Set Metrics Update — Now Featuring Peak-End Velocity, Percent Loss, and Set Loss
New metrics roundup
The 3.2.0 app release enabled a new suite of metrics that make set-based training decisions much easier. With 3.2.3, we’re introducing a few highly requested set metric modifiers: Set Loss, Percent Loss, and Peak-End. In total there are 45 new or improved metrics, and the list is still growing. For a full list of our metrics and what they mean, check out our metrics page.
Peak-End
The Peak-End modifier was inspired by a post Bryce Lewis made on Facebook back in August of 2016, which was inspired by relatively well known Peak-End Rule. Although the Peak-End rule is commonly applied in the field of psychology, it has interesting applications in Velocity Based Training.
If, for example, you use Minimum Average Velocity as your velocity threshold variable, what if the rep that achieved the slowest speed was the second-to-last rep, and not the last? Do we not use the information from that last rep when we think of how difficult a set was? If we want to maintain a relationship between our objective velocity metric and our subjective RPE rating, shouldn’t we try to use a metric that most closely aligns with our rating of exertion?
Peak-End velocity averages both the slowest and the last rep of a set, if they are not the same rep. This turns out to always lead to less weight on the bar than if you simply used Minimum Average Velocity, but this is probably net-good. In practice our athletes at S&S tend to reflexively use the Last Rep Velocity mistakenly, because it’s the biggest number on the OpenBarbell screen and because it’s usually the slowest rep of the set.
Since introducing 3.2.3 we’ve instructed all of our athletes to set their Big Metric to Peak-End Velocity (see the animation at the top of the post) to make this a no-brainer. That kind of ease-of-instruction has been a common theme of feature request from our coach customers and we’re happy to make it a reality.
The Peak-End modifier isn’t just for Average Velocity, it can be used with ROM, Duration, and Peak Velocity.
Set Loss and Percent Loss
These two metrics are gap fillers in the current lineup of Set Metrics, but also a nice time saver. Set Loss is a variation on Absolute Loss, where instead of displaying the difference between the fastest and slowest reps of a set, we show the difference between the first and last reps of a set. This is an important distinction that allows further nuance in how a coach or athlete sets their velocity targets.
Percent Loss is Absolute Loss, displayed as a percentage. It’s one of the oldest tools in the VBT toolbox and simply an oversight in our 3.2.0 release, but we’re happy to bring it to OpenBarbell with our latest update.
Percent Loss and Set Loss can be used with Average Velocity, ROM, Duration, and Peak Velocity.
If you haven’t used the OpenBarbell app yet, you’re missing out! It’s available now for Android and iOS, go download it now!
