Has any one had much experience with the Tendo unit and the weightlifting analyzer?
I’m actually looking to purchase the weightlifting analyzer, but it’s pretty expensive for a trainer like myself. My colleague Steve Bubel (of www.mxconditioning.com) has helped me test some of my volleyball players with his micro-muscle lab that seems to be very similar. I haven’t done a true comparison but I did feel like the guys at Sorinex were more helpful than the guys over at Perform Better (where you would order the micro-muscle lab). Perhaps Steve could comment (he’s on this board on occasion).
http://www.westside-barbell.com/articles.htm
Check out the following articles: Feb 05 ‘Speed Work’ and the Dec 02 ‘Measuring Speed The Tendo Unit’, to see how they use the ‘Tendo’ at Westside.
Also may be worth looking at the following article:
Jennings, C. L., W. Viljoen, et al. (2005). “The reliability of the FitroDyne as a measure of muscle power.” Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research 19(4): 859-863.
From personal experience I find the ‘Tendo’ to be a great tool to emphasize the speed of movement on certain lifts, helps with number of reps and sets to perform (you can set thresholds of max power - noise signal when you drop below) and athletes get very competitive when using it. Not recommended for Olympic lifts.
Why not on Olympic lifts? Is it a durability thing? ??
I have a tendo unit. It is key for getting more bar speed on squat/box squat/bench/cleans, etc. I don’t use it too much anymore because of my random training.
I think feedback of any form is critical. With my tendo you just set a range (amplitude) in centimeters so it just records the bar speed and calculates power based on the inputted bar weight. It’s not necessairily good for cleans & snatches because if you pull slow off the floor, you will get a bad result. However if you have the top unit where you can graph your force curve on a PC then that is not an issue.
Overall a great device IMO and very worthwhile. It helps make training fun…adds a new dimension.
Don’t like to use it on Olympic lifts because of the way in which it can alter lifting technique - you can rip it off the ground in the first pull, miss the scoop/transition phase and muscle up the catch on a clean to get an improved power/speed score - fools gold in my opinion!
I believe the tendo company explains the output is not reliable during curvilinear movements.
Like SpeedKills mentioned, I have a Micro Muscle Lab and I love it. It takes all of the guesswork out of determining the optimum load for power training. It is also invaluable for determining drop-offs. Once a predetermined drop in power is met I terminate the set and/or lift. Of course, that begs the question: what is a significant drop-off? 1%? 10%? 20%?
It can also provide feedback on recovery/readiness to train from one workout to the next. For example, last Saturday I was scheduled to do a maximal-effort bench workout. I tested my power output on the warmup sets, as I always do, and found that I was producing 10-15% less power at every given load. I packed it in and went home.
A 10% drop off in early in training is acceptable. 5% when coming into comp. If the speed reductions are too great and incompatible with the training goal of speed strength they imply strength endurance loads and induce left transformations of the fibre spectrum.
i disagree with your numbers but im glad to see people are using performance indicators to dictate their trraining organization.
I’ve followed the recommendations of DB Hammer/Brad Nuttall with a 2-3% drop-off when training for maximal power and 5-6% when training for maximal strength. A 20% drop-off seems about right for hypertrophy and other endurance-based work.
O.K. Here’s a perfect example of what I was talking about. After a week off, today’s bench portion of my workout went like this:
Percentages listed are based on peak power achieved.
x5 @ 135 (+3% over last week and +6% over the week before)
x3 @ 165 (-4%, -2%)
x2 @ 185 (+6%, +2%)
x1 @ 205 (+13%, +1%)
x1 @ 225 (+38%, +5%)
Since I called it quits at this point last week, the following percentages are based on the most recent attempt at the given load.
x1 @ 245 (+46% - July 18th)
x1 @ 265 (+103% - May 22nd, I actually missed at this weight on July 18th)
x1 @ 285 PR! (no power recorded as the bar moved too slow :))
Finished with 5x2 @ 245
very interesting good post.
I think I should also say, I think there is a relationship between how much fatigue is induced (performance decrements) and the subsequent adaptation. induce to much or to little fatigue and you may not get the desired response.
To give a little more insight into my weight selection, once I set my PR I decided to drop the weight to 235 (82% of my new 1RM) and do sets of 2 until a 5-6% drop-off was met. This would be a 10lb increase over last workout in which I did 10x3 @ 225. However, given that there was no intra-set drop-off on the first set (i.e. the second rep was as fast as the first), I raised the weight to 245 for the second set.
- Another option would have been to do more reps at this weight but since I am trying to increase my maximal strength, I decided to raise the weight instead.
I produced 300W on the first rep at 245 and 243W on the second (-19%). Given that there was a drop in performance from one rep to the next, I decided to remain at 245 and terminate the workout when power output dropped 5-6% of my best at this new weight. Unless more power was produced on subsequent sets, a 5% and 6% drop in power would be 285W and 282W respectively.
The next set produced 277W and 243W (-12%) both of which fell below threshold. I’ve learned through trial and errror not to terminate a workout until 2 consecutive sets fall below my threshold (especially with submaximal, power training) and, sure enough, the next set produced 289W and 220W (-24%); just above drop-off. However, the next set produced only 255W and 221W (-13%) well below drop-off. I decided to end it there as I knew the next set would not be any better.
Here’s what it looked like:
Set #1 @ 235: 333W, 333W
Set #2 @ 245: 300W, 243W [5% drop-off = 285W, 6% = 282W]
Set #3 @ 245: 277W, 243W
Set #4 @ 245: 289W, 220W
Set #5 @ 245: 255W, 221W
Wow, this has turned into a productive thread. Some actual application and some great minds (colbert, aggielax, martn76). Continue, please!!
Its cheaper to purchase from slovakia from Prof Dusan Hamar: http://www.fitronic.sk/fitrodyne_basic.htm
During MxS phase the focus on training is the improvement of recruitment of FTF, and not neccessarly the discharge rate.
Power is a function of MxS, however MxS is not a function of Power. Therefore, what is the best use of the tendo unit during the MxS phase?
hey guys, dont wanna sound like a newb
but where can i buy a tendo unit ? and whats a good price for one
It’s pretty useful when testing for muscle imbalances and such (the whole muscle lab equipment together with EMG). At least it gave us some useful information to work with, and to correct imbalances between legs (post injury/surgery). On the other hand, testing strength/power in more complex settings (e.g. olys) is also more complicated; the bar might take a slightly different route each time, hence skewing the results.
When complexity goes up, validity and reliability comes down, and vice versa. Just like in science in general.