the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Interesting video on isometric strength. Have seen similar exercises in China but never really understood how or why it works until now.



https://youtu.be/cfNJzv0TumU

I will say this much a few of these exercises at full strength for 10 seconds and you will feel the burn.

Anyone else do these?

Yes, I do. Been doing them for many years. But solo, I prefer to use my training partners for more relevant stuff . So I do various isometrics where I'm opposing my two arms/hands against each other: linking hands at belly level, heart level or above the head and pulling apart; same but pushing hands together; same but one hand pushing away from body centre, other hand pushing towards body centre (i.e. opposing hands). And like Vunak says, at 3 or 4 different stages of extension or flexion.
I also sometimes use a towel or similar: same as above but holding a towel in both hands so that (whatever the directions) my opposing hands can be further apart, which varies the load/vectors for the torso muscles.
Another really cool thing about these exercises is that you can do them anywhere, anytime, for longer or just a minute, also sitting or even lying down. And sometimes people don't even notice

Just by themselves these exercises wouldn't be enough for me, though. Personally, I combine them with 'Indian' club swinging and with pole shaking, plus irregular (light) sessions of more conventional work with weights or on machines (but I find this much less fun, so less motivation).

PS. His criticism of actual weight work might well be outdated. I guess there are some here who work with weights and would contradict some of his initial statements.

Did that in my late teens/early 20s; the idea of being strong without visible muscle mass appealed too me a lot. So I developed my own little set (no MA context) with a stick, that I would "try to" squeeze, break, pull apart, twist, etc. at various positions (like he said, you have to do it at a few points across the limb's/muscle's range of motion), addressing various positions to cover the basic "functional" range. Then added a short thick rope, pulling which apart have me access to some positions inaccessible with pulling the stick.

These days I only do bits of it (without any tools) when I'm really cold and need to warm up without attracting attention.

Isometrics are ok but you can't rely on them alone and isotonics are even better. Isometrics are when the muscles don't change length but just contract in place. Isotonics are when the muscle contracts but only concentrically, there is no stretching component. Isometrics can get you stronger but only in a static position. As soon as you move, that strength is lost. And obviously in fighting which is dynamic, you will need strength in movement, not just static positions.

I do both isometrics and isotonics all the time as part of my workouts but they are tools in the toolshed, not the be-all, end-all answer that many will pump as the "secret" or whatever because this is what IMA people do.

gzregorz wrote:I will say this much a few of these exercises at full strength for 10 seconds and you will feel the burn.

This is a big part of the problem: people do stuff like this once, feel something they didn't before and then overestimate it's value. If you were to do these everyday for 3-4 weeks, you'd quickly plateau and see they aren't much by themselves. But since 99% of people won't do that, the limitations won't be realized.


This is one of the systems I did for isometrics (there are others) and it was one of the best. If this interests you, it's a good system to start with.

I was taught this by my first TST teacher
Here is a better system from Newcastle University
Does take a lot of time changing weights though
https://youtu.be/YvznQfF8vQk

should've replied on this thread, but "calisthenics" has various holds, leading up to gymnastics ones (planche, things on rings, etc.)