fibre hypertrophy through the SAID principle.
The addition of an objective target, in this case higher velocity, leads to increases in athlete intrinsic motivation as they pursue personal bests or compete with teammates in the gym environment.
[28] Lifestyle stressors, sleep quality, nutrition, hormonal fluctuation and general arousal levels can have a significant impact on strength, power, speed and fitness.
[29] These variations can make standardised percentage based training programs difficult to implement and often suboptimal for helping athletes maximise their performance over time.
[2][17][30] Coaches, sporting organisations and individual athletes typically monitor their daily readiness levels in order to auto-regulate their training loads and volumes.
[31] Technologies such as heart rate variability monitoring, GPS data, blood oxygen sensors, along with subjective readiness questionnaires and regular performance testing is used to adjust and calibrate the optimal training stresses on a daily basis.
[33][12][15][14] Many velocity tracking technologies calculate peak and mean power levels providing values in absolute terms and relative to an athlete's bodyweight.
With advancements in camera precision and processor capacity, 3D motion sensing systems have become more widely adopted through industries such as virtual reality phone applications, video gaming and driving autonomy.
One of the earliest technologies and still one of the most popular to be used in elite sport, a device containing a rotary encoder and string spool is connected to the training implement, unspooling during movement.
A number of applications are commercially available at affordable prices and even completely free increasing the accessibility of velocity based training beyond elite and professional sporting contexts.
Wearable technology incorporating multi-axis accelerometry or inertial motion units (IMU) are common place in a broad range of health and fitness tracking applications.
Wearable devices such as the Apple Watch have also been explored for their potential to measure VBT, demonstrating promising applications in tracking movement velocity during resistance exercises.