I’ve always recorded the majority of my main working sets to access form and bar speed. Something I frequently notice is that, despite how heavy a particular weight ‘‘feels’’, it moves relatively quick on camera. This is esp. true regarding squats and deadlifts. RPE 9’s and even 10’s look like RPE 7’s but if I was to add just a little extra weight to the bar, I will fail the rep. My videos are somewhat deceiving of what I can actually do for that reason. If it looks like I can add another 30lbs to the bar no problem, it’s probably really just 5-10lbs I could add.
I have a feeling this might lead to poor RPE gauging, e.g. I may ‘‘feel’’ that something is RPE 7 when it is a 9 just because it moved quickly and felt easy. I also highly doubt it is a technical issue at higher % because I follow the tried and tested models you guys use, esp for deadlift.
Therefore, would it be useful for me to get a tendo unit so that I can use mean velocity to better access my lifts, and gain a better understanding of where I am actually at in terms of RPE?
Thanks for the post. There are differences in bar velocity and reps in reserve across people and we see folks who will “smoke” a lift in a way where it appears they’ve got another 20-30lbs in them, but fail a 10lb heavier attempt. I think this is just interindividual variance here. So, with that in mind I don’t think a tendo unit will help you suss out anything you don’t already know. I would just use RPE based on how YOU lift, which may LOOK different than how someone else lifts.
Yea I think Mike T had one and didn’t like it as much as his Tendo, but I also think he’s had way more experience with the Tendo so his experience may be more conflicted. Not sure.
I think I’d rather spend $3k on more equipment than a GymAware. I’ve been using an Openbarbell. It works pretty good for personal use. In terms of giving me information, it only tells me a little bit. It basically helps me choose within 0.5 point of where the RPE really was. If you are a data junkie, it’s worth it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother. I only use it on work sets, and I only use it as a tie breaker for an RPE level. I wouldn’t want to screw up what weight I should be lifting with the data.
One more note on measuring bar speed that you should consider. It will only be as accurate as your form is consistent. If your form is very inconsistent, it is not going to tell you a whole lot.
There’s also a free software out there for analyzing object speed that Mike T mentioned in one of his classes. It’s called Tracker App. It’s very manual, but can tell you general velocity over the course of the lift from video. Mike T mentioned using this to help determine where the weak point in a lift is ocurring. It’s really only useful for some after the fact analysis. Not for intrasession analysis.