By: Shawn Mars

In the world of human performance, recovery has its clear owner, Whoop made sure of that. But when it comes to strength, the other half of the performance equation, there’s been no equivalent leader. For decades, coaches and athletes have relied on intuition, observation, and incomplete data to make training decisions. That era is ending.

True Force, the brainchild of former Iowa State football player and veteran strength coach Ben Durbin, is redefining how strength is understood, measured, and developed. The platform combines AI-driven analytics with precision barbell sensors to transform every lift into actionable insight, a real-time picture of power, velocity, and fatigue that eliminates guesswork and turns instinct into intelligence.

The End of Guesswork

Ask any strength coach what drives progress, and the answer usually lands somewhere between art and science. Experience and intuition matter, but they’ve always been approximations. Push an athlete too hard, and injury risk spikes. Ease off too much, and gain a plateau. The sweet spot has historically been found through feel, not data.

True Force changes that equation. By embedding smart sensors directly into the training process, the system delivers live feedback on every rep. Coaches can see how the body is responding in real time, track readiness day to day, and adjust intensity on the fly.

“There’s always been an element of uncertainty in coaching,” says Durbin. “True Force was built to remove that, to tell you exactly how hard an athlete should train today.”

Turning Every Rep into Intelligence

What Whoop did for recovery, making invisible signals visible, True Force is doing for strength. The system captures the subtle changes in velocity and force that signal fatigue or readiness, translating raw effort into clear, contextualized data.

This allows coaches to adapt programming dynamically, not after a testing session or an injury, but in the moment. Each rep becomes a data point in an adaptive algorithm that learns from the athlete’s performance patterns over time. The result is a more individualized, evidence-based approach to training that reduces variability and amplifies progress.

For clinicians and physical therapists, the same data creates a measurable bridge between rehab and performance. Load monitoring, form tracking, and recovery validation can all happen with precision, ensuring athletes return stronger, not just sooner.

Built for the Weight Room, Designed for the World

Despite its sophistication, True Force isn’t a complicated tech stack. It’s simple, intuitive, and scalable. The platform integrates seamlessly into existing equipment and workflows, providing coaches with visual dashboards that track performance trends, compare sessions, and share insights across teams or medical staff.

Durbin calls it “the intelligence layer for human strength.” And that’s exactly what it is, a shared performance language that connects athletes, coaches, and clinicians around a single source of truth: real-time data.

A New Era of Strength Ownership

As performance analytics become central to sport and rehabilitation, True Force is positioning itself as the definitive system for strength intelligence. It’s not just a barbell with sensors; it’s an ecosystem that transforms effort into understanding.

By closing the gap between how athletes feel and how their bodies actually perform, True Force enables smarter workloads, faster adaptation, and healthier careers. Coaches can now quantify what was once invisible, the very essence of strength itself.

“Whoop owns recovery,” Durbin says. “We’re aiming to have our own strength.”

And if the shift from intuition to intelligence continues at this pace, that ownership might not be far off.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only. The technologies and approaches discussed are subject to individual variability and may not be applicable to all athletes or performance contexts. The use of any technology or system should be considered in light of its suitability for each unique situation.