When people talk about isometrics in the training world, they don’t really associate isometric stuff with dynamic efforts for athleticism. Truth is, the isometric concepts/benefits/volume/intensities etc are barely known in the training world.
One could go on and think “why the hell should I train isometrically when the aim is doing dynamic movements?” and, well, he’d be right from a specificity standpoint. That’s not the issue though.
Let’s take a quick example for a more “specific” approach in terms of jumping and dynamic movements. The “athlete” in cause would be, you guessed it – your favorite athlete – me.
Whenever I take a running jump or do any kind of change in direction or whatever dynamic effort, I always am “ready” for the shock of that particular event. I don’t know if you’ve figured it out already, but a lot of people talk about “be ready!” for these kinds of things yet nobody ever defines what “ready” means. Besides of the usual “be aware” definition, “ready” also means “tensed”. So you basically get “tensed” before a dynamic event occurs. According to Yuri Verkhoshansky, this can lead up to a 20% increase in performance in the dynamic movement.
Really, the next time you jump at high speeds be aware of your “preparedness” before the jump. I bet you’ll find out that you’re already tensed up (pre-tensed), just that you haven’t thought about it before.
If not, try to isometrically tense your BODY muscles and see the difference. Notice I haven’t said “leg muscles”, and that’s because it’s a whole body tensing that’s the important thing. The reason for that is the muscle irradiation effect the other muscles have on your stability and power output. This has been bought to my attention by Pavel Tsatsouline but I have found out that I have already been doing all the things he talks about in his book “The Naked Warrior”.
So basically, tensing isometrically before an athletic feat (or a power/strength lift etc) is very important. That’s why the isometric training can/must have some emphasis in training for overall athleticism.
One of my favorite isometric holds is the split squat iso hold using a barbell. Here’s me doing it:
You should aim for sets of 10-20 seconds for strength gains. You want to bring real intensity and LEARN to tense up good so the next time you tense for jumping it will happen quickly and provide you with good stability for the leg muscles to exert power against the ground, but also (and more importantly) for the leg muscles to properly and effectively absorb the ground shock in the amortization phase.
Good luck!
Hello,
I have found that the gymnastics training i have been doing has increased my body “tension” even when doing curls! Body tenson had made a difference in all my lifts!
Brandon
Yeah, it’s all a matter of increased body awareness and control, because, at least for me, these things happen automatically without me even thinking about them. The idea is that isometric training should not be thrown away and that the isometric training for athleticism is a bit counter-intuitive.
Raptor, have you ever done any Isometric stimulation prior to an explosive movement? ie something similar to andrew darquis isometric back extension stimulation?
Yes I believe I did. I did a standing vertical jump. Then I did an isometric good-morning or isometric RDL (I don’t remember exactly) and then, after a 3 minute break, I tested the standing vertical jump again I got 5 cm (2 inches) higher. The same thing happened to a guy I was training with.
I don’t remember the load % though. I think something like 50% of 1RM and the hold duration of about 10 seconds.
So, in short, yes, I did and it works, and not just for me. It’s funny how people react to it after they do it, they’re like “oh man, this is what I need to do”
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