Training with

velocity
A lifters guide to applying velocity based
training in the gym

Jacob Tober 2nd edition

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DISCLAIMER
TLDR: Be smart, lift safely and don’t push through injury or pain. This
program does not substitute medical advice.
This book outlines a practical example of an intermediate to advanced
strength training program using velocity to help inform your training
decisions.
Through the training blocks you will be expected to make estimates for
training loads and rep ranges. If you do not have experience doing this, or are
uncomfortable with your ability to do so safely then continuing with this
program is not recommended. Do not complete heavy lifts without
supervision, a spotter, and appropriate and correctly installed safety
equipment.
The information presented here in is in no way intended as a medical service
or as a substitute for expert medical advice.
Before beginning any exercise regimen consult your physician before, during,
and after to ensure it is appropriate for you. Any information provided by
VBTcoach.com or Core Advantage PTY LTD in this eBook is not to be
followed without the prior approval of your physician or medical expert.
By beginning this exercise plan, you recognise that there are risks of injury or
illness due to your use of the aforementioned information, and you assume
such risks and waive and release any claim which you may have against
VBTcoach.com, Core Advantage PTY LTD or anyone working on their behalf,
as a result of any future injury or illness incurred in connection with, or as a
result of the use or misuse of this plan.
CONTENTS

Before you start 5

What is velocity based training? 5
Velocity recording technology 6
Numbers and metrics to focus on 7
How the program works 8
Adjusting to training with velocity 8
The training blocks 9
The workouts 9
Exercise selection 10
Progressing weights and reps 11
Velocity Loss stop points 11
Setting loads with traf c light progressions 13
Resources 17
Velocity logbook 17
Block details: 17
Appliying VBT 22
About the Author 23
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BEFORE YOU START

WHAT IS VELOCITY BASED TRAINING?

Strength training is a numbers game.
How much weight, how many reps and how long you rest between sets all
play a crucial role in driving training outcomes.
But there is a problem.
These numbers only paint half the picture. Reps and sets quantify the volume
of your training, eg. "how much did I do this session?" But they provide almost
no insight into the quality of your training, eg. "how well did I perform this
session?”.
Yes, you lifted 100kg for ve reps, but how well did you lift it? Was it faster
than last week? Was the range of motion consistent? Did you fatigue across
the set, or maintain your speed for every rep?

THIS IS WHERE VELOCITY COMES IN.

Velocity is the missing metric in your training, enabling an objective way to
track training quality in real-time.
With velocity based training you can answer all these questions and calibrate
your training accordingly. When applied well, velocity tracking enables
precise optimisation of the training dosage, minimises excessive fatigue, and
helps achieve greater gains in strength and power.
Unlike many subjective methods of auto-regulation, it’s hard to cheat on
velocity. As long as you don’t compromise technique, there is no disguising a
slow day and there aren’t many shortcuts to increasing bar speed for a given
movement.
Regular velocity tracking helps us better understand readiness in real time,
while helping shift focus towards lifting with intent on every single set,
instead of just chasing more and more weight on the bar for your top sets of
the day. Think of velocity tracking in much the same way an endurance
athlete or rugby team might use GPS technology as part of their conditioning
plan.
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VELOCITY RECORDING TECHNOLOGY
This program requires you to record velocity for certain key exercises
every training session.
In order to follow the program you will need a method for tracking and
recording your velocity. There are a number of VBT products, so do a little
research before you pick which is right for your budget and needs.
Errors in data are not uncommon for some technologies, so take the velocity
measurements as a guideline, and not a hard and fast rule.

1.1
Mean velocity m/sec

0.8

0.5

0.2
40 100

Fig1: Four different VBT technologies recording a fast and light set. There will always
be variance between technologies (even those from the same company)

My personal recommendation would be to download and use the MetricVBT

application, it’s free to get started, accurate, and most importantly easy to
use.
Full disclosure: I work for Metric and helped create the product and
company.
Whatever option you choose, it is safe to assume that technology will remain
consistent to itself as long as it is used according to the speci cations. Just be
aware that mixing between different velocity tracking technology in a
training program will result in discrepancies in your lifting velocity between
sessions.
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 Best option is to pick one technology and stick with it. If you do change be
sure to collect a few weeks worth of data to re-establish your baseline values.

NUMBERS AND METRICS TO FOCUS ON

Throughout the program you will be required to review and analyse data
from your velocity recording system to help calibrate your training in real-
time.
There are many different metrics and data points available with velocity
tracking, but I recommend focusing on just a few. Below is an explanation of
the best metric variations to use.
‣ Use mean propulsive velocity or mean velocity as your focus metric
throughout this program. Peak velocity is less effective when measuring
strength movements and can be an overly sensitive and at times
inaccurate.
‣ When recording velocity data use the best repetition from each set. Set
average velocity is heavily impacted by number of reps completed and
does not give an accurate picture of fatigue or readiness over time.
‣ Percentage fatigue is calculated automatically by most VBT technologies.
If yours does not, please use the difference from your best rep (the fastest
of the rst three reps in a set) and the velocity of your nal repetition to
calculate the percentage decrement in output ( g 2).
1

0.9
% fatigue
Mean velocity m/sec

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Fig 2: Fatigue is the decrement from the fastest rep to the nal rep of a set
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HOW THE PROGRAM
WORKS

ADJUSTING TO TRAINING WITH VELOCITY

Traditionally, pre-built strength programs have relied on a progression plan
based around calculations derived from a 1RM.
These programs have you collect a 1RM and plan out a block of training with
percentages from this 1RM, before testing a new maximum at the end of the
training phase and repeating.
Unfortunately, these rigid percentage based approaches are awed: they do
not account for uctuations in strength on a given day. This can lead to the
prescription of sessions ±10% for what would have been optimal. This idea is
called readiness.
Velocity tracking allows for a more dynamic and exible approach to training
loads, allowing you to make accurate and informed adjustments to how hard
you should push on a given day with real-time objective data.
If you are coming from the world of pre-planned, xed percentage programs
it can be an adjustment to working with velocity, tracking progress, and
setting repetition targets may introduce concepts that you have not worked
with before. Stick with it! In just a few workouts these new metrics will
become second nature, and after a few weeks the results will start speaking
for themselves.
This program is designed for intermediate to advanced lifters with a focus on
developing maximal strength. The program could be applied to powerlifting,
general strength training, in strength and conditioning or athletic
development settings.
Lastly, none of the prescriptions in this program are xed rules, they serve
simply as a practical example to work off. What this program offers is a series
of guidelines and frameworks to help you start training with velocity. You may
choose to go slightly off-script on some parts of the plan. For example you
may need to add or subtract working sets, change up the exercises, or add
more accessories, etc.
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 THE TRAINING BLOCKS
The 12 week program is broken down into four blocks, each building on the
one before.

Familiarisation General strength Test & taper

(1wk) (4wk) (1wk)

Volume Speci c strength

(3wk) (4wk)

Fig 3: The 12 (or 13) weeks of the training program

You can repeat the program on a continuing loop, rotating exercises or

variations and getting stronger each time through the 12 weeks. By rotating
exercises and using velocity tracking on a weekly basis, you shouldn’t
accumulate too much fatigue, so tapers can be less frequent. After the rst
12-week training cycle, additional cycles can combine the the test/taper
week with the familiarisation week for the next cycle.
More details on each of the training blocks can be found in part 3 of this
book.

THE WORKOUTS
The program remains fairly consistent through each training block, with
two full body workouts (labeled A and B) used in every stage.
You will complete three strength training sessions per week with at 2-3 days
rest between each, alternating between the A and B workouts. So in week
one you will do A, B, A, then in week two it will go B, A, B, completing three of
each session per fortnight.
I particularly like this method of split training as compared to the more
typical “On Monday we bench, Wednesday we squat” approach, as it
schedules key exercises in a way that they get equal love throughout the
training block, instead of always falling on the same day of the working week.
It also means that each key lift is only four to ve days apart instead of the
typical seven, this means that if you miss a training day you can easily just
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 pick back up with missed session without throwing the entire training week
out of rhythm and potentially going 14 days without a bench or squat day for
example.
Each workout consists of six exercises; two key lifts, two complementary lifts,
and two accessory lifts. In part 3 of this document you will nd a breakdown
of each training block and a spreadsheet to help you log your training
velocities.

EXERCISE SELECTION
You won’t be tracking velocity on every single exercise in the program, just
the two key exercises in each workout.
These key exercises are the big, compound exercises of the program, for
Powerlifters, these would be your competition lifts, plus an upper body
pulling movement, or key secondary lift you are working on ( oor press, rack
pull etc). For non powerlifters, you need to pick four key exercises for the
entire 12 weeks.
You will also need to pick secondary exercises for each training block. Use
these exercises is a chance to balance out your main lifts, maybe including
some unilateral patterns or movements that target weak links or sports
speci c patterns you want to give some extra love. Tracking velocity on these
secondary exercises is very much optional.
Lastly, you will need to choose two accessory exercises per workout, I have
offered some suggested qualities and body parts to work on but you have
complete freedom in this section to choose what suits your needs. These
movements will most likely have an isolation and volume building emphasis to
them.
Below is a list of exercises that you might pick from. This is not an exhaustive
list but serves as inspiration for your program.

Key exercises:
These are the major exercises of the 12-week plan. You will be tracking
velocity for these lifts. Options include:
‣ Bench Press, Overhead Press
‣ Deadlift, Trap bar deadlift
‣ Back squats, Front Squats
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 ‣ Power clean (tracking power instead of velocity is great for the Only
lifts)
‣ Pull ups, Barbell rows

Secondary exercises
These movements will help you round out the key exercises above. Tracking
velocity on these movements is not essential, but you can if you like.
Exercises in this section could also be used as key exercises:
‣ Romanian Deadlift, SL deadlift
‣ Cable rows, landmine press
‣ Push ups, dumbbell bench press
‣ Walking Lunges, rear foot elevated split squats

Accessory exercises
These movements will help you round out the selections above. Tracking
velocity on these movements is not needed, but again you can if you like.
‣ Bicep curls, tricep press
‣ Nordic curls, machine isolations
‣ Ab rollouts, planks, stir the pot
‣ Farmers carry, sled marching

PROGRESSING WEIGHTS AND REPS

This program utilises velocity to determine the weight you will lift for your
working sets and the rep numbers you will hit. There are two key ways this is
completed; Velocity loss stop points and traf c light autoregulation. You do
not have to use both methods simultaneously, feel free to use only one if
preferred.

VELOCITY LOSS STOP POINTS

Instead of programming a xed number of reps each working set, we use
two guardrails to guide your rep targets.
Your sets should nish when:
1. You reach the end of the repetition range (in which case you should
probably increase the weight), or
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 2. You reach the prescribed percentage of velocity drop for the training
block.
This is a training strategy focused on controlling the amount of fatigue
accumulated in each set. The goal is to optimise recovery between sessions
and minimise the accumulation of fatigue across the training week.
As an example, during Block one each working set is to be completed for
7-10 repetitions or until a 25% fatigue cut-off is reached. Therefore each set
ends once you fall below 25% fatigue or reach 10 repetitions, whichever
comes rst.

Example sets
Both these examples are from training block one, where 7-10 reps and 25%
fatigue are the goals.
A good series of working sets might look like this:
‣ 100kg *10 (23% fatigue)
‣ 110kg *8 (27%)
‣ 110kg *9 (25.5%)

If these were the numbers from the rst session, next session the rst work
set can probably be increased to 105kg, if this goes well 115kg might be in
order for sets two and three.
As an alternative example a lower performing day might look something like
this:
‣ 140kg *6 (29% fatigue)
‣ 135kg *6 (28%)
‣ Set 3 * (—%)
✴ Did not complete the third set due to the 135kg barely reaching the
rep range. Warm-up velocities were in the yellow-red zone and
weights feel extra heavy on the work sets. Cutting the last set as a
micro-taper
This was a rough session, fatigue was high for these weight, even after
reducing the loads. The athlete made the decision to not proceed with set
three as it would not have been very productive. Next session they will start
with 130kg for an easy rst work set and hopefully get back to 137.5kg or
140kg if the velocities have picked up.
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 SETTING LOADS WITH TRAFFIC LIGHT
PROGRESSIONS
The second strategy is to compare today’s velocities with your recent
history to autoregulate your progressions.
Whether you train with velocity tracking or not, the aim of training is to
improve our capacity. In the case of strength training the goal is to produce
more force than you could before

Training to failure
potential

Submaximal training

Fig 4: Training to failure leads to increased fatigue which compromises recovery,

reduces performance in the next session and slows progress.

Finding the perfect training session is more than just adding load every
session, training tends to be more productive in the long term if we are
patient and exible in the short term. Avoiding compromised form or
grinding through sets beyond our capacity and readiness, two factors that
lead to accumulated fatigue, burnout and possibly even injury.
Velocity tracking provides an objective measurement of daily readiness that
can guide athletes and coaches to nd the most appropriate load for that day.
This auto regulated approach to training balances the need to make progress
with the need to avoid accumulated fatigue that can have a negative impact
on performance or even lead to overtraining.
To put this principle in action you will need to log your best-rep velocity from
every set you do. This will provide context about your recovery status in real-
time, helping us make smart training decisions. The faster your velocity
relative to a 30-day average for that load, the higher your readiness is.
As you complete each set, log the details in your velocity logbook and keep an
eye on the colour codes in the status column. The percentage score pulls the
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 Fig 5: Contextual data from the Velocity logbook in the MetricVBT shortcut, this
simple hack allows you to quickly view customised historical training data.

30-day average velocity for that exercise and weight combination to

calculate todays performance relative to this recent history.
The speci c details are below but the basic idea is this: if you are feeling
good, and the velocities are also good (all sets above 95%), then today is a
good day and you should be looking to increase the weight. If today’s
velocities are a bit slower, you might consider repeating the last session or
even having a slight deload on that day.

Warm-up sets: Readiness indicators

‣ These sets should all be easy, with plenty of reps left in the tank. I use
warm-up set velocities to determine whether to push up on my work
sets or not.
‣ I like an ascending pyramid approach to warm-up sets, where the gaps
between loads get smaller as you get closer to the working sets. The
heavier you go the more warm up sets you typically need. 40*8, 80*6,
100*5 is a great ramp before 110*3 on the rst work set.

Green lights: Push hard

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If you meet the following criteria you should be aiming to push up for today’s
work sets.
‣ You are feeling strong, weights and form feels smooth.
‣ Warm up sets are mostly above 95% of your 30-day average.
Highlighted green or yellow in the velocity logbook.
‣ The 1st work set reaches the top of the prescribed rep range for your
training block.

Yellow light: Small push, or repeat

Yellow light sessions are the trickiest to decide with, so please be exible
with the following recommendations. If you meet the following criteria you
might repeat the weights/reps from last session or make only a small
progression, instead of an aggressive jump.
‣ You are feeling ok, the weights and form are moving alright, but not
amazing. (It’s an average session, nothing special either way)
‣ Warm up sets are mostly between 92-98% of your 30-day average.
Most sets are highlighted yellow in the velocity logbook.
‣ The 1st work set only reaches the lower end of the prescribed rep
range before the fatigue cut-off.

Red light: Micro-taper

Red lights mean you are tired, today is probably not a great day to push the
weights hard or go after a PB. If you meet the following criteria you should
consider a deload session, reducing load and/or training volume to allow
yourself some slack and time to recover.
‣ You are feeling at, the weights are moving slow, form is suffering, you
might be sore, tired or both.
‣ Warm up sets are below 93% of your 30-day average. Most sets are
highlighted red the velocity logbook.
‣ The 1st work set doesn’t even reach the prescribed rep range before
you reach the fatigue limit.
You might not tick the criteria for each category exactly but this serves as a
guide to help you make more informed training decisions. The ability to
subjectively assess your readiness plus the objective feedback of green,
yellow, or red velocities is a powerful way to make smart training decisions,
pushing hard on the days when you are lifting well and taking it easy on the
days when things aren’t moving so well.
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 A note:
If in doubt, be conservative and round down for your rst working set. You
can always increase the weight for sets two and three if this rst set has good
velocities.
Lastly, I nd that red days are incredibly rare, most days are low greens of
high yellows, if you are getting lots of red days it might be time to evaluate
your overall recovery and training load practices.

Fig 6: An example of low readiness. Notice the red and yellow cells highlighting velocity
performance well below this athletes 30-day average on each load.
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RESOURCES
Now it’s time to get stuck in to lifting some weights!
On the following pages you will nd the resources you need to make some
incredible gains with velocity based training.

VELOCITY LOGBOOK
Remembering the velocities for all your exercises can be quite tricky, so we
have created a mobile friendly Google Sheet to log every set as you go.
There currently aren’t any great options for getting real-time context from
commercially available VBT products, so a little manual transcribing is
required. I strongly recommend downloading a copy of this sheet and using it
while you are training. The context it provides is incredibly valuable to help
you make better training decisions and adapt your training load.
The sheet is scaled to be mobile friendly, but you will need a Google account
to get your copy. Then you can download the Google sheets app onto your
phone. It’s free and available on iOS and Android. Just search “Sheets”.
As you train, enter the date, exercise, weight, and velocity of the best rep
from each set into the logbook. It automatically lters your sets to deliver
context on that exercise, providing a readiness score as a percentage of your
recent history.
You can download a copy of this spreadsheet here.

BLOCK DETAILS:
Below is an overview for each of the training blocks.

Familiarisation block: One week

Workouts: Two (with 72 hours between)
Sets: Complete 6-8 sets for each of your key lifts on a range of loads. Record
best rep velocity for each
Reps: 2-3 reps for each load - this is a baseline data collection week.
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In this week you will only do two workouts, collecting a baseline pro le for all
four of your key lifts. Rest 72 hours between sessions.
Complete 6-8 sets for each key exercise, recording velocity as you go. Work
through a range of weights ideally building to roughly 85% of your 1RM. You
will complete the lower body hinge and upper body push movement in
workout A, then lower body squat and upper body pull in workout B.
Use this as a chance to familiarise yourself with your chosen velocity tracker
and begin entering data into your velocity logbook during training.

Volume block: four weeks

Workouts: Three per week, alternating A-B-A then B-A-B
Sets: 3 work sets for each of your key and secondary lifts. 2 work sets for
accessories
Reps: 10 reps or 30% velocity loss on key lifts, whichever comes rst. 10-12
reps on secondary lifts and accessories.
This is a higher volume, hypertrophy focused block to start the training
program. You will do three workouts per week, alternating between
workouts A and B.
During this block you will train the key lifts in the 7-10 rep range, working up
to 30% velocity loss on your key exercises. The weights might not be heavy,
but these session might leave you sore and even gassed if you are more
familiar working in the <5 rep range.

General strength block: Four weeks

Workouts: Three per week, alternating A-B-A then B-A-B
Sets: 3 work sets for each of your key and secondary lifts. 3 work sets for
accessories
Reps: 6 reps or 25% velocity loss on key lifts, whichever comes rst. 8-10
reps on secondary lifts and accessories.
This is a transition phase with reduced repetitions, tighter fatigue thresholds
and increasing loads.
We are now in a strength training sweet spot, with an emphasis on gradually
increasing the weights but with low enough fatigue to leave plenty of reps in
the tank. You will do three workouts per week, alternating between workouts
A and B.
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 During this block you will train in the 4-6 rep range, working with a 25%
velocity loss stop point on your key exercises.

Speci c strength block: Four weeks

Workouts: Three per week, alternating A-B-A then B-A-B
Sets: 4* work sets for each of your key lifts, 3 work sets for secondary lifts, 2
work sets on accessories
Reps: 3 reps or 15-20% velocity loss on key lifts, whichever comes rst. 6-8
reps on secondary lifts, 8-10 reps on accessories.
This block brings a further reduction in training volume, with very little
fatigue allowed on the key lifts, this should enable continued progression of
training loads as you push towards a testing week. Three workouts per week,
alternating with workouts A and B.
During this block you will train in the 2-4 rep range, working with 15%
fatigue cut-off on your key exercises. This block will also have a reduced
volume on secondary and accessory exercises. 15% is a tight cut-off but is
aimed at reducing the neural fatigue and really restricting the grind of your
work sets. You should leave each work set with reps left in the tank.
*Complete three intense work sets following the above criteria, followed by a
back-off set of 5 reps at 85% of the third set load. Skip this set if your velocity
readiness is red or yellow.
The next pages contains an overview and example template the program
(velocity data is logged in the velocity logbook).
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Test & taper week
In this week you will again only complete two sessions, completing the same
sets from week one for the same exercises and loads, aiming to beat the
previous velocities.
Keep these test sets low in volume (it is a taper week as well), the aim is to get
one or two great reps for each load to see how much faster you can move
them.
You will do minimal accessories in this week, but may also like to rotate one
or more of your key lifts and collect a baseline pro le for these new key lifts
in order to start the next 12-week cycle.

Repeat!
Once you have gone through the 12-week cycle, you are now ready to begin
again from block one, rotating exercises or variations and going through
another 12-week build. This process can be completed again and again,
taking your strength to new heights while lowering your training fatigue,
lessening the risk of injury and burnout as you train with autoregulation.

APPLIYING VBT
This program is just one example of how to use velocity in the gym.
There are countless ways to use velocity tracking in the gym to enhance your
training outcomes, some more complex and some more simple than what has
been laid out in this program.
If you want to learn more about how to practically apply velocity in your
training check out my VBT blog, you can nd it at: vbtcoach.com/blog
And if you have any questions, thoughts or feedback, I would love to hear
from you. Feel free to get in touch. via email, via email, on Instagram, or on
Twitter.
Happy lifting!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My name is Jacob and I am passionate
about how velocity based training can
transform the way humans train in the
gym.

I have been working as a full time coach

in the private and professional sectors
with Core Advantage Athletic
Development since 2013.

From around 2015, I have been quietly

developing an obsession with all things
velocity based training. As soon as I
started experimenting with VBT it was
clear I could use the data to make more informed and calibrated training
decisions. The technology and education material available just wasn’t
enabling the full potential of velocity based training.

As a result I have dedicated plenty of time since then uncovering the

meaningful principles and science of velocity tracking, and how we can better
implement it in real-world training environments (including our busy high
performance centre in Melbourne, Australia).

Then in 2021 I started sharing my thoughts and ideas on all things VBT via
instagram and on vbtcoach.com with free velocity based training material
and resources.
I now work full time at the sports technology company Metric, where we are
building MetricVBT a smartphone app for accurate velocity tracking.