Isometrics, Muscle Control, And How To Measure Your Progress
Defining My Terms
Static Contraction Training: Any form of training that requires little movement but over time, either through the weight, the application of one’s mind, or both; the individual's ability to activate their muscle fibers markedly improves.
Examples: Overcoming Isometrics, Yielding Isometrics, & Muscle Control
Nostalgia Lane
One of the things that separated dragon ball z from other anime and fighting shows was the power scaling and quantifying of characters' abilities. This was mainly done through the, “Scouter” which was a face-worn device that can determine how strong an opponent was by measuring their Ki or energy.
These scouters were useful in the first few sagas providing the necessary tension and getting us excited about the fight. But later when the characters became overpowered these scouters went away and the characters started, “Sensing” how strong their opponents were and providing some exposition on their opponent's strength. I miss the days of the scouter. But why am I bringing this up anyway?
Quantifiable
We(human beings) like numbers. We require things that we can measure and compare. This helps us to better grasp what’s occurring or make decisions on a course of action. In terms of fitness, it helps us to establish a benchmark and gauge our progress. In my initial journey into weightlifting in high school I found myself elated at every opportunity we received to test our max by our teacher and have those numbers marked down on a piece of paper. Get high enough numbers and you get a free shirt from the teacher with a color to match your level. It went from gray, to red, and then black.
Calisthenics
Calisthenics, as I later got into doesn’t have solid numbers that you can look at over time. I’ve covered some issues I’d had with progressions over the past few years and how to get around them. With calisthenics it’s not measured in the weight on the bar but the weight of your body and the bodyweight movement you can perform. A person at 165 pounds that can do a one-arm pull-up is stronger than someone at 180 who can do 15 bilateral pull-ups. In the comment section of most calisthenics videos, you’ll often find constant requests for the height and weight of the person performing a certain movement and it’s kinda weird.
Overcoming Isometrics and Muscle Control (aka Static Contraction Training)
Other forms of training and the ones I enjoy reading about or utilizing provide very poor measurements for the user. In a world of, “Show me the numbers,” it can be difficult to devote yourself to something that doesn’t have a numerical value to it. Therefore, we can use a combination of the above two methods as well as others to determine your progress with various forms of static contraction training.
Blood Pressure
All exercises will increase your blood pressure for a limited time during the course of a workout but will decrease shortly afterward. With Overcoming Isometrics, however, studies show that your blood pressure will decrease over time faster than with any other training modality. Part of this may be due to the improvement of blood circulation brought about by this form of exercise. The better the circulation the less likely your blood vessels will pop.
Heart Rate
In terms of lowering one’s heart rate, there’s not much research that backs up the ability of static contraction forms of training to affect this. All we have is a meta-analysis, meaning a look at multiple studies, but this one is looking at handgrip isometrics. Now, a single handgrip overcoming isometric over a few weeks provides little benefit to the rest of your body. A better study would be one that employed full-body Overcoming isometrics for a few weeks and measured all the participants resting heart rates at the beginning.
Squat
Pull
Push
Rotate
At the end measure their resting heart rate and see if there is any change.
For muscle control, I would say the same but honestly, that might be too complex for most to grasp and there aren’t many folks who can teach that well.
Healthy Athletes have a resting heart rate around the 40 beats per minute territory. The lower your heart rate is the stronger and more efficient your heart. But we shouldn’t try and go too low…
But where there is a lack of studies we can rely on anecdotes from folks who have employed such forms of training consistently in the past.
For example, there’s Steve Justa who in his Iron Isometrics book stated…
“So I really started hammering isometrics and they helped me tremendously with the hay bales. I was finally getting the useable, coordinated, enduring strength that I wanted. One day we had to load around 300 bales and my boss and I made a deal to take our pulses before we started and once again five minutes after we were done. After we finished moving all those bales, it turns out his pulse was faster than mine.” (p 10 Justa)
Isometrics just for one’s handgrip won’t make much of a difference in the strength of one’s heart. The key is to make a good workout out of it. Back when I had started applying the things I had learned in Bobb Hoffman’s, “Functional Isometric Contraction” I didn’t take note of the change in my heart though I knew there was a significant change in my speed with some spillover to my stamina.
Overcoming isometrics, if used in a circuit-like manner lasting for 10 to 15 minutes I have no doubt that that would cause some change just like in the anecdote above. With Overcoming Isometric workouts myself, I’ve found out recently that adding more force-generation phases per angle and position as opposed to the standard, “One Contraction a day” causes a greater change in my resting heart rate.
These benefits by themselves are great but if combined with the isolated muscle tension that comes from muscle control I know the effects will be enhanced.
“We aim. first and foremost, at the improvement of the Circulation, it being through that channel alone that every function of the body can gain vigour, and acquire increased .activity and endurance.” (P11 Health Strength and WillPower)
If a form of training can improve one’s circulation it should be a no-brainer that it can improve the strength of one’s heart.
The Tape & Scale
A measuring tape, either to measure the mass gained on a limb or lost at the waist can give you an indicator of the effectiveness of your training. This in tandem with the scale should give you a decent picture. One or the other might by itself bring about an inaccurate picture of your body composition. There are fancy scales these days that measure the amount of fat and muscle mass on you by sending electrodes through your body so if you have that at your gym or you have money to fork over go for it.
But in this age of inflation, I’m about saving money.
Testing on Movements
“To be a champion lifter one has to acquire certain physical and psychological qualities not purely connected with muscular strength. There has to be certain adjustments to the nervous system; the “overhead balance sense” must be acquired.” (p11 Saldo, The Why and How of Muscle Control)
The last way to test the efficacy of your static contraction training is to apply your strength to movements either with the barbell or your own body. Pick a day a few weeks down the road, give your body some rest before the day in question, and test your max. Sometimes I’ve found that I don’t even have to do a full rep. I walk up to a pull-up bar, wrap one hand around it, pull slightly, and then disengage. The split-second feedback I get from this will tell me the state of my progress.
Wrap Up
With overcoming isometrics or muscle control, these forms of training can take the bulk of your time with little energy expenditure. Throw in a movement once a week or every two and you’ll be set.
Thank you for making it to the end and comments are below.
Until next time…
