Velocity Based Training explained

A long-form explainer of velocity-based training on the DeakHeads podcast — what it is, where it came from, and how the Metric app puts measurement into a smartphone camera.

If you’ve never touched VBT before, this is a good first-listen episode. We start from zero: why bar speed correlates with effort, how the relationship between load and velocity stays remarkably stable for an individual lifter even as their strength changes, and what that means for setting training loads without constantly re-testing a 1RM. From there it builds up to the practical question every coach asks — what do I actually do differently on Monday if I start measuring velocity?

The Metric section covers the shift from dedicated hardware to computer vision: what a phone camera can and can’t see, and why removing the hardware cost changes VBT from an elite-facility tool into something any coach or lifter can run.

The written version of the fundamentals lives in the velocity-based training guide; the app story is in how we built a computer-vision VBT app.