Test-Retest Reliability of a Commercial Linear Position Transducer (GymAware PowerTool) to Measure Velocity and Power in the Back Squat and Bench Press

Orange, Sam, Metcalfe, James W., Marshall, Phil, Vince, Rebecca V., Madden, Leigh A. and Liefeith, Andreas (2020) Test-Retest Reliability of a Commercial Linear Position Transducer (GymAware PowerTool) to Measure Velocity and Power in the Back Squat and Bench Press. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 34 (3). pp. 728-737. ISSN 1064-8011

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Abstract

This study examined the test-retest reliability of the GymAware PowerTool (GYM) to measure velocity and power in the free-weight back squat and bench press. Twenty-nine academy rugby league players (age: 17.6 ± 1.0 years; body mass: 87.3 ± 20.8 kg) completed 2 test-retest sessions for the back squat followed by 2 test-retest sessions for the bench press. GYM measured mean velocity (MV), peak velocity (PV), mean power (MP), and peak power at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 90% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM). GYM showed good reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] and standard error of measurement percentage, respectively) for the measurement of MV at loads of 40 (0.77, 3.9%), 60 (0.83, 4.8%), 80 (0.83, 5.8%), and 90% (0.79, 7.9%) of 1RM in the back squat. In the bench press, good reliability was evident for PV at 40 (0.82, 3.9%), 60 (0.81, 5.1%), and 80% (0.77, 8.4%) of 1RM, and for MV at 80 (0.78, 7.9%) and 90% (0.87, 9.9%) of 1RM. The measurement of MP showed good to excellent levels of reliability across all relative loads (ICC ≥0.75). In conclusion, GYM provides practitioners with reliable kinematic information in the back squat and bench press, at least with loads of 40–90% of 1RM. This suggests that strength and conditioning coaches can use the velocity data to regulate training load according to daily readiness and target specific components of the force-velocity curve. However, caution should be taken when measuring movement velocity at loads <40% of 1RM.

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