The ARIS Band

Was the prescribed tempo actually followed?

A repetition has three phases: the concentric lift, the eccentric lowering, and any isometric hold. ARIS times each one separately, so time under tension can be checked phase by phase rather than assumed.

The eccentric is the phase that gets rushed. A weight dropped rather than lowered gives away most of what it was meant to train, and eccentric control never develops. Tempo is prescribed constantly and verified almost never — this is what verifies it.

When to end the set.

How fast each repetition moved. Velocity falls as fatigue accumulates, so the drop across a set shows when an athlete has given what the set was for — instead of counting to a number decided in advance.

The quality of the effort, not the quantity.

Force and velocity together. Two athletes can complete the same reps at the same load and produce very different output; power is the measure that separates them.

It also opens a second route to progressive overload. Traditional programming adds weight or volume to keep the adaptation coming; training for power means moving the same load faster and more explosively instead — so an athlete can keep progressing without continually adding load.

Strength deficits, and one side against the other.

In a static contraction there is no repetition to count — only force held over time. That is the measurement rehabilitation runs on: how much was produced, how long it was sustained, and how the injured side compares with the other.

Whether any of it is working.

Every session stacked across weeks and months, so a programme is judged on measured change rather than on how the last session happened to feel.