Background: The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the novel inertial measurement unit (named: Gyko Sport) for the measurement of barbell concentric velocity on the bench-press exercise.
Methods: Ten under-16 (U16) basketball players performed 2 repetitions of the bench press exercise with 6 different loads (40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90% of one repetition maximum [1-RM]; N.=120 repetitions). Mean velocity for each repetition was simultaneously recorded using the Gyko Sport and SmartCoach linear transducer.
Results: Results showed a very large correlation between the SmartCoach and Gyko Sport (r=0.79; standard error of estimate [SEE]=0.18 m/s). Furthermore, there was a very high agreement between both devices for the measurement of the mean velocity (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=0.774; Cronbach's alpha [α]=0.872; Bland-Altman Plots [R2]=0.070). The Gyko Sport registered similar, but slightly higher values than the SmartCoach (P=0.103; mean difference 0.075±0.05 m/s).
Conclusions: The results support the use of the Gyko Sport as an affordable, portable, and suitable wearable device to measure mean velocity on bench press exercise.