By: William Jones

How True Force is Helping Elevate Strength Training and Rehabilitation

For decades, strength coaches and physical therapists have wrestled with the same question: how do you prescribe the right amount of work? Push too hard, and you risk injury or overtraining. Hold back too much, and performance stagnates. Even the most seasoned professionals have relied on intuition, observation, and limited data points like one-rep max tests to make decisions. Those tools, while useful, often left large gaps in understanding how an athlete’s body was truly responding day to day.

Now, a new generation of technology may help close that gap.

From Guesswork to Precision Training

Former Iowa State football player and longtime strength coach Ben Durbin has launched True Force, a patented barbell system that pairs high-precision sensors with artificial intelligence to measure force output on every lift. Instead of relying on snapshots from seasonal testing or gut instinct, coaches, therapists, and even physicians can now see, in real time, how much force an individual is producing and how that might change rep by rep.

The data doesn’t just record performance; it has the potential to transform it. With every lift, True Force’s system captures the athlete’s power, velocity, and fatigue, then adjusts the training plan dynamically. Workouts evolve to meet the athlete’s readiness and recovery, although results may vary depending on individual factors.

“No matter how much experience you have, there’s often an element of guesswork in coaching,” Durbin says. “I wanted something that could help me better understand exactly how hard an athlete should train on any given day.”

The result is a shift from subjective coaching to a more data-driven approach that may enhance performance science.

Why It Matters for Coaches and Therapists

Traditional strength assessments, like the one-rep max or timed runs, offer only a snapshot of ability. They show what an athlete could do weeks ago, not how they’re performing right now. That lack of immediacy can sometimes lead to overtraining, missed recovery windows, or underdeveloped potential.

True Force aims to address that by collecting live data throughout every session. Coaches can monitor patterns, spot declines in performance that may signal fatigue, and make immediate adjustments. They can scale individualized training programs across entire teams while still meeting each athlete where they are physically.

For physical therapists and rehabilitation specialists, the implications are just as significant. Real-time feedback means patients can more safely rebuild strength after injury, with clear data showing progress and limits. Instead of relying solely on perceived exertion or therapist observation, True Force provides additional insights that may guide safer, more efficient recovery.

This merging of athletic and clinical applications signals a broader shift, one where tools once reserved for elite programs may become accessible to everyday professionals seeking more precision and accountability.

Photo Courtesy: Ben Durbin

Photo Courtesy: Ben Durbin

Beyond the Weight Room

“There’s nothing else on the market that does exactly what this does,” Durbin says. “We’ve built something that’s accurate, repeatable, and relatively easy to implement.”

The simplicity of the system is part of its appeal. True Force can integrate seamlessly into existing training setups without disrupting workflows. Its data can be accessed instantly, visualized through intuitive dashboards, and used to inform decisions across strength training, sports performance, and rehabilitation programs.

Beyond the numbers, it fosters communication between coaches, athletes, and medical staff, creating a shared language of performance data that helps keep everyone aligned.

The Future of Individualized Coaching

The long-term vision for True Force goes beyond a single piece of equipment. It’s about reshaping how professionals may think about strength and recovery. By giving every coach, therapist, and clinician access to live, objective data, True Force seeks to empower smarter, safer, and more personalized decisions.

“Coaches have always had to rely on instinct, and that meant some athletes were pushed too far while others weren’t challenged enough,” Durbin explains. “True Force helps reduce that variability, potentially enabling a more balanced approach to training.”

In an age where data drives everything from medicine to performance analytics, True Force represents a notable step forward for human performance. It has the potential to transform the weight room into a space of measurable progress and turn every lift into an opportunity for smarter training, potentially faster recovery, and better results.