Weight Training Without Weights Please Help!!

I don't have my notes on me but if I remember correctly, isometric training only has a 15 degree angle carry over. And, as Wes alluded to, it would be very time consuming to strengthen in a full range of motion using isometric or static contractions.

Besides, all these types of various training principles are just tools towards a goal.

JP, I'm looking forward to sitting in on my CSCS testing in May when I'll have graduated with my BA.
 
Evo, best of luck on the exam! You'll do fine, especially with everything fresh in your head. I took my exam 6 years after I graduated and passed. (studied my butt off though)
 
Zen Site

I really wish somebody would actually read my site - the and the page - in their entirety.

People are making blanket statements of fact without thoroughly examining what I have. My program is not an exclusively isometrics program. The exercises shown on the home page are not all that that there are on the site. The full-blown workout would include bodyweight exercises as described on the page.

Certain people here are flying onto my site, breezing through it as quickly as possible, to find select statements to criticize, without reading what goes in conjunction with those statements.
 
Hey Shen,
like I posted, I admitted I never even looked at your site. My comment was not directed specifically to you, but to isometric training in general.
I am always interested in reading new things, and those who ARE close minded to other people's opinions, trials and successes will only be held back.
I am anxious to take a look at your site!
 
Range of motion in isometrics

gymcoch said:
very cool concept, and congrats to having a vision and persuing to make it a reality.
You said that isometric exercise "engages all of the muscle fibers". How can that be when isometrics is done at one, very specific range?
I am assuming that your isometric machine will enable someone to adjust it so that an entire ROM can be worked for any given pattern.
If this is the case, won't a workout for even one body part take forever to complete?
Let's look at a bicep curl for example:
If I perform an isometric contraction with my elbow bent at 90 deggrees of flexion, then the muscle is getting stronger in 90 degrees of flexion. What about when an activity requires strength at a different joint angle? So you can say that you can perform the isometric contraction at various joint angles...but this will take a extremely long time to complete just one exercise (if it can even truely happen), compared to a DCER exercise throughout an entire ROM.

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

I've done some research, and found that, like another poster mentioned, that the effective range of motion for an isometric exercise is about 20 degrees. For 80 degrees of movement, then requires about 4 exercises. Since each exercise takes 7 seconds, and to change the angle about 10 seconds, then 4 x 17 = 68 seconds, just a little over a minute. You must really be pressed for time (excuse the pun) if you think that is a long time.

Pete Sisco claims that if you exercise the given muscle group at any angle, all angles are affected. I am in the process of testing that claim, and hope to let you know what I find out. Other fitness experts claim a 20 angle benefit, so I'd like to see for myself who is correct. I'm going to "bench press" at a nearly fully extended position for a month. At the beginning, I am only going to do one "bench press" close to my chest. In fact, I'm going to start now. My first extended "bench press" was 146 kg (321 lbs). After a rest, I will let you know the result of my close-in "bench press". For now, I am sandwiching myself between two door jambs using a bathroom scale. The spacing between different door jambs in my apartment is different; this how I adjust the distance at present. I ordered a prototype of SookaGym, and it will take a couple of months to materialize.

Yochanan

To quote someone else, do the following, except replace the wavy brackets with square brackets:

{quote=gymcoch} copied test goes here {/quote}
 
Start of isometric test

Date: January 28, 2006:

My first extended "bench press" was 146 kg (321 lbs).
My first close-in "bench press" was 130 kg (286 lbs).

For a month, I will now ONLY perform extended "bench presses", and at the end of the month, see if my close-in "bench press" improved, and if so, by what proportion compared to the extended "bench press". I will refrain from doing any other exercises, as much as I like to do them.

The side benefit will be that I will have more energy to survive the annual dose of pathogens coughed into the air, compliments of TamiFlu, FluMist, and other products guaranteed to keep the populace ill.

Yochanan
 
Last edited:
Yochanan.....

I went back and read all of your posts. It's really great to read stuff by someone who has actually embraced isometrics and made such a thorough study of it. In my program I utilize isometrics in conjuction with exercises involving movement. It made sense to me to do so. I had once read that isometrics only builds that portion of muscle that is directly impacted in a certain position. I deduced, then, that performing isometrics on the same muscle from three different positions would result in more overall development. What do you think of that?

Went to your site and took a look at your machine - neat! When do you think you'll start marketing it?

Yochanan said:
I've read that 96 hours (4 days) are required between isometric exercises of a particular muscle group.
Click to expand...

Now, this is interesting. Where did you read this? Everything I've ever read states that isometrics are to be performed daily. Maybe what I've read is dated. I remember two things specifically from what I've read, one, isometrics are to be performed daily, and two, holding an isometric contraction for longer than 10 seconds has no further effect.
 
Isometrics: angles and workout intervals

Shenandoah:

You're idea to work a given muscle group at three different angles would result in complete muscle development, at least in terms of strength. Power, or explosive strength, is something else, and I don't believe isometrics will help in this case. An example would be a baseball pitcher. Fast (white) muscles are not developed by isometrics, to the best of my knowledge. This is why I don't consider isometrics a global solution for all exercise. Likewise, aerobic exercises are also needed to compliment the red muscle strength development provided by isometrics.

I had a hard time tracking down the 96 hours of rest, and to my surprise, it is applicable to ALL exercises, isometric or not.

Weight training creates muscle growth by causing microtrauma to the muscles. Muscles grow during the rest period following a workout by repairs to these areas of muscle, making them stronger than before. Weight training programs should therefore allow the muscles time to repair and grow, otherwise overtraining can occur. Therefore the individual should exercise caution in increasing the level of exertion. Muscle growth is normally completed within 36 to 96 hours, depending upon the intensity of the workout.[7][8] Novices commonly work out every other day, often scheduling workouts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. As weight trainers grow fitter and stronger, it takes more intense workouts to fully challenge their muscles. More advanced practitioners may exercise specific muscle groups only every three or four days.

On Pete Sisco's site, he discovered that more than 7-10 seconds of isometric pressure had no beneficial result. I consider Pete Sisco the best authority on muscle contraction exercises. He also offers an isometric machine, although it is very pricey.

As soon as I get an investor, I will be offering the SookaGyms about 4 months later. I only hope that there is an investor out there who is smart enough to realize the potential of this machine. The proof that there is a market is that there are already two other companies offering such a machine, and that mine would be available for roughly half the price, or less. Guess who would sell the most machines?

Yochanan
 
Yochanan said:
This is why I don't consider isometrics a global solution for all exercise.
Click to expand...

Neither do I, which is why I incorporate isometrics in with isotonic exercises.

So, do you actually allow 96 hours between workouts? That would be like a Monday and Friday routine. What is your actual training routine?

On my site, I suggest that the ab isometric exercises can be done daily. If you look at them, they're not that intense. What do you think?

I've come up with an isometric machine of my own which can be viewed at the bottom of my page.

Incidently, I knew someone who actually did build himself up exclusively through Isometrics. It was back in high school during the Isometrics craze of that era. This guy was in my gym class and I noticed that he was pretty muscular, so I asked him if he lifted weights. He told me that for the last year he had been doing isometric exercises every morning. (yeah, I know..........anectdotal)
 
Time between exercises

Shenandoah,

Yes, I actually go 4 days between workouts. If I tried (and I have tried) to work out more frequently, I don't achieve any gains. Daily workouts may be a good idea for novices, but not for people in top form. Because of my age (56, same as yours) my muscles may not build as fast as when I was younger. In a previous article, I quoted a source that stated that muscles require from between something like 30 hours up to 96 hours to rebuild. Pete Sisco claims that some highly-trained lifters go for weeks between workouts! For most of us, I don't think we can stand to "do nothing" that long, even though it may be a good idea. Perhaps the best routine would be one where you do aerobics (falsely called cardio these days) most of the time just to burn calories, and save the serious lifting for infrequent intervals.
 
Weight training without weights

Hi Fellow muscle heads, I am the famous(for 15 minutes anyway) DVR expert :confused: i.e. Guru. I have used DVR type exercises for most of my life and will continue to do so for several more lifetimes until I get it right. I have also lifted weights for years as well as isometrics. I consider DVR's my favorite type of muscle building exercise, however not the greatest strength building system. But maybe it is. I wish I had stuck to only DVR's all these years, then I could really have some evidence for myself that is of just how effective this protocol is. I know it is but I cant offer anything but anecdotal data as has been already covered on this forum. If you want to tear me apart verbally go for it. It won't be the first time. I do like this forum, however, it is a new one for me and I'm looking forward to your comments, slings and arrows or whatever. Your fellow forum friend, Deltoid
 
Yochanan said:
Shenandoah,

Yes, I actually go 4 days between workouts. If I tried (and I have tried) to work out more frequently, I don't achieve any gains. Daily workouts may be a good idea for novices, but not for people in top form. Because of my age (56, same as yours) my muscles may not build as fast as when I was younger. In a previous article, I quoted a source that stated that muscles require from between something like 30 hours up to 96 hours to rebuild. Pete Sisco claims that some highly-trained lifters go for weeks between workouts! For most of us, I don't think we can stand to "do nothing" that long, even though it may be a good idea. Perhaps the best routine would be one where you do aerobics (falsely called cardio these days) most of the time just to burn calories, and save the serious lifting for infrequent intervals.
Click to expand...

I once read that Ronnie Colman works out one muscle group per week. Actually, this is all pretty timely because, as of Jan 1st I've gone from one day of rest to two days of rest in between exercises. I'm doing a six day a week split routine, and I can feel a difference in strength now. I also feel more of a readiness to attack the exercises.

I know what you mean about the "do nothing". syndrome. Drives me nuts!

And now I see that the famous DELTOID has arrived on the scene! Drumroll, please! As I had previously stated in one of my less than intelligent posts, Deltoid (geneflect, geneflect) is, so far as I know, THE world's leading expert on Visual Resistance Training, lately coined, Dynamic Visual Resistance, I believe by the renown John Peterson

Have at it people!
 
Welcome, Deltoid!

I certainly don't plan to do any bashing mainly because I never heard of DVR before. Do you have a web site so I can investigate it? I'm curious to know why you believe this is the best method for working out. Is it for overall fitness, strength, speed, agility, or what?
 
Isometric Angles Matter!

Exercising at a particular angle using isometrics DOES NOT carry over to other angles, as I found out.

Over a month ago, my stats were:

close "bench press" = 286 lbs
extended "bench press" = 321 lbs

Since I started my test of isometric angles, I actually broke my 264 lb bathroom scale doing leg presses. I had to go out and buy one with a larger capacity - (330 lbs). The new scale is digital, and does not give a reading above 330 lbs.

Today, my stats are:

close "bench press' = 264 lbs
extended "bench press" > 330 lbs (went beyond scale range)

So, I as I got stronger in the extended "bench press", I actually got weaker in the close "bench press"! This is because:

1. I did no close "bench presses" for over a month.
2. The extended "bench press" had NO effect on the close "bench press".

Conclusion: You need to perform isometric exercises at different angles, just as the experts wrote.
 
Uhm first of all, working out doesn't decrease your height growth at ALL. I've talked to my biology teacher, doctor, and SURGEON. I think i have the right resources.
 
does shoveling snow build good muscles?...I can alway feel it in my lats when doing it.
 
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