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Velocity-based training is flexing its strength. For context: Tried and true, for decades, strength and conditioning revolved around percentage-based training — where intensity and load are prescribed relative to an athlete’s one-rep maximum weight. Now, new research suggests that velocity-based training (VBT)—focused on measuring and improving how fast an athlete completes the rep—is more effective than the old method.

A new technology is coming to the weight room.

Founded by three MIT athletes, Cambridge-based Perch uses computer vision and machine learning algorithms to monitor an athlete’s movements during exercise in the gym. The startup recently raised a $4 million round from investors like Bradley Bloom, Ledgeways Ventures LLC and Byron Jones, who plays cornerback for the Miami Dolphins.

Weightlifting camera and data company Perch has raised a new $4 million funding round that includes investment from Miami Dolphins cornerback Byron Jones. Perch makes a 3D camera that straps to weight racks to track an athlete’s movements as they lift, including calculating sets, reps, velocity, and power output via Perch’s connected app.

Dubbed as an “invaluable addition” to their training program by the Orlando Magic, weight training platform Perch has pulled in a number of new users in NFL and NCAA football and basketball teams. Among those teams include the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baylor Bears (Men’s Basketball), and North Carolina Tar Heels.

Tech entrepreneurs are disrupting the fitness industry in a number of ways. One of the most prominent is the production of devices that can measure steps and other vitals. But these are often geared more toward cardio exercises.   Now, Perch offers something similar for strength training exercises. Read about this new innovation in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

This school year Glenbrook South implemented a new piece of equipment in its weight room designed to monitor and improve training results without beating people up.

The MIT-developed Perch system consists of a 3D camera that straps to a weight rack -- it's on all 14 racks in Glenbrook South's weight room -- and a computer application.

Glenbrook South is one of a few high schools in the country utilizing equipment adopted by the NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA and NCAA. The GBS athletic program installed some new state-of-the-art technology in the weight room last summer. With a fall sports season about to conclude, Perch has been paying off.

The New Orleans Saints have become the latest client for the 3D camera technology in their workout facility. The technology helped to propel LSU to their 2019 National Championship.

Perch co-founder Jacob Rothman recently met with the New Orleans Saints and head strength and conditioning coach Dan Dalrymple. Perch installed their 3D camera technology inside the team's workout facility in Metairie.

The New Orleans Saints are not necessarily trying to make bionic men, but they are feeling around on technology’s leading edge to help their players uncover their peak form in the weight room. So, roll with Saints longtime strength and conditioning coach Dan Dalrymple as he puts on his best cinematic voice. “We have,” he said with a dramatic pause, “the technology.”

LSU is in the market for another key position on its staff. On Wednesday the program announced that longtime Director of Athletic Training Jack Marucci, would be transitioning to a new role within the athletic department. Marucci will take over as Director of Performance Innovation for the program, where his primary focus will be to hone in on technological advances in sports science to improve the Tigers performance on and off the field.

Jacob Rothman wasn’t a massive college football fan. He was just your standard MIT graduate/ex-college baseball player who wanted to change the way people lifted weights.

But when longtime LSU strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt made the Tigers the first collegiate or professional sports team to roll the dice on Rothman’s new velocity-based training program “Perch” in 2019, there was suddenly an obvious rooting interest for the team on the Bayou.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks, Ole Miss Rebels and Georgia Bulldogs are the newest professional and college football teams to equip their exercise facilities with Perch, an AI-backed weight training platform that tracks performance during workouts. Those teams join the New York Giants, Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins and LSU Tigers as users of Perch.

In weight rooms across the country, top-flight sports teams are generating data from student-athletes beyond just how much weight is on the bar and how many times they can lift it. "Right now, you go to the weight room and you lift weights, the information you have access to is your sets, your reps and how much weight you moved," says Jacob Rothman, co-founder and CEO of the fitness technology platform Perch.

In January, 2019, a Cambridge startup called Perch sold the Louisiana State University football team on a new weight training system that uses video cameras and artificial intelligence software to boost athletic performance. One year later, the Tigers won the national championship of college football.

Jacob Rothman, a first and third baseman at MIT, herniated a disc in his back while doing a warm-up set of squats during the summer after his freshman year. Though that helped end his baseball career, it helped launch a new technology. He and two fellow MIT students started working on Perch in 2016. With Rothman’s own physical therapy and fitness, following his injury, serving as inspiration, they noticed how popular Fitbits and Apple watches had become as consumers sought a way to quantify their aerobic activity through technology.

An MIT-developed technology is helping a growing number of players and coaches – including those in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, and Power Five conferences – improve overall performance in the weight room and on the field. Named Perch, the device uses a combination of cameras and machine learning to monitor movements during exercise and enhance an athlete’s motivation, safety and performance in the weight room – something that co-founder Jacob Rothman says fitness technology has to date failed to address.

Discovering a baseline for each athlete—whether it's an incoming freshman or a returning player—is just another way in which the Perch technology will help LSU in the coming weeks as it attempts to get its players back in shape. What Perch allows is for strength coaches like Moffitt and Jacobs, as well as each individual athlete, to find the weight that best suits the athlete and lift at the optimal speed given by the strength coach."

The Perch module attaches to just about any rack and users can sign into their accounts from a tablet, which is also attached to the rack and Perch module. Perch then films and tracks every rep, allowing both athletes and coaches to analyze the workout, while also refining future workouts. "This helps to improve motivation and informs elite athletes, weekend warriors, and retirees alike of what they can be doing to move more powerfully, efficiently, and safely," Perch CEO and co-founder Jacob Rothman"