Steve Justa’s Iron Isometrics Review: Part Two
Intro
Angles and Positions
Philosophy of Nerve Power
Building Energy Through Isometrics
Training The Mind
Wrap Up
Intro
Hello, and welcome to Nerve and Muscle. Last time in my analysis of Steve Justa’s Iron Isometrics, I covered some of what I believed to be among the most significant sections. These were…
How To Gauge Your Progress (With Isometric Training)
Rep Training High Reps/Medium Reps (dozens and dozens of force-generating reps)
Training For Maximum Strength (The best protocol for triggering a strength increase)
Holding For Time (low intensity/higher duration force-generating reps)
I’ll be covering four more topics that can truly add more flavor to your overcoming isometrics as well as influence the way you train with other modalities.
Angles And Positions
“What I believe sets my isometrics apart from those of other people have experimented with is the fact that I try to add multiple combinations of these basics together at the same time… That is the key to making you super strong with this isometric training.” (p 20, Iron Isometrics)
There are 600 muscles in the human body. Most forms of resistance training only activate a fraction of these at a time to a high degree. This is beneficial as long as you’re targeting other areas to create a holistic, spherical, 360-degrees of strength/function. But, when you’re moving throughout the day,
Carrying
Building
Fixing
& Engaging In Hallway Brawls
You will likely be engaging multiple groups of muscles at a time and if the work is strenuous enough they will be at a high degree of activation.
I don’t do it much anymore but when I was in highschool I went to a martial arts school that held grappling practice three times a week. I usually tried to go twice and the Saturday lessons were brutal. Luckily, due to the various paths my military career took me down I was able to continue this practice long after high school and into the late 2010s. When you’re tossing around another individual, or they're tossing around you, you will have multiple muscle groups firing at a high degree and for extremely long durations depending on how long the sparring is.
This can be extremely taxing but will build up your conditioning after a while. Fast forward a few years and I was at a construction/home improvement company experiencing the same patterns. Moving around heavy things in odd ways and having multiple sets of muscle fibers firing at once.
The words, “functional training” have been thrown around a lot but I think any form of training that helps you to perform better in your life without much time and energy drain is key.
With Steve Justa’s isometrics they can either be called
Multi-Limb Isometrics
Or Muti-Action Isometrics
They are very beneficial in that you can train multiple muscle groups at once. This is one of the advantages I see in the low-tech overcoming isometrics where you don’t have a great amount of gear. Devices like the Iso chain are very effective at getting you stronger in traditional lifts but fails in this regard.
I’m not knocking the device but throwing in some multi-action isometrics would help iron out any weak points and strengthen your entire being.
It’s the odd angles that test you
The variety with which you can perform different isometrics is numerous.
Most of the isometrics I have shown above are weighted meaning that I’m engaging in some type of hold as I’m generating force. This training can be conducted with zero-weight isometrics which is exertion against an immovable object alone.
If you’ve ever heard of circuit training you might not have heard of its cousin, “Peripheral Heart Action Training.” The intent of this training is to have the blood pumping to different parts of the body each set. You start with the upper, and you go to the lower. You start with the abs then jump to the back. This constant/changing flow of your blood tests and over time improves your circulation and heart. With multi-action isometrics, you can do this all at once and amplify the benefits. But I’ll provide some guidance in the future so that folks don’t burst a blood vessel.
Steve Justa’s take on isometric training opened up new does for me. Although training with overcoming isometrics can be extremely time-efficient, Muti-Action Isometrics take it to a new level.
Philosophy Of Nerve Power
“Nerve power is something the old-time strongmen talked about a great deal. When they said it they really meant the same thing as many of the Eastern philosophies mean when they talk about “Chi.” it is a combination of the actual nerves that run through your muscles and make things happen when your mind tells the body to move and the subtle electrical current that flows around the whole body that actually makes those nerves function” (p 21, Iron Isometrics)
I can’t vouch for all that Eastern stuff but the efficiency of one’s nervous system does make a difference in how one can perform movment… or escape death. You’re either going for a new PR in a lift or you’re lifting a car off of a loved one.
It's the same thing but different intensities. What overcoming isometrics allows you to do is to safely tap into this for use in your daily life. I won’t be 100% lol. If all the body's strength-safety measures were turned off we would run ourselves into the ground. Yes, we’d be super strong but our tendons and ligaments would most likely separate from the bone depending on what we were moving.
This form of training will allow you to safely access one percent here or two percent there over the course of a few months or years. And this energy could be put to good use helping others in any number of areas. Or if you have a strenuous manual labor job, help you to outperform your peers and get that money.
… The likelihood that your employer will dump most of the work on you.
Building Energy Through Isometrics
“Basically, what you want is to turn yourself into a more powerful and efficient machine that doesn’t need as much fuel. The energy in the muscle itself becomes higher, so you don’t need as much energy in the form of food to keep progressing.” (p22 Iron isometrics)
This is what I find most beneficial about overcoming isometrics. With other forms of training what you eat, and how much, can matter just as much as your training in the gym or wherever you go. With Overcoming isometrics, it’s not as significant. Sure, definitely eat more than a pea to sustain yourself but you won’t have to go all out on grocery shopping to make progress. It could help save you money. If you’re not worried about size and just want some improved function and vigor this form of training is the way to go.
“I had plenty of time to carry out my ideas. In fact, I had nothing else to do. And one of the things I speedily discovered was that for many hours could this kind of physical stimulation be kept up. Instead of wasting energy, this, on the contrary, was retained. Which was fortunate for me, in more ways than one, when the position I was in is remembered. For I did not get too much to eat, I must tell you, and what I did get was not of the most nourishing nature. And so I continued for about three months, gradually recovering my lost development and adding appreciably to my depleted strength and energy.” (p 116 Amazing Sampson)
A prisoner of war during WW1 Alexander Zass, aka the amazing Sampson, performed overcoming isometrics in his cell. Apparently, he escaped a few times from various prisons(and was caught) by bending the bars in his cell till they broke. I use him to provide an example of how this exercise could be used to build up one’s strength even under the worse conditions.
But this form of training could be incorporated daily without much strain. But if you’re already doing something else you can incorporate a little overcoming isometrics into your training. Or you can have days in your training schedule that are exclusively overcoming isometrics just as long as you’re not sore from your previous weightlifting, calisthenics, or CrossFit workout.
Training The Mind
“When you train the body you also train the mind and your willpower. The more and longer you train the more you train your mind.” (p 23, Iron Isometrics)
Training should have carryover, not just physically but mentally as well. Although shorter in duration than most other training modalities, the focus and intensity with which you need to generate force and receive benefit from the training will most certainly help you in life.
In addition to this, there is a myriad of positions, joint angles, and objects to practice overcoming isometrics on. Over time, this will condition you to think…
…outside the box.
Wrap Up
I’ll provide some more examples of Multi-Action isometrics in the future both through writing as well as video. Since I’ve gone down the overcoming isometrics rabbit hole I no longer think of fitness in terms of weight on the scale, weight on the bench, or even lab work, but
The pep in my step throughout the day
The improvements in my sleep
Th improvements in my concentration
And my resistance to sickness and diseases
Thank you for making it to the end, and let me know your thoughts below.
Until next time…