Now, I love isometrics. This passion goes back to my childhood.
Isometrics had everything anyone who grew up in the space age could dream of in a body-building program.
Isometrics was new. It was space-age—in fact, an isometric exerciser was, by all accounts, taken on the Apollo missions to keep American astronauts strong in space.
It was portable. You could use a stick and a piece of rope to do your training (some books actually offered exercises using these sorts of tools). You could also use your own body, doorways, chairs, anything you had to hand.
It was fast . . . I mean, super-fast. You could complete a full-body isometric training session in ten minutes and have time left over for a swig of Tang.
Like some sort of folded down deadly workout weapon hidden in the jacket pocket of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. isometrics offered the fantasy of take-anywhere-do-anytime power training that could make you a physical marvel in seven second bursts.
Isometrics involves the static (unmoving) maximum contraction of a muscle. Typically, that contraction will involve you pushing, pulling, or otherwise pitting your muscle against an immovable object.
At its peak of popularity (the 1960s), the claims for isometrics were astounding. They were also based on a misreading of the 1961 book Physiology of Strength.
Physiology of Strength was written by Theodor Hettinger, a medical doctor and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute. The book examined the strength gains of people who trained using maximum muscle contractions for four to six second intervals.
The book demonstrated that, controlling for other factors, isometric muscle contractions did show specific gains in strength among those who trained. However, there was a largely unnoticed (or overlooked) limitation to this study.
While Physiology of Strength did show strength gains for those using isolated muscle contraction, it did not examine those in comparison with other forms of exercise (body-weight, weight-lifting, etc.).
The only comparisons made in Physiology of Strength were between a single set of isometric muscle contractions and two-to-three sets of isometric contractions. In fact, the book never claimed that isometric exercise could replace weight-bearing exercise. At best, it indicated that isometrics might be a useful supplemental form of exercise.
This, of course, was a heart-breaking revelation to anyone, like me, who spent his youth dreaming of space-age isometric muscles.
But, that didn’t slow a group of ingenious entrepreneurs of the 1960s.
Missing the one essential point of Physiology of Strength, this intrepid body of exercise adventurers created a mini-industry.
With the publication of Physiology of Strength, isometrics gained the sheen of scientific legitimacy. Various forms of isometric style exercise had existed for many years. But, after 1961, the legends and myths began to fly.
Weight-lifting coach Bob Hoffman made some rather farfetched claims regarding the efficacy of isometrics in Olympics weightlifting training (something that may have been useful in diverting attention from the commonplace use of steroids at that time). Stories began to appear that Soviet weightlifters destroyed entire buildings by using the walls for isometric contractions.
Bart Starr appeared in ads for Exer-Gym, the isometric exerciser used in Apollo missions. The Starr ad seemed to imply that the entire powerhouse Green Bay Packers team of the 1960s owed their dynasty-building power to training with the Exer-Gym.
Dozens of books were published drawing on the same legends regarding isometric exercise (Soviet weightlifters, college athletes, astronauts all gaining unbelievable strength from this simple easy system).
I’ve gathered some of my favorite isometric exercise programs and tools. You can find pictures and explanations of each on the following links.
Even if isometrics won’t, alone, remake you into Charles Atlas, they can be a fun and useful workout tool. And, seven seconds of exercise is a heck of a lot better than nothing.
As with any of my comments, let this be your fair warning that you should not try any exercise program without first checking with your physician to see if you can take up the training. I make no claims for any of the products nor take responsibility for the claims made by others.
Have fun!
Span of Dan 