Hi Friend,
Happy Wednesday to you! Here in Massachusetts, we have some unexpectedly warm weather. It does not feel like winter even though there are 19 days left of it, and it sure looks, smells and feels like spring. Every where you go you see signs of it. Green things are popping out of the grown. Trees are getting buds. Birds are making nests. You're having to swap out winter socks and coats for ankle socks and spring jackets.
These early signs have you thinking about what's coming up and what you want to be doing. In some cases you might feel urgency as you're not ready for what's coming and in others you can't wait for what's to come, like little kids looking forward to their birthdays.
I recently read a brand new continuing education book called Velocity Based Training (VBT) by Nunzio Signore, a Strength & Conditioning Coach, who specializes in baseball, based out of New Jersey. I've heard about VBT for a while and decided it's time to learn more.
What is Velocity Based Training (VBT)?
VBT is a method for evaluating the intensity of a given movement by calculating displacement and time through the monitoring of bar or body speeds. Basically you use technology to track how fast you run, jump, lift weights and move your body. It's arrived and people are using it, mostly in the high performance world of competitive sports, but it's making its way into the mainstream fitness and training world.
Most commonly you see it with sprint timers like the one's we use in CYBBC and with just jump mats, linear position transducers and accelerometers.
VBT may be of interest to you if you want to:
get faster & stronger
reduce injury risk from overtraining
be more engaged in your workout
compete against yourself
have concrete data vs only subjective feedback
train like an athlete
get to your goals faster
experience interesting, cool, cutting edge technologies.
get body changes faster
personalize your programming
be more consistent with your training and miss fewer workouts
learn, grow and keep getting better
How and when might you use VBT?
I think the first way you might use it is for Auto-Regulation. Using a technology to track your velocity would help you to objectively know how you feel on any given day. Subjectively you're always checking in with yourself and asking, "how do I feel?". Objectively if you could track your 10 yard sprint time, your vertical jump height or how fast you could move resistance and/or your body, you would have concrete #'s showing you how recovered or not recovered you are. This data will allow you to auto-regulate. Lower #'s than your norm, means you need to go easier, lighter, less volume and/or training time or maybe to take the day off. Higher numbers compared to your norm may mean you need to challenge yourself more because you're really fresh.
Strong Days & Fast Days
We currently have strong days and fast days built into the programming of Change Your Body Boot Camps and subjectively I ask clients every workout, how they're feeling, so that we can modify the intensity and duration of a workout as needed.
Strong & fast days built in means that we alternate strong & fast days. If we have 2 different workouts: workout A and workout B, and we do them 6 times a phase each, A1/B1, A3/B3 and A5/B5, (the 1st, 3rd and 5th workout A & B respectively) might be strong days on paper in which clients are encouraged to use more resistance / weight, do higher levels and more intensity or volume. The A2/B2, A4/B4 and A6/B6 (the 2nd, 4th and 6th workout A & B respectively) might be light and fast days on paper. This means clients are encouraged to do easier levels, use less weight / resistance, to move faster and possibly to do less volume / intensity.
This intentional and intelligent design is to allow for greater recovery from overreaching days like the strong days. I don't want my clients to be strong and slow, so we train light & fast too, so they can ultimately be both strong and fast.
Even the best programs need ultimate flexibility so our programming not only has strong & fast days built in and alternated, but I check in with clients every workout to see how they feel. If everything is great, they go strong, regardless of whether it's a strong day or a light & fast day. If they're feeling crushed, they go light & fast with a focus of getting energized and feeling good through movement. This is auto-regulation. Everyone is different. If you don't need a break, then don't take one. If you need more of a break, then take it and as many as you need to recharge.
This is where using Velocity Based Training can help with Auto-Regulation. You would first establish a baseline for most every multi-joint, compound movement and then you could both test at the beginning of a workout to see where you are and also track each repetition you complete during the workout. The data you get from each rep, will tell you whether you should challenge yourself more, back off or take the day off. It's brilliant!
Timed Sprints
We've been using the Arena Gear Gate Timers to track short term sprint speeds for almost 6-months now both with and without running starts. They are so fun. Currently each client gets to sprint 4 times (R/L/R/L). Each client is encouraged to sprint as fast as they feel safe and can opt out if their body doesn't feel good. Each client usually tries to run their fastest time on their last sprint.
Clients can see their time on a giant scoreboard and as soon as the time appears, the next person takes off sprinting. It goes real fast. Clients get grounded and awake by seeing their own times. They learn from watching their peers sprint and by seeing their times and get inspired by them. And ultimately they raise their effort and performance as they try to beat their times.
This is beautiful because Sprinting is now being considered as a lower body injury risk REDUCER!. When everything is firing properly, things start to work better and some aches and pains go away as a person's body gets better.
Just Jump Mats
Just Jump Mats are a consideration for the gym and possibly for homes because it's a mat, you jump off of that takes up little space. It not only tracks your vertical jump height and velocity, but this data will tell you how recovered or under-recovered you are compared to baseline measurements you would take.
Accelerometers & Linear Position Transducers (LPT)
These are the most common tools used for lifting weights and using your body as resistance. LPT's consist of a tool you clip to a bar, that has a wire connected to a reader. These are common with barbell exercises. Accelerometers are more common with body weight and dumbbell exercises. The tool I learned about in my continuing ed course work, was a Push Band. I could imagine my clients both in person and at home, wearing these on their forearms or waist belts and tracking their velocity. I could then look and/or ask them what their meters/second were. We would have established baselines and then their current times would tell me how fresh or not fresh they were or how challenging or not challenging the movement was based on how fast the bar or body was moving. It would be real cool data that would engage, bring out best efforts, reduce injury risk by matching the workout to how rested or not the client was and allow the client to change their body composition and performance better.
1-Rep Max
A 1-rep maximum or 1-Rep Max, is the maximum amount of weight a person can lift on a specific exercise for 1-repetition. Velocity Based Training allows you to apply velocity in meters per second to 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 and 20 rep max's and to specific training qualities like power, strength, hypertrophy, endurance, strength-speed and speed-strength. This is cool because if it's a hypertrophy phase in which we're trying to pump up your muscles and condition your ligaments, tendons and joints to handle greater stress, we can have a target velocity range to make sure the weights, resistance and/or skill level is appropriate for the amount of effort you can bring on any given day. We can make it harder or easier based on how fast the weights and/or your body is moving.
Cool stuff to keep you engaged and getting better. Everyone can now have their own baseball card stats. The future is here. Velocity Based Training will be a part of it and so should you and I.
Spring is coming quick and so are birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, parties, vacations and gatherings. It feels so much better to work towards something and present your best self to it. You could walk every day and you'd possibly get healthier, leaner and see the scale go down and that would be great and I would support that effort. ... And if you also want to have muscles, get faster, stronger and/or more athletic to change your body composition, be more physically capable and perform better in sports and life for these fun things coming up, you're still going to have sprint, jump and strength train.
The last phase of our Change Your Body Boot Camps' winter programming began Monday. The irony and beauty of this 1st quarter of programming is it addresses the side effects of the year end holidays, considers the weather and schedule of January through March and proactively prepares you for the activities & sports of the coming spring.
If having:
a recurring appointment
accountability and encouragement
an Ace Up Your Sleeve
inspiring people to train with
a results-oriented program that has strong & fast days
a high energy place to go
and a coach who knows you and cares about you
are important, consider making a commitment to yourself. Here's how it works if you wanted to work with me.
How It Works
Step 1: A call to see if we're a good fit (10-15min)
Step 2: An appointment to go over your goals (45min)
Step 3: An assessment and/or orientation appointment to learn how you move, see your exercise space and get a better feel for each other and technology if that's how we'll train (60-90min).
Step 4: Program Design (avg. 1-3hrs)
Step 5: Start Training
Step 6: Follow Up Appointment to See How It's Going and Track Progress.
Either way. Let the hopefulness of spring and brighter days lift you up and give you fun things to train for.
Warmly,
Coach Mike
p.s. Here are 3 ways I can help when you're ready.
Private Training. Get your own appointment, a personalized program and undivided attention. Reply with subject line, "private" and let me know how I can help.
Program Design. This is for the person who's schedule doesn't necessarily match with mine to be recurring or for the person who prefers to train on their own and wants a plan to follow. We'll meet to learn about your goals and come up with a strategy to achieve them. I'll design your program and then we'll meet to learn it and send you on your way. You'll come back when you're ready for a progress check and/or your next progression. If this interests you, reply with "Program Design" in the subject line and let me know how I can help.
Group Personal Training. This is for you if you want to train with a team of motivated action takers and you want to train at home at 6am or 9am or in person in Newton @ 6:30pm. You'll be trained like an athlete and have the ability to personalize the group program to fit you best. You'll have recurring appointments, accountability and an Ace up your sleeve who cares about you (me!). If group personal training interests you, reply with "Group" in the subject line and let me know how I can help.
