The Velocity Based Training Blog

it's not just about trying to do every exercise as fast as possible, VBT allows athletes to create better structured training sessions to develop all the dimensions needed for explosive jumping ability while reducing unhelpful fatigue and stress.

A complete history of the velocity zones as used in velocity based training. As popularised by Dr Bryan Mann.

Training to failure, RPE 10, maxing out. No matter what you call it, taking your sets to their breaking point and seeing how much you truly have in you is mentally and physically hard work. It would seem that this type of training is rewarding right? Work hard, push your limits on every set, experience wonderful gains.⁠⁠ But it's actually not that straight forward - and we can use velocity based training to find a better approach

When we perform any movement (concentrically), our nervous system recruits and activates motor units in a smooth stepwise fashion. Starting with the smallest type I motor units working its way up to the biggest type II motor units.

Athletes and gym goers are time poor, so fitting enough of the right stressors into a training session, as to not squash the session so jam packed that it just becomes cardio can be difficult...but there is a solution.

In 2015, Core Advantage hosted Dan John for a three day workshop. One of the most valuable pieces I took from the event, was a passing comment regarding strength training volume. Dan called it the rule of ten.

What if you could test an athletes 1 rep max (1RM) every single session? And know exactly how strong they are in real time, allowing you to adjust weights, sets and reps in the moment, delivering the perfect training stress for that individual at that moment in time. With velocity based training this becomes a reality, without interrupting your ⁠⁠planned sessions programming. No extra reps or sets, all as part of your standard workout.

Velocity drops at a consistent rate as you do more reps in a set, so how much velocity loss should you be training too?⁠⁠ Here's some guidelines for managing how much fatigue you want to accumulate.

Feedback and context. Crucial coaching tools for driving motivation and effort in training. And yet so often this simple application of velocity based training is overlooked or under utilised because it really is so simple and easy to do.

Don't know how to start using VBT?⁠⁠ Overwhelmed by choices and decisions about how to use VBT in your training? This is a guide to practically applying Velocity Based Training.