Post by ilya on Mar 24, 2024 5:58:31 GMT
This thread has kind of been long overdue, because I've struggled for years, trying many different systems and idea, and having very little success. Every time that I was about ready to give up, I suddenly had a new idea of something to try, hoping that this time it would work and that I would actually have something positive and helpful to contribute rather than having to ask for help. I think that I've finally figured it out, and now I actually feel pretty confident in making this thread. Also, I told mr Potatohead about a year ago that I would tell him my opinion on isometrics, so this thread is also going to serve that purpose. The first part will be a bit of a fitness biography, so that people know what I've tried and why I feel like what I'm doing right now is better. If you don't care about that part, feel free to skip it and just go straight to "what I'm doing now", it's not a big deal.
What I've done in the past
I was born in 1991, and for the most part I had a pretty physically normal childhood. I played outside, but didn't do anything special. My first true experience with fitness was when my parents made me join a soccer team. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I think it was before primary school. I have a vague memory of just jogging around in the grass outside at night with the rest of the team. This was when I learned that I hated endurance running, and I immediately wanted to quit. Fortunately, my parents didn't force me to keep going. This trend continued in primary school and in secondary school with gym classes. Most of what we did was team sports that involved a lot of running, and I hated it. By the time I was about 14-15, I had given up on even trying to participate. Sadly, gym classes had managed to convince me that exercise wasn't for me and that I was better off not moving.
This continued until I was in my early 20s. By then, I was a mess physically and I felt kind of like an old man, especially in my lower back. One day, while browsing another forum, I came across a link to the "one hundred push-ups" website, and I checked it out because I was bored. Out of curiosity, I decided to try to see how many push-ups I could do, and I was shocked to find out that I could only do 3, and not even in good form (and keep in mind that I was underweight at the time too). Because of this, I decided to start the program. At first, progress felt extremely fast, and within just a few weeks I could already do 40 good form push-ups, and I was loving the program, but then I reached a plateau that I could absolutely not bust through. I did what the program advised, which is to keep repeating the week you're stuck in, but it was hopeless. Frustrated, but still determined, I started looking for alternative push-ups to get stronger, like diamond, archer, etc... I never picked up the program again, but I know that at some point I had a PR of 60 continuous good form pushups.
By then, I felt like I was already too far into fitness to give up, but I was bored of push-ups, and wanted a more complete program. The first one that I tried was Convict Conditioning, by Paul Wade. This program cured my lower back pain almost instantly with the bridges, and it has never been a problem since then. It also made me able to do handstand pushups (I have a PR of 19). Overall, it was good, but reached plateaus again, and eventually got bored. I also started seeing flaws with calisthenics in general: I didn't like that you had to progress by changing the exercises, and I didn't like that your own bodyweight contributes immensely to the difficulty (the lighter you are, the easier).
The next program I committed to was Matt Fury's Combat Conditioning. There's not much to say about it, but I did feel like it was good. It was boring and tedious, but I felt really limber and agile after a while of doing it. The next few years is when it gets chaotic, and it's all kind of a blur. Bored with calisthenics, I started looking into alternative methods, and I came across the concept of isometrics. I instantly became fascinated with it, because it had none of the things that I disliked about calisthenics, while still being very minimalistic. I downloaded a ton of books about it, but I never really liked any of the programs. This I started constantly going from one program to another, and tried pretty much everything, Charles Atlas, Maxick, Sandow, Alois Swoboda, Chinese stuff, self-resistance, DVR, lots of calisthenics, Dynaflex, etc... It's also in this period that I read John's Isometric Power Revolution, which eventually lead me to here. I didn't like his program because I thought it was too long, but I have to say that nothing ever got me hyped for isometrics as much as his intro.
What I'm doing now
At the beginning of this year, I was about to give up and make this thread, but I hate giving up, so I took another look at my library of PDF books and decided to check out "The ultimate isometrics manual" by Paul Wade. It's a book that I got in 2021, and I had read it, but maybe not with enough attention. Reading it again, I started noticing things about isometrics that I had never understood before, with the most important one being the rise up time. This is something that almost all isometrics program recommend, but the problem is that they never explain why you need to do this, and because of this I assumed that it was some sort of security measure for joints or blood pressure. Because of this, I always avoided doing it, because I thought I didn't need it. I also hated how sleazy it felt, because there's all these programs that promise results in "** seconds", but those promises always exclude the rise up time, which pisses me off. Just be honest and admit that you're asking for 10 seconds contraction, not 6 seconds ones. The rise up time is still a contraction.
Anyway, when reading the part about the rise up time in Wade's book, I decided to check the source for it, which lead me to a page in Verkhoshansky's book, Supertraining. There, I finally learned the real reason for the rise up time, which is that muscles perform better when they were already working than when they start from rest. Suddenly, things started to make sense, and I felt ready to give it a try again. The book contains a ton of different info and programs, but what Wade recommends is to do 6 contraction of 10 seconds (4 seconds rise up, 6 peak), 3 times a week. He also recommends not working out for more than 10-15m a day. I decided to give all of this a fair chance and avoid deviating. Since I don't have an Isochain, the only thing I had to improvise with was the choice of exercises. To stay within the time limit while still exercising most muscles, I went with:
1- Exercise number 2 of the Set of Monk's isometrics (pushing against your thighs with your arms and chest, resisting with your abs).
2- Isometrics deadlift (against a low table with stuff stacked on).
3- Bicep Curls
The first evidence of the program working happened about 2 weeks in. The first times that I was doing the monk exercise, I could only feel it in my abs and hips, but after about 2 weeks, I could suddenly feel it in my triceps and elbows. Later on, I started feeling it in my chest too. The same thing happened with the deadlift; initially, I could only feel it in my fingers and forearms, but one day I could suddenly feel it in thighs. Another day, in my trapezius, then in my butt, and finally in my lower back. I figured that this was evidence that the weak parts of my body were catching up the strong ones by struggling against them. The definitive proof that the program works happened when, about 2 weeks ago, I was performing the isometric deadlift on the table, and then the table went up. That's when I knew that I was definitely becoming stronger. Since then, I've also noticed regular tasks becoming easier, like carrying trash bags or clothes baskets.
The problem with what I'm doing now
I said earlier that I've been following the program without deviating, but it's not entirely true. Not even a month into it, I started feeling quite achy. This is nothing new for me, it happened many times with previous programs. I think that my ability to recover is probably lower than normal. Either that, or my ability to contract is better than normal and so I tire myself out faster. Either way, I could see where this is what going, and I knew I couldn't continue, so I started experimenting a little, first with taking more rest days when I felt bad, and then with doing fewer sets (4 instead of 6). I'm thinking that for me, 4 might actually be better than 6, because I'm still getting stronger, while feeling less achy. The data in the book itself shows that 4 sets actually leads to very close results to 6 in the first place. Next week, I think I'd like to try doing 2 days of 9 sets, just to see what happens, because recently I saw a video on youtube making a convincing argument that volume is what matters the most, but it doesn't matter how many rest days you take, so long as you get the volume in the week. I also noticed that it adds to to 180 seconds in a week divided in 2 days, which is the same as the 30-30-30 method that I've seen advertised here before. In any case, I do think that Wade's book is fantastic, and that the method works, but that I just need to tweak it a little bit to avoid overworking myself. I would recommend it to anybody here who isn't happy with his program.
I'd like to conclude with a short ranking of the methods I've tried.
1- Isometrics: My favorite. Very convenient, works very well when done right, easy to tweak.
2- Calisthenics: Will definitely make you stronger, but I personally find it tedious, and I think it's overall not the best if you're slim like I am.
3- Yielding isometrics: Does work. I became able to do handstand pushups by gaining strength solely from doing static handstands. The problem is that it has basically the same flaws as calisthenics, while being even more tedious and less cool. It definitely has a purpose in some cases, though.
4- Dynamic Virtual Resistance: In my experience, garbage. The only system that I feel actually made me weaker. I always end up very achy without gaining anything. Some people do swear by it, and it's possible that I've just been overdoing it, as I had a tendency to do (because obviously, if a program isn't working it's just because you're not trying hard enough).
?- Weightlifting: I've never done it before, but I feel like it would probably end up below isometrics and above calisthenics.
What I've done in the past
I was born in 1991, and for the most part I had a pretty physically normal childhood. I played outside, but didn't do anything special. My first true experience with fitness was when my parents made me join a soccer team. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I think it was before primary school. I have a vague memory of just jogging around in the grass outside at night with the rest of the team. This was when I learned that I hated endurance running, and I immediately wanted to quit. Fortunately, my parents didn't force me to keep going. This trend continued in primary school and in secondary school with gym classes. Most of what we did was team sports that involved a lot of running, and I hated it. By the time I was about 14-15, I had given up on even trying to participate. Sadly, gym classes had managed to convince me that exercise wasn't for me and that I was better off not moving.
This continued until I was in my early 20s. By then, I was a mess physically and I felt kind of like an old man, especially in my lower back. One day, while browsing another forum, I came across a link to the "one hundred push-ups" website, and I checked it out because I was bored. Out of curiosity, I decided to try to see how many push-ups I could do, and I was shocked to find out that I could only do 3, and not even in good form (and keep in mind that I was underweight at the time too). Because of this, I decided to start the program. At first, progress felt extremely fast, and within just a few weeks I could already do 40 good form push-ups, and I was loving the program, but then I reached a plateau that I could absolutely not bust through. I did what the program advised, which is to keep repeating the week you're stuck in, but it was hopeless. Frustrated, but still determined, I started looking for alternative push-ups to get stronger, like diamond, archer, etc... I never picked up the program again, but I know that at some point I had a PR of 60 continuous good form pushups.
By then, I felt like I was already too far into fitness to give up, but I was bored of push-ups, and wanted a more complete program. The first one that I tried was Convict Conditioning, by Paul Wade. This program cured my lower back pain almost instantly with the bridges, and it has never been a problem since then. It also made me able to do handstand pushups (I have a PR of 19). Overall, it was good, but reached plateaus again, and eventually got bored. I also started seeing flaws with calisthenics in general: I didn't like that you had to progress by changing the exercises, and I didn't like that your own bodyweight contributes immensely to the difficulty (the lighter you are, the easier).
The next program I committed to was Matt Fury's Combat Conditioning. There's not much to say about it, but I did feel like it was good. It was boring and tedious, but I felt really limber and agile after a while of doing it. The next few years is when it gets chaotic, and it's all kind of a blur. Bored with calisthenics, I started looking into alternative methods, and I came across the concept of isometrics. I instantly became fascinated with it, because it had none of the things that I disliked about calisthenics, while still being very minimalistic. I downloaded a ton of books about it, but I never really liked any of the programs. This I started constantly going from one program to another, and tried pretty much everything, Charles Atlas, Maxick, Sandow, Alois Swoboda, Chinese stuff, self-resistance, DVR, lots of calisthenics, Dynaflex, etc... It's also in this period that I read John's Isometric Power Revolution, which eventually lead me to here. I didn't like his program because I thought it was too long, but I have to say that nothing ever got me hyped for isometrics as much as his intro.
What I'm doing now
At the beginning of this year, I was about to give up and make this thread, but I hate giving up, so I took another look at my library of PDF books and decided to check out "The ultimate isometrics manual" by Paul Wade. It's a book that I got in 2021, and I had read it, but maybe not with enough attention. Reading it again, I started noticing things about isometrics that I had never understood before, with the most important one being the rise up time. This is something that almost all isometrics program recommend, but the problem is that they never explain why you need to do this, and because of this I assumed that it was some sort of security measure for joints or blood pressure. Because of this, I always avoided doing it, because I thought I didn't need it. I also hated how sleazy it felt, because there's all these programs that promise results in "** seconds", but those promises always exclude the rise up time, which pisses me off. Just be honest and admit that you're asking for 10 seconds contraction, not 6 seconds ones. The rise up time is still a contraction.
Anyway, when reading the part about the rise up time in Wade's book, I decided to check the source for it, which lead me to a page in Verkhoshansky's book, Supertraining. There, I finally learned the real reason for the rise up time, which is that muscles perform better when they were already working than when they start from rest. Suddenly, things started to make sense, and I felt ready to give it a try again. The book contains a ton of different info and programs, but what Wade recommends is to do 6 contraction of 10 seconds (4 seconds rise up, 6 peak), 3 times a week. He also recommends not working out for more than 10-15m a day. I decided to give all of this a fair chance and avoid deviating. Since I don't have an Isochain, the only thing I had to improvise with was the choice of exercises. To stay within the time limit while still exercising most muscles, I went with:
1- Exercise number 2 of the Set of Monk's isometrics (pushing against your thighs with your arms and chest, resisting with your abs).
2- Isometrics deadlift (against a low table with stuff stacked on).
3- Bicep Curls
The first evidence of the program working happened about 2 weeks in. The first times that I was doing the monk exercise, I could only feel it in my abs and hips, but after about 2 weeks, I could suddenly feel it in my triceps and elbows. Later on, I started feeling it in my chest too. The same thing happened with the deadlift; initially, I could only feel it in my fingers and forearms, but one day I could suddenly feel it in thighs. Another day, in my trapezius, then in my butt, and finally in my lower back. I figured that this was evidence that the weak parts of my body were catching up the strong ones by struggling against them. The definitive proof that the program works happened when, about 2 weeks ago, I was performing the isometric deadlift on the table, and then the table went up. That's when I knew that I was definitely becoming stronger. Since then, I've also noticed regular tasks becoming easier, like carrying trash bags or clothes baskets.
The problem with what I'm doing now
I said earlier that I've been following the program without deviating, but it's not entirely true. Not even a month into it, I started feeling quite achy. This is nothing new for me, it happened many times with previous programs. I think that my ability to recover is probably lower than normal. Either that, or my ability to contract is better than normal and so I tire myself out faster. Either way, I could see where this is what going, and I knew I couldn't continue, so I started experimenting a little, first with taking more rest days when I felt bad, and then with doing fewer sets (4 instead of 6). I'm thinking that for me, 4 might actually be better than 6, because I'm still getting stronger, while feeling less achy. The data in the book itself shows that 4 sets actually leads to very close results to 6 in the first place. Next week, I think I'd like to try doing 2 days of 9 sets, just to see what happens, because recently I saw a video on youtube making a convincing argument that volume is what matters the most, but it doesn't matter how many rest days you take, so long as you get the volume in the week. I also noticed that it adds to to 180 seconds in a week divided in 2 days, which is the same as the 30-30-30 method that I've seen advertised here before. In any case, I do think that Wade's book is fantastic, and that the method works, but that I just need to tweak it a little bit to avoid overworking myself. I would recommend it to anybody here who isn't happy with his program.
I'd like to conclude with a short ranking of the methods I've tried.
1- Isometrics: My favorite. Very convenient, works very well when done right, easy to tweak.
2- Calisthenics: Will definitely make you stronger, but I personally find it tedious, and I think it's overall not the best if you're slim like I am.
3- Yielding isometrics: Does work. I became able to do handstand pushups by gaining strength solely from doing static handstands. The problem is that it has basically the same flaws as calisthenics, while being even more tedious and less cool. It definitely has a purpose in some cases, though.
4- Dynamic Virtual Resistance: In my experience, garbage. The only system that I feel actually made me weaker. I always end up very achy without gaining anything. Some people do swear by it, and it's possible that I've just been overdoing it, as I had a tendency to do (because obviously, if a program isn't working it's just because you're not trying hard enough).
?- Weightlifting: I've never done it before, but I feel like it would probably end up below isometrics and above calisthenics.
