In his 1080 Summit presentation, Jan Seiler showed what’s possible when you pair coaching creativity with motorized resistance. For him, the 1080 devices (Sprint 2 and Syncro) aren’t just pieces of equipment, they’re tools to engineer the exact training stimulus him athletes need. This includes everything from max effort strength to high-speed eccentric loading.
Isokinetics: Max Force, Minimal Guesswork
With isokinetic training, you set the velocity (concentric speed limit) and let the athlete generate as much force as possible against it. He uses it to target 1-rep max velocities, without the fatigue or risk. Since velocity stays constant across the full range of motion, you get max force output from bottom to top.
That’s especially useful when working around injury, building strength without heavy axial loading, or tracking force consistently across reps and sets.
Eccentric Overload: The Holy Grail for Braking Strength
Seiler calls eccentric training the “holy grail” of strength development. Using motorized resistance, he overloads the eccentric phase with double or triple the concentric load to expose the athlete to high braking forces in a short amount of time during jumps.
This allows for structural adaptations (longer fascicle lengths, improved tendon stiffness) that are key for both performance and injury resilience. Because it's not just about being able to stop and control one's body, but doing so in super short amounts of time.
Range-Specific Stimulus and Intent-Based Output
With the 1080 Cable, Jan manipulates both speed and range of motion to isolate exactly what he wants to train. A technique called "lengthened partials" [the leg muscles are in a lengthened positions only going through the partial end range of motion], he slows down the movement to 0.1 m/s. Because with isokinetics, an optimal time under tension each rep is ~2 seconds; so with a small range of motion, like only the bottom 1/3 of a squat, the speed should be slower to still give ~2 seconds per rep.
His motto is isokinetics: “Intent is key.” As the athlete can push however hard they want because it's a fixed speed, max effort is needed for performance training.
Smart Programming Backed by Data
No matter the type of loading, regular or eccentric overload or isokinetic, 1080 gives you real-time feedback. Jan uses metrics like force output, fatigue (percent dropoff), and total time under tension to make on-the-fly decisions.
“All those [resistance] modes help us reach stimuli we couldn’t before." But it’s not simply plug-and-play, you still need coaching eyes, progressive loading, and a clear purpose for each session.
Takeaway
Jan Seiler doesn’t just train athletes, he engineers the exact adaptations they need. With motorized resistance, he can load eccentrics harder, isolate specific ranges of motion, or chase max force at fixed speeds.
The motor is what makes it all possible with control and data, while the practitioners puts together the program and live coaching.
Published: November 20, 2025