Isometric Exercises: Bodybuilding Secrets From The Strongmen Of Yesteryear

Before Charles Atlas, aka Angelo Siciliano, became famous promoting his exercise course called…Dynamic Tension, there were many strongmen of yesteryear who used body weight (isotonic) and isometric exercise.

One of these individuals was Alexander Zass, better known as “The Amazing Samson”.

(Zass, born in Poland but lived most of his life in Russia and later as a circus performer lived in Britain after 1924.)

The important thing to note about Alexander Zass was how he developed his belief in the application of isometric exercise. Or as he referred to it, “Maximum Tension.” He believed that this training protocol was superior to any other normal training program used by strongmen of his day and that it included the use of weights in the development of physical strength.

He understood that isometric exercises not only developed muscle strength but also strengthened the tendons and ligaments that are crucial to building strength.

The amazing Samson, who was also billed as “The World’s Strongest Man Alive,” was quoted as saying, “I first aimed to develop the underlying connective tissues rather than the superficial muscles” (Taken from His Instruction Manual: Systems and Methods Samson’s)

He further explained, “I always wanted to develop tendon strength…without tendons, one has no control over the muscles and the body…developing tendons is my secret strength. Muscles alone will not will stop”. horses, but the sinews will and will!

Alexander Zass further claimed in his training manual that bodybuilder type muscles were merely an illusion when it came to strength. Although he did not discourage students from building muscle size, he did instruct them in the practice of tensing the muscles one at a time, then grouping the muscles and tensing as many as possible, all at the same time.

In the use of isometric exercises, he described 3 different methods, and they are the following:

free style

In freestyle, he’s not using gadgets or gadgets, he’s just doing freehand isometrics. He is usually just using his own body.

wall exercises

In this method, you are using a wall or even a tree to provide resistance instead of your own body or body weight.

Isometric exercise device

Here is the ideal or best way to perform isometric exercises. The disadvantages of freestyle and wall exercises is that there is no effective way to measure your strength gains.

And how do you know you’re using 100% or even 70% power on this exercise? That’s where an isometric exercise device like the Tensolator or Bully Xtreme comes into play.

These types of bodybuilding contraction devices will allow you to not only measure your strength gains, but will generally give you more variety in the type and amount of isometric exercises you can perform.

The biggest draw to isometrics is that with a few simple movements and not a lot of time, you can get a full body workout, at home, in your office, or anywhere!