The Fitrodyne Powerlyzer by Tendo, or Tendo unit as it’s more commonly known, is a piece of equipment used to measure the speed of the bar. This allows the coach to know several things such as whether the athlete is training what he or she is supposed to be training and whether the bar speed has started to drop. Here, I’ll discuss how to use the Tendo unit as a means of autoregulation.
The Tendo unit gives objective feedback to the athlete. A coach simply saying, “Move faster…that wasn’t quick enough,” is subjective. The athlete may reply, “I’m moving it fast enough. Your eyes are too slow.” However, the Tendo gives objective feedback because it relays the speed of the bar. If the athlete is only moving the bar at 0.6 meters/second, the athlete knows that he or she needs to move the bar 0.2 meters/second faster. It’s no longer just the coach’s opinion. It’s a measurable fact.
The main premise for using the Tendo in autoregulation is to monitor the speed of the bar and adjust the weight according to this. All of the following methods for using the Tendo in autoregulation are based upon this.
Autoregulation
Autoregulation occurs when athletes are allowed to perform at their best for that given day and progress from week to week at their own pace. Autoregulation is effective because it accounts for all stressors. For student athletes, many things other than just training, such as long nights of studying for class, will affect their performance. As an example, let’s pretend we have an athlete named Johnny. Johnny has a big test and is studying until midnight when his girlfriend calls him and breaks up with him. Johnny calls up his best friend, and they go out and get completely trashed on Jack Daniels until 2:30 in the morning. At 7:30 a.m., Johnny has a lift, and his team is supposed to do heavy squats at 92 percent. Well, for Johnny, 92 percent isn’t 92 percent anymore. It’s actually 115 percent, and he may hear himself trying to lift that weight.
While this is an extreme example, it is one that demonstrates how all stress affects the body the same. The stress from studying, emotional stress from the break up, and physical stress from the workout, all have the same reaction on the body. The adrenal cortex will enlarge considerably and the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, and all other lymphatic structures of the body will intensely atrophy. While these two things will occur much more rapidly, eventually deep ulcers will form in the stomach lining and duodenum when stage three, the exhaustion stage, occurs (Selye 1984). Because autoregulation allows athletes to perform to their best for that day, it will help prevent the athlete from entering stage three and overtraining.
Strengths by speed
Before going further, I should note that different lifts and different types of strength will have different speeds according to the Tendo. For example, speed-strength on the squat or bench is at 0.8–1.0 meters/second, strength-speed is at 0.6–0.7 meters/second, and absolute strength is at 0.3–0.5 meters/second.
For athletes who want to develop speed-strength, they don’t have sufficient weight on the bar to develop speed-strength if they’re only moving the bar at 1.2 meters/second. If athletes are moving the bar at 0.5 meters/second, they’re going too heavy and working more absolute strength. The bar speed is insufficient to develop speed-strength because they’re training the nervous system to sustain a maximal rate of force development (RFD).
Speeds by Olympic lift
For Olympic lifts, it’s all about the speed of the bar and triple extension. The faster the bar moves with hip extension, the better. However, there are minimum speed guidelines for the lifts. Any lift should be performed at the listed speed or higher. Anything lower is too slow to have a positive effect for RFD. The speed for the power clean is 1.25 meters/second, the hang clean is 1.35 meters/second, the power snatch is 1.5 meters/second, and the hang snatch is 1.6 meters/second.
Failure prevention
Failure prevention is another method where the Tendo can be used. Failure has been found to be very taxing on the central nervous system. In order to better manage training, train up to the limit but don’t exceed the limit and achieve failure. An example is the 225-lb bench press rep test. Hook the bar up to the Tendo unit. If the velocity drops below 0.35 meters/second, stop because the athlete typically has 1–2 more repetitions left in them. By not performing the last 1–2 reps, the nervous system doesn’t achieve the same fatigue, allowing the athlete to recuperate more quickly.
Time versus reps
There have been some debates about what is the best way to increase dynamic strength. Some say that Louie Simmons has it right with three reps for the upper body and 1–2 reps for the lower body. Others argue that you have to train the energy system and go for 10 seconds in order to optimally produce force. In my opinion, the athlete should do what’s best for him or her.
Athletes vary for many reasons and one of those reasons is fiber type. If an athlete is slower twitch, the 10 seconds may be better. If the athlete is predominantly fast twitch, he or she may not be able to produce an optimal RFD for longer than three reps. If the athlete is predominantly slower twitch, he or she may be able to produce an optimal RFD for 10 or more seconds.
Personally, I’ve had good experience with hooking up the Tendo to the bar and telling my athletes to complete repetitions until they can no longer achieve the speed. Faster twitch athletes do fewer quick reps than slower twitch athletes at the same intensity.
Beginning set weight
Another way to use the Tendo is to start with a set weight—say 50 percent—on any given lift. Athletes will perform a prescribed number of sets, and the weight is determined by their speed on the Tendo. For example, let’s say we’re doing four sets of five reps on the hang clean and our speed is 1.35 meters/second with a first set weight of 177 lbs. During the first set, all of the rep speeds are in excess of 0.165 meters/second so the athlete increases 22 lbs for set two. At 199 lbs, the athlete moves all five reps in excess of 1.55 meters/second so the athlete decides to make a bigger jump to 265 lbs for the third set because set two was so quick. At 265 lbs, the athlete only achieves one rep at 1.35 meters/second and the other four reps were below 1.2 meters/second. The athlete realizes that he must drop some weight to achieve the desired speed so he drops down to 250 lbs. For set four with the 250 lbs, the athlete achieves all four reps in excess of 1.35 meters/second.
Many people have heard over and over that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. That’s right, and you know, every way must work because regardless of how you do it, the cat doesn’t have any skin. The point of this article was to show multiple ways to use the Tendo and introduce autoregulation. It’s now up to you to take this and make it your own.
There are many other ways to use the Tendo and autoregulation than discussed here. Find what works best for you and your athletes and have fun with it. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. It may be a big scary world out there, but once you’re in it, it’s well worth it.
References
Selye Hans (1984) The Stress of Life.
Roman (1986) The Training of the Weightlifter. Sportivny Press: Livonia, Missouri.
Simmons Louie. Personal communication.
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