More than two years ago, I listed the Top 10 Power Measurement Tools in Strength and Conditioning, and this year I reduced that list to the tools I know are leading in market share. I use three systems to help improve the outcomes in the weight room, but because Velocity-Based Training (VBT) is growing in popularity, expect more systems to come on the market down the road. Although I focus on these three systems, the thought process can be used for future products and advancements later.
I have used VBT tools for more than 10 years and much has changed, but some things are timeless with regards to best practices. In this article, I will present the most comprehensive review on VBT and give advice on how to decide on what is right for your budget. I compare the Gymaware, Bar Sensei, and PUSH systems.
Should You Even Consider Investing in VBT?
Truthfully, most coaches are still not ready for VBT, but those that want to maximize what they do in the weight room can reap some serious gains by using the right system. A lot of coaches email me to ask what product is good for them. I always ask if they are upgrading from Tendo or they are new to VBT tools.
Don’t buy a velocity-based training system to solve problems that can’t be fixed with technology. Click To TweetThose coaches that are upgrading or replacing have experience, but even they are sometimes overconfident in what they are doing. I find those that either don’t have experience or have had a bad experience are the easiest to work with because they have a clean slate or are willing to learn. Don’t use VBT products to solve problems that can’t be fixed with technology. Here are four reasons not to get VBT systems.
- Teams with poor weight room “behavior” do not need additional distractions. The younger generation of athletes simply needs a little discipline.
- If you don’t have a sustainable budget for actual training equipment, accept that the added cost of a VBT system isn’t an option and set a priority on quality bars and plates.
- Ask what the primary reason for using VBT is besides impressing recruits or trying to be relevant. Sometimes not having a technology is meaningful to an athlete.
- Are you knowledgeable about what to do with the data? Having instant feedback for an experienced lifter does improve outcomes, but the other information requires some homework.
If you are not yet a candidate for VBT, start patching up the necessary gaps because the value of VBT is enormous. Some coaches scoff at technology that “confirms what my eyes tell me,” but those attitudes are quickly getting dated in modern sport. Data is a part of the process and good coaching matters more than ever. Today, I see smarter coaches who are far more well-read than in the past, but the lifts and athletic motions I see are less polished. Using VBT now enables a coach to extend their skill sets even more, so a craftsman will be even more effective.
Budgeting the Right Way for VBT
Have you ever thought about the cost per rep per athlete with VBT? I have, and you would be surprised how much value matters over price with sports technology. Never look at the cost of each measurement tool—look at the cost of operating the system over the years and the amount of time that’s needed to manage it. The true cost is more than new iPads or the price of potential software subscriptions; the cost also involves time. When purchasing VBT tools, look at the software needs, hardware needs, and time required to support it. I see too many coaches being pennywise and pound-foolish with purchases, and then ending up with buyer’s remorse later.
Here are both the obvious and hidden expenses of VBT that you must consider:
Software Subscription: Two of the three systems (Gymaware and PUSH) require a seat or annual cost for recording and managing athletes. Gymaware is a flat cost that any high school can afford, as it’s unlimited and about $400-$500 annually. Assess2Perform, the creators of Bar Sensei, doesn’t charge for backend connections, and connects (export) to Dropbox and other options like AMS, including CoachMePlus and TeamBuildr.
iOS Device Cost: One of the problems with VBT is that tablets are a big part of the total cost and they can add up if you’re trying to outfit all the racks in a weight room at a small college. The iOS device can range from an older iPod Touch to a current iPad, and it is a bigger expense for PUSH because the system requires a one-to-one device-to-VBT ratio. If you have 20 athletes, you will need 20 devices for PUSH, but only five for Bar Sensei and Gymaware.
Mounting Costs: Don’t go cheap on mounting options, because protection of an iPad and good viewing options are both essential to make sure that VBT is smooth in the trenches. When I visit most gyms, only a few are really doing a great job mounting the iPads and flat screens. Gymaware has a leaderboard option that can help drive competition in real time, so if you want to see all the athletes working, make sure you budget for a flat screen and other expenses. I love using the Apple TV for reviewing lifts on delay, and showing an athlete live.
Device Cost: The cost of PUSH is under $300 and Bar Sensei is about $200 more. Gymaware is about $1,995, but Gymware is a tank so the cost per year is encouraging. I have only had PUSH and Bar Sensei for a few years, but neither is as rugged as Gymaware and both are designed to be replaced, not maintained. Gymaware is designed to be repaired and refurbished, and it includes replacement hardware.
Time, from a workflow perspective, isn’t an easy factor to compare because each product has different features and abilities. PUSH is very consumer-friendly but their portal software still needs work to be something I would use. Bar Sensei has a new app that is the most intuitive, so it’s easy to learn to use. Gymaware has the most power and features, but the app is busy and requires training. I would say that the smallest time footprint is Bar Sensei and they understand the needs of coaches, while Gymaware and PUSH are negligibly different.
Device Accuracy, Precision, and Validity
It doesn’t matter how cheap something is if the data is junk, and all three products have key lifts that are reliable enough to show value. The key issues are how the company defines the lift and the details of when lifts are not detected properly. I have used Gymaware long enough to say that, out of 10,000 reps, it missed five singles with an athlete doing snatches from blocks. The streak came to an end recently when I switched iPads at the last minute, so it was a user error because I was rushing between workouts.
Video 1. Research on the PUSH and Gymaware systems is now available, but it’s also easy to test and compare products directly to see if they act in similar ways. Assess2Perform has a lot of similarities, and some differences, with the other systems.
I only use the devices for key bilateral lifts, so I can comment on some of the more fitness-type exercises on PUSH, but they improved their algorithms since I gave up two years ago when it was showing bogus information. PUSH sometimes misses reps or adds “phantom” reps when racking weights or similar. Bar Sensei uses a reset flash for each rep to help clean up sampling, but I find it annoying. I believe they are working on replacing this with constant sampling like PUSH and Gymaware. In their defense, reps need strict focus, so I see this type of interactiveness as a feature down the road for cluster sets and helping athletes rest properly.
So far, Gymaware leads the field with reliability simply because accelerometers have a hard time calculating slow speeds or isometric pauses. When I was rehabbing an athlete using RDLs, the slow nature of the exercise made it impossible for the PUSH Band. When nearing a 1 rep max during squatting, the accelerometer driven Bar Sensei is not rated to provide reliable outputs at these very low speeds. The PUSH Band also struggles with this—deciphering directional velocity because of pausing.
As movements become faster, accelerometers gain advantage, and the Ballistic Ball from Assess2Perform (makers of Bar Sensei) excels at projectile estimates very well. Excessive rotation or spin of the ball can ruin reps, but overhead throws are excellent options to get very clean data. Jumping with Bar Sensei is still up in the air, as they have to create an algorithm for fans of the Raptor test. PUSH and Gymaware give very accurate peak velocity scores that correspond to jump assessments, but force plates are needed if you want absolute accuracy. Displacement with a Linear Positional Transducer (LPT) like Gymaware is very good for jump testing when you want to make traffic light decisions, but the sensitivity needed for deep precision and analysis requires research-grade force instrumentation.
Most of the young coaches don’t know about Myotest, because that product was murdered when the iPhone came out. The smartphone killed that company big-time, and Gymaware was agile enough to take advantage of the disruption and jump on the smart device ecosystem quickly. The founder of Bar Sensei, Scott Damman, has the best vision of what the end user is trying to do with the measurements. Damman was the VP of Research & Business Development of Myotest before founding his new company, Assess2Perform. Myotest and Gymaware were compared to force plates, and the study can be found here.
Bar Sensei was analyzed by some colleges recently to have strong data integrity, and so was PUSH, but it was for exercises I don’t really care about, like vertical presses. Since Gymaware is a direct measure, less calculations are needed to estimate outputs, so more work is needed with all three products to show that what is measured is airtight. My internal review of Gymaware on weight lifts, powerlifts, and jumps is excellent for managing power in the weight room at a level that coaches can trust that SWC (smallest worthwhile changes) can be found in real-world settings. Coaches want to know if they should deload, do the workout, or go savage in a session. Anything beyond that could be a leap of faith, but time will tell.
PUSH uses a waistband to get jump data and that choice shows they respect the limits of wearing a device on the forearm. Unfortunately, the least-popular way to mount wearables is with belts, and the only company I know that’s really doing this right is Freelap with their Fx Chip.
Product Features and Key Benefits
The primary driver of VBT product features is the straightforward need for more exercises to please the crowd. While it’s nice to have every exercise available, every exercise must be valid or it’s just marketing dressing. Gymaware dominates, with real features that coaches can benefit from, and their company history makes this an advantage; it’s why I prefer the product. Here are the big primary differences that I think are indispensable for coaches:
Barbell Displacement: While Bar Sensei has this metric displayed, no ownership of the data quality exists with it, so the measurement is not strong enough to rely on. PUSH has not committed to barbell displacement and that’s why I currently use Gymaware. Squatting depth and barbell stroke for benching matter, and the Olympic lifts need context in order to see how much work was done in a training session. Bar displacement is so valuable, I dedicated an entire article to it. Strength and quality reps need range of motion, and I think it’s better to have athletes do reps with heavy loads correctly than light loads with “speed.” Gymaware is sensitive enough to record barbell dip and other small but important components of the lift.
Barbell Path: Horizontal correction with the angle of lift feature allows the Gymaware to get very strong 2-D tracking of the barbell. Most LPTs are only up and down, which is the reason that accuracy is always limited, but Gymaware solves the need for tighter data with the angle of lift component, and seeing bar path is a wonderful benefit. Down the road, all companies need to consider this a staple, not an option. Barbell path tracking is done every rep and can be seen via the Gymaware portal.
Video Fusion: The overlay of seeing reps done while recording video is king. Nothing is bolder in velocity-based training than seeing the fusion between kinetic-like data and kinematic video. Myotest did this nearly 10 years ago when they partnered with Dartfish, but Gymaware does this very well. While you can do a homebrew solution later, the native functions of the app are way too convenient to not take advantage of. When working with small groups, I take the tablet and focus on video capture and feedback if time is not at a premium.
Nothing is bolder in VBT than seeing the fusion between kinetic-like data and kinematic video. Click To TweetAdvanced Repetition Analysis: Getting mean or peak velocity is great for in-the-moment feedback, but if you want to drill down beyond that, Gymaware is the only option that can deliver the information that a serious sports scientist or sophisticated coach would find valuable. The sampling rate is high enough to see key lifting exercises with a time course that is useful and actionable. All the deeper analysis is in the back end so it’s added time, but professionals that work with one team only (college and pros) will end up looking at this data more because a lot of behind-the-numbers information can be gleaned from it.
Rapid Reporting: Creating instant reports is a breeze with the Gymaware cloud product. While data can always go directly into AMS solutions, the native cloud tools are just too specific to have third-party options replace Gymaware reports. I am not a huge fan of reports for internal needs, but it’s a good way to help team coaches see what is accomplished, and head coaches love summaries. Building a solid report quickly is beyond just seeing the “low-hanging fruit” data we tend to get with most platforms.
Many features are shared between all the devices because coaches think they want them, but the suggestions are often not used or are fictional in value. Other popular options are growing, and some overlap exists with these features, like a leader board. The leader board is something both PUSH and Gymaware have, and it is perfect for college sports because training is more homogeneous.
Hardware Design
PUSH and Gymaware lead in hardware design, as Bar Sensei is more of an embedded product and it’s trying to be symbiotic with the barbell with minimal invasiveness. Gymaware does use a cord and, while accelerometer-based options tout the value of being “wireless,” the accommodating training options with bars and chains make the claim moot and proponents look foolish. The issue coaches may have with the PUSH band is the fact that sharing is not a real option in sport. Transitioning between teams usually takes a few minutes with most colleges, so the idea of swapping bands after teams get sweaty is just not happening. The strength of the band is also a weakness, because it requires the Bluetooth connection to be paired to one device. The overall design of the PUSH Band is first-class, and the product development team should get a dinner on Rami (PUSH’s CEO) since every part is top-notch.
Bar Sensei has some challenges, like not having indicator lights and using a motion start to wake up the product. BLE is the term for Bluetooth low energy and Assess2Perform wanted to save on power, but any benefit comes with a compromise. I am old-fashioned and love indicator lights for quick, at-a-glance function reading. The new Bar Sensei has a sleeve that makes it far more effective with groups, but the lip needs to be more secure because it will slip out a little. The charging USB connection is a little raw, and this is the reason I give credit to Push for their attention to detail.
The Gymaware is a black box at first glance, but the product can be opened up easily and is just a great example of refinement. The magnets on the bottom, attention to detail with indicator lights, and spooling smoothness are a testament to delivering when it counts. Again, while seen as primitive because it’s not a “wireless” option, the Gymaware is timeless because it works so consistently and is such a solid product.
App User Experience
The PUSH software team did a great job getting back to the roots of the product on the third version of the app. My athletes and I thought the second-generation version was too minimalist and lacked a finished look. I have a few athletes who used the tool when abroad as a way to manage squatting and other needs, and the third version was a return to near-best practices. However, the issue with PUSH is that the workflow is still a little long for my taste, but it works really well with both the smartphone and iPad versions. The Bar Sensei apps are available on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
Bar Sensei shares its development resources with the Ballistic Ball, so it currently has two apps. The two available apps, Speed and Pro, allow the Bar Sensei to be a feedback option or a more-robust analysis and management tool. The previous app simply wasn’t ready for primetime and looked like a beta product. The good news is the company listened to users and the pre-production design is the leading option now, as the intent of the new version is maximal efficiency with workflow. What was a major weakness is now a plus, and hats off to Scott and his team for getting this cleaned up.
The Gymaware app is sexy and works well, but it’s a little too busy for my taste. The design reminds me of science fiction art from the 1990s, but it was a nice upgrade from their early design that screamed 2008. Overall, I love the app as a coach, but it takes a few sessions for athletes to get comfortable with it.
Taking the Plunge Into VBT
The wisest step with technology in the weight room is to start off with one device and try it with your own training. After getting comfortable, try it with a few engaged athletes so you can see how athletes with less access time work with it. Private coaches like me hold onto the iPad because we don’t like distractions, but mounting on a rack is fine for nearly any population. All three products have value, but for an enterprise investment, I really feel that measuring the bar is just a more streamlined process, but the Push Portal software that builds and shares workouts is a compelling reason why some like Push.
Every coach and athlete should look at their situation and make decisions based on what they need now, and then make compromises. Remember: No rule exists with mixed environments, so it’s OK to have one deluxe rack for advanced athletes and something minimal like a Bar Sensei platform for budget restrictions. Do what’s best for your athletes, and embrace the technology—the value of it outweighs the costs.
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If you were interested in tracking bar velocity in the Olympic lifts, would you recommend bar sensei? Gymware seems ideal, but also a significant difference in price and portability. Does the bar sensei give accurate peak barbell velocity readings on Olympic lifts, and would you find it difficult to have on the bar during lifts such as the Snatch?