Man has done the best in technology and invention when it comes to making things comfortable. In the process, things have only gotten more complicated. For example, when it comes to your fitness, a simple calisthenics routine with regular jogging or simpler aerobics is enough. But we still want to go to fancy gyms with scientifically designed machines that require special skills and safety measures to run. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sport of iron and I think lifting weights is a very satisfying endeavor. However, that is not really what I need to develop my fitness or to improve my fitness.

The best part is that you don’t need to spend too much money and time going to the gym and you don’t need an extra focus to ensure your personal safety. Better yet, you can save a lot of physical energy by going to and from the gym. You can use that time to complete a workout at home with an old-school form of training used by legendary strongmen and wrestlers that gave them incredible strength, a strength that most gym fans today they cannot boast.

The form of training I’m talking about is known as isometric exercise. It is a dark form of physical training and almost lost to the masses. Isometric training involves contraction of the muscles not caused by successive concentric and eccentric movements (known as isotonic movements). Instead, the length of the muscle remains fixed while trying to move an immovable load or hold a heavy load in a particular position. You will find this is primarily used by athletes and also by patients rehabilitating an injury. However, this method is very effective even for a regular learner and, with proper use, can deliver results beyond your wildest imagination.

History of isometric exercises

Don’t believe me; Let’s look at, for example, the greatest strongmen in history and who could be a better example than Alexander Zass. A former weight training enthusiast, Zass developed his physique and decent strength during his early years using strength training methods with weights. However, during the world war, he was captured and imprisoned by the Russians. Imprisoned in shackles and solitary confinement in an Austrian prison camp, Zass found that his hard-earned physique was deteriorating, as anyone would if they stopped exercising. Frustration led him to start pulling on the shackles and pushing the prison bars. The result was the rapid development of force. Soon enough, he developed enough strength to rip out the prison bars, bend them to form a hook to scale the prison wall and escape. After his escape, his new training technique became a basic method and he modified it to suit his needs outside of prison. He even developed it enough to sell it as a training discipline to interested sponsors and serious trainees. In addition to Alexander Zass, there were other famous strength athletes who used isometric exercises to develop their body and strength such as Joseph Greenstein, Tromp Van Digglen, and the renowned martial artist Bruce Lee.

Types of isometric exercises

The beauty of this training method is that you don’t really need to wear prison bars and shackles or any fancy gear to get a good workout. Simply applying opposing force with your own limbs can deliver phenomenal results. The idea is to apply force to a stationary object and try to move it. This is called Overcoming the Isometrics. Here you are trying to make an immovable object move by constantly increasing effort.

The other method is when you try to hold an object and prevent it from moving. A heavy barbell during a bench press, for example, if you are simply holding the load in the middle of the movement and resisting it the entire time, then this is called Performance Isometrics.

Now when you push a dumbbell or barbell in an eccentric and concentric way, your body is only using a small percentage of your muscles to produce movement. As a result, you need to work out multiple sets to ensure maximum muscle stress, and therefore muscle strength and growth. With the isometric contraction, the body struggles to move the object, and when it realizes that it cannot, the body recruits more muscle fibers in the effort. The result is an increased ability of the body to activate muscles when it is needed in the first place. The most important aspect of this training method is its direct impact on the tendons. The tendons respond very well to isometric contraction and become stronger. In contrast, with the conventional form of weight and machine training, the muscles respond quickly and the tendons respond to a much slower degree. As a result, your body is subject to possible injury as you begin to train with heavier loads.

My own personal experience with Isometrics was of the productive kind. I used a team called a bull worker and found the earnings to be pretty good. However, back then I was training only with a table with the routine printed on it and no one to guide me along the way. Not knowing how far I could go with isometric exercises alone and having limited knowledge of the discipline, I turned to weight training as that was the method endorsed by famous and successful champions like Arnold Schwarzenneger and Lou Ferrigno. Anyway, years later, I came across an article on Alexander Zass and read about his legendary feats of strength and how he had gained this strength by practicing isometric exercises. This brought my attention back to the isometrics. I didn’t fully take it in until late 2012. It has a profound impact on my body and I began to experience muscle stress similar to lifting heavy weights with just a few seconds of each exercise. This training principle is also largely imitated by gymnasts in their static and conditioning exercises. This explains why many of those who have never lifted weights before are able to lift mind-boggling amounts of weights in no time after starting weight training.

Isometric exercises are incredibly powerful and very efficient when it comes to building muscle strength and burning fat. You can develop a full-body exercise routine with nothing but your body weight and do it without the need for any expensive equipment.

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