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The Metric VBT app now includes bar path tracking. It is available to all users on free, Pro and Teams accounts.
Bar path tracking is an often misunderstood and underrated tool in strength and power training. Smart lifters and coaches leverage bar path tracking to accelerate technical improvement, ultimately leading to more PRs than ever.
What is bar path and why should you track it?
Simply put, bar path is the trajectory or line that a barbell takes during a repetition. Every exercise has a bar path, but with technology like Metric lifters can then see a visualisation of this path.
The path a bar takes will vary depending on the type of lift being performed. On a deadlift or squat it will be virtually a straight line up and down. On a bench press the path will be more of an arc. With snatch an clean variations the shape of the path is a more complicated looping 'S'.
When we get into the really high-end movement analysis, there is a lot of debate about what is the “perfect” path. This is especially true for the bench press and on the technically demanding Olympic lifts.
Generally speaking however there is not a “perfect” path for all people. There are for sure bad paths that your bar can take during a rep, but the bar path that works for you will be unique and may even evolve over time as you get stronger. So instead of thinking about mimicking an “ideal”, good coaches and lifters focus on developing a consistent path which maximises their performance.
How to train with bar path tracking
Your bar path is more than just a result of your biomechanics and gravity; it is a detailed and insightful roadmap of your technique.
The importance of a consistent, efficient bar path cannot be overstated. It allows you to maximise the force and power you are able to generate throughout the repetition, ensuring every ounce of energy is used efficiently and goes in the right direction.
Minimising the amount of side-to-side or rotational motion of the bar while also controlling forward and backward movement improves efficiency. With improved efficiency, you can increase the load on the barbell, while also reducing the likelihood of missed lifts, injuries, and wasted training effort.
Use bar path analysis to teach technique basics
Most simply, bar path tracking is an outstanding corrective and teaching tool. The visual representation of bar path helps pinpoint specific areas in lifts where form may be compromised.
Providing the immediate visual feedback for the lifter — especially combined with velocity data — is a highly effective way to instigate real change because bar path taps into the visual learning skills of the lifter.
Are you leading too much with your hips in your deadlift causing the bar to swing away from you? Does the barbell drift forward during your squat ascent?
With bar path you can confirm these technical flaws, allowing you to make corrective adjustments to your form, or as a coach deliver the right cues and instructions to make the next set sharper.
Use bar path to accelerate advanced training
Consider bar path and video analysis as an assistant coach to fine-tune lifting technique. It is unlikely you will benefit from putting the microscope on every path for every lift, but choosing to dedicate a training block to checking and improving path will pay off.
For example, a powerlifting coach working with a lifter preparing for a competition may use bar path tracking to identify subtle shifts or imbalances during the bench press. This nuance may reveal underlying weaknesses or imbalances in the lifter's core or benching arc. This presents an amazing opportunity to make targeted training interventions which actually matter.
Similarly, for an athlete working on their clean or snatch progressions, tracking bar path can provide concrete feedback on the good and bad repetitions across a set beyond “feel”. This accelerates the critical association between feel and creating good shapes under the bar.
Especially for competitive athletes, there are limits on how much time they have in the weight room. Using bar path tracking is like having an extra set of expert eyes, enabling real-time feedback and immediate correction, enhancing the overall training experience and maximising progress.
Use bar path across a set to gauge consistency
Over the course of a set the bar path tracking in Metric displays a solid green line for the current repetition, with all previous repetitions shown as a grey, faded line.
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Comparing each rep across the set helps you more objectively identify inconsistency in your lifts, while simultaneously connecting the change in path to bar speed.
Metric also allows you to save videos to your camera roll where you can then then perform comparisons between sets of the same exercise and across different loads to see how your technique holds up under more challenging loads.
Bar path tracking for Olympic weightlifting
For the explosive lifts such as cleans, jerks and snatches, bar path becomes a mission-critical training tool.
Olympic weightlifting movements require extreme precision, timing, and coordination to successfully complete a lift. Any deviation in the bar path can have huge repercussions and be the difference between a successful lift and a failed attempt. Bar path tracking allows advanced weightlifters and their coaches to dissect every section of their lifts, identify weak spots, and work towards mastering their technique on these complex movements.
When you should not use bar path tracking
It is important to recognise that bar path tracking may not be appropriate in all training situations.
With novice lifters or during exercises where technique is less critical, an overemphasis on bar path can lead to analysis paralysis or simply consume a lot of valuable training time.
Too much focus on tracking the precise movement of the bar might detract from other essential aspects of training such as feel, intuition, and overall body awareness. Moreover, not every deviation from an "ideal" path indicates a problem, and natural variations in lifting styles could be unnecessarily emphasised.
The key lies in understanding when and how to integrate bar path analysis into your training for optimal results.
Start using bar path in Metric VBT today
Bar path is a free feature available in the Metric VBT app.
To enable this the new bar path feature, download and open the app, login or create your free profile and open the Account tab then → Settings → Video customisation.
Toggle the bar path switch and voilà – bar path will be applied to all of your lifts allowing you to dive deep into the finer points of your lifting technique!