One of the ways I have evolved my use of VBT is adding my Vitruve unit to the bar when following Jake Tuura's hypertrophy cluster protocol. For those of you not familiar with Jake's protocol he essentially took 4x8 or 4x10 and broke it up into 8x4 or 8x5. I am completely over simplifying what he talked about but you understand the point. Back when I first started using VBT I was doing so for squats with bands and or chains on the bar. Then I started using it during heavy lifting to track my personal 1RMs and the velocities associated.
That is exactly what you see in the above image from Kyle Hashimoto. Kyle and I worked together at Towson for over 3 years and now he is the lead Athletic Performance Coach for UCLA baseball. The above picture is him performing a maximal effort front squat with a Vitruve unit and connected to the iPad at the rack. I later started using VBT on Olympic lifts and loaded jumps to see velocities associated with various loads in each movement.
This image was taken while using squat jumps in-season with a local high school team. What is not pictured is this athletes teammates holding the iPhone with the Vitruve app telling this athlete his speed on each rep. Intent was through the roof here.
Tuura Hypertrophy Clusters + VBT
The overarching point from Jake (and other coaches advocating clusters) is speed of movement, intent, and quality of movement is improved with clusters. This all makes sense as fatigue is minimized when performing 4 reps rather than 8. The addition of your Vitruve unit to the bar enhances all the benefits of cluster sets.
When using clusters plus Vitruve VBT on the bar athletes will get better intent on the bar because they will know their speed is being recorded. Athletes are competitive. Let them compete with themselves and their teammates by seeing EXACTLY how fast they are moving the bar. Not only will athletes be able to see their speed, they will be able to see their range of motion.
For movements like a back squat this will allow you to standardize each athletes squat depth. Once you and the athlete determine what is parallel for them, once the VBT unit measures bar speed and ROM, there is no more debate on "was I low enough." In the above example the coach and athlete knew the ROM was 20 - therefore rep 1 in set 8 might not be counted in the above example.
Rest Time During Clusters
The rest period during your clusters is important. If you are giving athletes 60 seconds between sets you want to make sure they are staying on the clock. Otherwise you are not going to get the hormonal response you are looking for. Add this time management to the already overwhelming list of things you have to do on the floor as a S&C coach and it is enough to make you not want to program clusters. Fear not, Vitruve's app has a timer that starts when the set ends and will AUTOMATICALLY stop once the next set starts!
Now you don't have to worry about athletes actually sticking to the proper rest period. You and they can see right on the iPad how much time is left to rest!
Velocity Loss in Cluster Sets
You will also be able to see how much velocity is dropping off during the set. In theory the fastest rep will be the first rep and the slowest rep will be the final rep. However, this is not always the case. Either way Vitruve has you covered with this as it will measure VL% from the best rep to the worst rep in the set, regardless of where the rep occurred in the set.
Putting it all together
Getting your hands on a Vitruve unit will help drive better intent on each rep of training. This will make the cluster reps during your hypertrophy clusters more potent and help improve your strength. If you want to better understand Jake's hypertrophy cluster protocol you can watch his webinar on SCN right here. For more help on VBT use outside of the clusters you can get Vitruve's free eBook on in-season and off-season VBT use right here. In the eBook you can learn more about VL%, how to progress your VBT use for feedback intra and inter-set. And for part 1 of SCN's blog on VBT use click here.
