VBT for power
Using bar-speed data to train power output: the loads, the velocities, and the contrast methods that produce force × velocity.
Power is the product of force and velocity. Train one without the other and you cap the result. VBT makes the trade-off visible: load and velocity for any given lift live on a curve, and there’s a specific point on that curve where their product (power) is maximised. Programming around that point is a direct way to develop the explosive end of the strength-speed continuum, the power zone between heavy strength work and pure speed.
The peak-power load
Plot mechanical power output against load for any lift and the result is a curve, not a line. Power is low at very light loads (high velocity, low force) and at very heavy loads (high force, low velocity). It peaks somewhere in between — often cited around 30–50 % of 1RM for upper-body ballistics like bench throw, and 50–70 % for lower-body compounds like squat or trap-bar deadlift. Treat those as starting points and find the real number per athlete.
That peak-power load is athlete-specific and lift-specific. A jumper’s squat peak-power load isn’t the same as a thrower’s, and neither matches the same athlete’s bench peak. VBT lets you find each one in a single session by sweeping loads and computing F × V at each.
Max power calculator
Why VBT suits power work
A few reasons:
- Power is hard to feel. Strength athletes can self-rate effort; power athletes can’t reliably self-rate “power output” in the way the metric demands. Velocity readings give the missing feedback.
- The window is narrow. Stray above peak-power load and you drift toward pure strength; stray below and you drift toward pure speed. Neither is wrong, but neither is power. Velocity targets keep the work in the right zone.
- The athletes care about the number. Power-development populations (weightlifters, throwers, jumpers) already think in terms of bar speed. The data fits the mental model; less translation cost than for traditional rep-based athletes.
Where it fits in a block
Power work usually sits alongside a core strength or speed day rather than carrying the week on its own. The recurring shapes it takes:
- Pre-strength priming. Light sets at peak-power load before the heavy work, waking the nervous system up without accumulating fatigue.
- A stand-alone power day. Crisp sets at peak-power load with full intent and generous rest, where velocity confirms each set landed in the target zone instead of slowing into strength work.
- Contrast pairs. A heavy strength set followed by an explosive set at peak-power load; the velocity on the explosive set tells you whether potentiation actually happened.
The exact set-and-rep schemes and rest windows are programming decisions, not part of the concept.
Looking for the protocol? A full peak-power block — set schemes, rest, where it sits in the week — is its own write-up.
Power training program utilising velocity based training (VBT)
What it doesn’t replace
Power is downstream of strength. An athlete without a base of maximum strength has nothing to express explosively, and their peak-power load itself is undertrained. Pure power blocks come after strength bases, not in place of them.
VBT also doesn’t replace technical jump or throw practice — those skills are trained on the field, not under the bar. Bar-speed-derived power work is preparation, not transfer.