Dr. Gregory Haff is the Professor of S&C and the Director of the Strength and Power Research Group at ECU. He is the author of the ‘Scientific Foundations and Practical Applications of Periodisation’ & the co-editor of the NSCA’s Essentials of S&C textbooks. A central goal of his research is to bridge the gap between scientific inquiry & practical applications, with a research focus on the periodisation of training, resistance training programming strategies, and methods of testing and monitoring of the training process. His research focuses on methodologies for testing, monitoring, and programming resistance training interventions, as well as concepts related to periodization and training theory.

QUOTES

"So they created linear position transducers, much like a gym aware, and they used it with weightlifters in particular, because obviously weightlifting, it has a speed component to it e.g., you've got to be able to move the barbell quickly and you've got to be able to move heavy loads very quickly."

"If we guided training solely by velocity, we couldn't get high end strength development. Could we improve power? Yes. Could we improve the speed of movement? Yes. Could we regulate training load? Yes. But we often missed that stimulus to actually increase maximal strength."

"So when we looked at our data, what we found is the slope of the load velocity profile changes from day to day with fatigue more dramatically than maximal strength capacity. So this is where it gets a little interesting. If I'm programming off the load velocity profile, am I actually programming off the maximal capacity or am I being hyper reactive to fatigue?"

"Velocity based training is no better than the percentage based. There's no more variability or less variability. They're about the same. So is it really adding to my training other than more expense because I've got to buy them, more technology because I need it, and more training for my staff? Potentially not."

"You might want to occasionally use a load-velocity profile to look at where the athlete's weaknesses are. It might inform you, but then you've got to contextualize it. Where am I in my training program? And what is my goal right now? So if I'm in a strength power phase and the velocity end is low, then I have got a problem. But if I'm in a hypertrophy phase and it's low… you know, I don't really care right now."

"I wouldn't use it with weightlifting exercises, especially when what I've what I found with people that use it with weightlifting exercises, they change their technique to chase speed. And what happens is they create an inefficient movement pattern."

SHOWNOTES

1) Greg’s story, from growing up in the US as a son of a Marine to becoming a leading researcher in strength science

2) The history of velocity-based training and its German / Russian origins

3) Why we might have to be careful using VBT to estimate maximal strength considering the stability of maximal strength

4) Greg’s suggested strategies around using VBT to autoregulate load plus his preference for linear position transducers over accelerometers

5) Strength stability across different exercises and the stages of over-reaching/over-training

6) How and when to apply VBT during strength training periodization and using load-velocity profiles / critical minimum velocity thresholds across different exercises

7) The cognitive load of always using VBT and its effect on motivation as well as the effect of different athlete phenotypes on VBT

8) Which exercises to use VBT with and potential applications for other populations besides athletes

9) Using VBT to monitor readiness with a set load

10) The biggest thing Greg has changed his mind on in recent times and the importance of mobility

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Mike Stone

Boyd Epley

Andrew Fry

William Kraemer

Carl Miller

Stuart Guppy

Dietmar Schmidbleiter

Nick Poulos

Dan Baker

Jonathon Weakley

Bryan Mann

Duncan French