Velocity zones
Bands of bar speed mapped to training adaptations. The popular five-zone model has real problems; here's how it works, where it breaks down, and the simpler three-zone model we use instead.
Velocity zones are bands of bar speed mapped to training adaptations: a way to label what a set is actually training, independent of the number on the bar. The idea is useful. The most popular version of it, the five-zone model, is not the way we’d recommend applying it.
The traditional five-zone model
When most coaches say “velocity zones”, they mean the five-zone model popularised by Bryan Mann, who mapped collegiate squat and deadlift data onto five fixed bands of bar speed:
| Zone | Velocity (m/s) | Said to train |
|---|---|---|
| Absolute strength | < 0.5 | Maximal force at heavy loads |
| Strength-speed | 0.5 – 0.75 | Force at moderate-heavy loads |
| Speed-strength | 0.75 – 1.0 | Speed at moderate loads |
| Speed | 1.0 – 1.3 | Speed against light loads |
| Acceleration | > 1.3 | Pure acceleration / unloaded explosiveness |
It’s tidy, and that’s the appeal: read the bar speed, read off the quality you’re training. The problem is the tidiness doesn’t survive contact with how lifters actually train.
Why the five-zone model falls short
- Fixed zones don’t generalise. The numbers came from the squat and deadlift specifically; the bench had to be excluded to make them line up. Every exercise has its own load–velocity profile, so the same 0.6 m/s means something different on a bench, a clean, and a deadlift. At a given percentage one lifter can sit in “strength-speed” while another is in “absolute strength”.
- The “qualities” aren’t distinct physical traits. Speed-strength and strength-speed are labels for “power, a bit faster” and “power, a bit slower”, not separate adaptations you can isolate by hitting a band.
- Absolute bar speed isn’t a programming lever. Bar speed is a consequence of load, exercise and fatigue, not a dial you set. Velocity is most useful compared against your own history, not against universal cut-points.
- A fast squat isn’t fast. A 1.3 m/s squat doesn’t build sprint or jump speed; the bar’s biomechanics cap that. If you want to train speed, sprint, jump or throw; don’t chase a number on a barbell.
Bryan Mann's 5 velocity zones — the complete guide and critique
The three-zone model we use instead
Rather than five bands on the velocity axis, we use three zones on the load (% 1RM) axis — strength, power, and speed — read against your load–velocity profile and load-power curve:
- Strength — heavy loads, roughly above 80% 1RM. Velocity here gauges readiness and confirms intent on slow, grinding work rather than setting the load.
- Power — the middle of the load range down toward peak-power loads. This is dynamic-effort territory: moving sub-maximal loads with maximal intent to develop rate of force development and power.
- Speed — light, ballistic and elastic work — jumps, throws, sprints, plyometrics. The right tools for actual speed, which a loaded barbell can’t provide.
Different training modes naturally fall across these zones, which is why exercise selection comes first:
The three-zone model fixes no velocities. A “good” velocity depends on the exercise, the lifter, and the day, so the zones are defined by load and adaptation, with velocity read in context rather than chased to a universal number. And it starts from exercise selection: pick the movement that trains the quality you want, then load it, instead of trying to drive every quality out of one barbell lift.
Velocity zones part 3: a new system for VBT zone training
Velocity is a navigator, not a driver
The thread through both models: bar speed is feedback, not a setpoint. The five-zone model treats an absolute velocity as the thing to hit; the three-zone model treats it as context that tells you whether today’s load and intent are landing where the program intended. For the full argument — the history, the critique, the new model, and how to program with it — the four-part series works through it end to end.