Percentage-based vs Velocity-based Loading

Velocity and specific adaptations

Velocity loss is normal as volume accrues intrasession.

For maximal strength, pay attention to bar speed and avoid grinding out too many reps. This will keep acute neuromuscular fatigue at tolerable levels, keep rate of force development high enough to balance the heavy mechanical tension of the load for more optimal motor unit recruitment. Move too slow and you may start to sabotage your output.

For hypertrophy, velocity-loss is expected and probably required to stimulate maximal mechanical tension. More tension on the muscle = more growth.

Percentage-based work is a great starting place for assigning load, but in my opinion, this should be a guideline. There are too many variables that can impact one training session, let alone all your training sessions for them to be on-point all the time.

By considering bar speed, we can monitor your overall volume to make sure you are managing fatigue while maximizing results.

It’s relatively impossible to do without a velocity-based measurement tool to give real time data (are we testing this soon in the gym? Maybe?), but I have found these to be good percentages to consider as I’m putting in work:

• To optimize volume load for maximal strength, keeping velocity loss under 25%, and maybe in the 10-20% range may be beneficial.

• To optimize hypertrophy, higher levels of velocity loss (25% or more) may be a sign we are applying maximal mechanical tension to drive a hypertrophic response. So maybe one less rep on that 5x5 or a little less load might influence output more than you think

PMID: 38048589 PMID: 31094251 PMID: 34069249