Static Contraction Training and Isometric training
- Pete Sisco
By Pete Sisco - Developer of Static Contraction Training
What is Isometric Exercise
Isometric refers to exercise involving no movement.
Using the bench press as an example, an isometric
contraction would involve holding the bar in a stationary
position with no up or down movement. Conventional
exercise is isotonic and employs concentric and eccentric
movement. Pressing the bar from your chest to the
full extent of your reach is the concentric movement
and lowering it back to your chest is the eccentric
movement.
Fifty years ago Charles Atlas made isometric training
famous. His mail-order courses to help 90-pound weaklings
from getting sand kicked in their faces in front of
their girlfriends showed trainees how to get strong
without using weights. His Dynamic Tension method
involved pressing your arms outward against the frame
of a doorway or grabbing a doorknob and trying to
lift up on it.
Soon the York Barbell Company offered a special power
rack that trapped a barbell between two hold-downs
and allowed trainees to generate much higher power
using isometric movements. But both of the above approaches
had a serious flaw.
How do you measure?
If you pull up on a doorknob as hard as you can on
Tuesday, how do you know you are pulling up harder
next Saturday? And how much harder? 8%? 17%? The same
problem exists pressing a barbell against hold-downs.
Exactly how hard are you pushing?
In 1999 John Little and I wrote Static Contraction
Training after doing some experiments with bodybuilders.
In a nutshell, we had them hold heavy weights in their
strongest range of motion and measured the effects
on their muscle mass, measurements and static and
full range strength. The results were startling. Mass
gains up to 29 pounds, an average of 51.3% increase
static strength after only 10 weeks doing workouts
consisting of 2 minutes of actual exercise.
What made this accuracy of measurement possible was
that Static Contraction Training used real weights
that could be quantified whereas the old Isometric
systems could not be quantified from workout to workout.
The other very significant difference is that we've
conducted continuing studies to determine the optimum
hold time for a contraction. We started out using
20 to 30 second hold times, which did work but we've
improved results remarkably with reduced hold times.
The latest form of Static Contraction Training offers
something the old Isometric methods never did: ultra-high
intensity and consistent, measurable results. I recommend
you give it a try. What have you got to lose?
