Boris Bachmann
Level 8 Valued Member
Cool experiment - I think there's a lot to be mined from isometrics for a lot of applications.
Cool experiment - I think there's a lot to be mined from isometrics for a lot of applications.
I agree. I almost (impulsively) bought it after reading the book Ultimate Isometrics Manual by Paul Wade (good but essentially a Isochain sales pitch). I think it could be a useful piece of equipment for some, but I was able to buy a power rack for essentially the same price.@Ian CL
The $500 pricetag on that is just too much for what it does, and the contraption is a bit too limiting in what holds it can accommodate.
I don't mind the idea of accurate measurements - if it could send them to an app on a smartphone would be ideal. The info that would be most helpful - the initial tension spike (and how rapidly it developed) and the decay (or increase) per unit time are the important bits, am not sure it can provide that.
@Ian CL
The $500 pricetag on that is just too much for what it does, and the contraption is a bit too limiting in what holds it can accommodate.
I don't mind the idea of accurate measurements - if it could send them to an app on a smartphone would be ideal. The info that would be most helpful - the initial tension spike (and how rapidly it developed) and the decay (or increase) per unit time are the important bits, am not sure it can provide that.
I completely agree that $500 is a crazy price, that's why I was so surprised to see that the important part of the unit is being sold stand alone now for $200: Isochain Stand-Alone Handle | DD
That means they're charging $300 for a chain, spring, and base plate...
as an aside:I might be missing something(s) here but to me its brutally overpriced
I'm certain the price reflects the actual cost of the specific materials involved and the digital hardware carries its own supplier driven price, no argument there. I used to build and sell my own tool and knife sharpening hardware that was created, finished, packaged entirely by me aside from some higher end tooling I couldn't do in house. I did all the upfront design and R&D. It was expensive to get going.as an aside:
I once did a certain amount of research on what it would take for me to sell my own wares.
And, between warrantying the manufactured item, developing processes, tooling, parts supply relationships, fabrication, etc., for those items, and guaranteeing their performance under adverse (sometimes abusive) use by the customer(this may seem unreasonable but it's the way of the world sometimes); I would say this price, for this product, seems quite reasonable to me.
But, back to Isometrics:
I'm terribly interested in finding out the results of your block of isometric training because I believe it may confirm my basic thesis statement on what is most important for so-called fitness.
my core thesis statement:
It is most important to expose the skeleton and muscles to peak tension events.
The tissues are unaware of (and unconcerned with) the reason for those events.
They know not and care not whether it comes from bands, or barbells, or the mere pull of gravity upon itself.
They only speak and understand the language of tension.
So would you do things like ummmm ...... Try to push your car up the driveway with the handbrake on ? Get under the car and try to do a bench press ? Try to lift the car up by squatting down put your hands under the towbar and pushing up with leg muscles ?That's why I recommend only pitting lower vs 100% immovable resistance, or upper vs lower, where you know and can easily demonstrate a winner/loser relationship.
So would you do things like ummmm ...... Try to push your car up the driveway with the handbrake on ? Get under the car and try to do a bench press ? Try to lift the car up by squatting down put your hands under the towbar and pushing up with leg muscles ?
Am interested because my physio currently has got me doing isometrics with one arm fighting the other in various orientations in an attempt to strengthen wrist and forearm to assist with golfers elbow. I was wondering about substituting immovable objects instead of pitting my arms against eachother.
Approx. 55 years ago my Mum had a book called something like the Power of Isometrics where they did things like stand inside a doorframe (immovable frame) and try to push the lintel away, or raise the hands laterally against the sides of the frame I cannot remember much more about that book.
That is def a possibility although ultimately I still believe one should measure using some other means entirely and not bother with scales.Could you fit something like this somewhere on your diy equipment ?
Gorilla 300kg Crane Scale thats $78 Australian so $50ish US
Bluetooth ones are available on Alibaba - would enable automatic recording on phone perhaps ?
Thanks for the update. Very interesting stuff. Pardon me if you mentioned it before, but is the HIIT component just for conditioning and fat burn, or is there a strength relation?For the curious, from the original plan I've morphed to a 3x weekly schedule, 4 repeats per hold for 10 seconds on, 30 seconds off, followed by 2 intervals of jumprope HIIT at 12 seconds on, 30 seconds off. Chopped one repeat and reduced the hold time from the original plan.
Thanks for the update. Very interesting stuff. Pardon me if you mentioned it before, but is the HIIT component just for conditioning and fat burn, or is there a strength relation?
Also as a side note, there is some stuff on doing isometrics against immovable objects for strength in the book ”Never Gymless” by Ross Enamait. I don’t remember exactly what it states, but there were some pretty interesting usage of door frames and walls as something to push against. You might find it worthwhile to check out.
Read Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity, Isometric Chapter. He makes an interesting observation on the multiple angles:@Pet,
The literature doesn't really support the notion that an Iso hold needs to be done at multiple angles to gain strength throughout. Testing showed that training at longer lengths produced comparable strength gains, and training multiple angles would be too time consuming.
I have only been running this for three weeks and two of those were not "complete" as-scheduled weeks, missing several sessions. Am planning to do a quick test in mid Oct. As I sit typing, my:
- arthritic knee, arthritic lower back, inflammation in my neck all feel pretty good. In case of my knee, better than it has in 3-4 months.
- whole body feels pretty pumped even though I haven't trained since yesterday if you don't count the short jump rope HIIT I did at 6:30am. There is a general "heat" sensation coming off my body I know well, that tells me if I want to put on mass I only need to eat more.