Static contraction training a scam

Maxick

I experimented for over a year, using static contraction training exclusively. This is training with the heaviest weights you can manage, over only the strongest range of your motion (the last inch or two of , say, a bench press.)

I would load the bar in my power rack, and squat it, press it, curl it, whatever, once per week! That was it- you need to let your "muscles rebuild"! says Pete Sisco, the expounder of the static contraction training principle...

I did indeed get so I could push, and support statically some very massive poundages. I think I gained the most, though, from pressing the bar into the pins of the rack, isometrically, for some seconds before letting up.

I also gained muscle mass, and fat. Most of the mass you'll gain using this method will be in your thighs, butt, chest and, unfortunately, your belly.

If you've ever seen Pete Sisco, you can envision what this training will do for you... think old Russian olympic lifter...

Before that, I used Superslow training system, wherein you lift a weight 10 seconds up, 10 seconds down. Very taxing, and very effective. But, again, Ken Hutchens, the originator, suggests you train perhaps one time per week... you will gain, but in the fashion of Static contraction/big butt/gut training. Ken was on the right trail, but he is reinventing the wheel...

John E. Peterson has never lost the training of the olden times; early 1900's era strongman training: isometrics, Visualized resistance (aka "muscle control"), calisthenics...

Visualized resistance, John calls it Dynamic Visualized Resistance, or DVR's, is particularly intrigueing:

You imagine, whilst moving your body through various movements, the resistance, and move in slow motion against your own, self-imposed resistance! Sounds wacky, but the more you practice it, the more control over your muscles, and the greater strength you get!

As near as I can tell, this was originally done my MAXICK, a german strongman from 100 years ago; he built his strength using this method exclusively. (And his physique, which was also amazing!) You can check him out on the MAXALDING website, which is what his training system was called.

www.maxalding.co.uk/

Exercises are there, lots and lots of information; some of it fascinating.

I saw one photo of Maxick, holding a beer glass in one hand, holding a 240 pound man over his head with one hand, and not spilling the full glass of beer! I'll look for it, and post it when I do...

And Maxick only weighed about 150 pounds!! No fat butt/gut on this boy!!

So, check out the real deals; go back to the future!

www.transformetrics.com

MY (and Charlie's) THOUGHTS ON WEIGHT TRAINING

If you read my post yesterday, you'd think:

"Jay! If aerobics are not the way to go, I guess I should lift weights. Right?"

Well... kind of, but not really...

I started out with weight training. You get real results all right. But you also really strain your joints and connective tissues, and you have to be really careful; especially as you age. And the stronger you get, the MORE dangerous your training becomes since you start dealing with really heavy poundage!

You need to start working out less, and still less frequently, since the overload on your body is progressively more intense as you get stronger. Personally, I progressed from the standard multi- set training day after day(with injuries getting more and more frequent)- to HIT (High Intensity Training) done every 3 days at first... then 5... then once per week.

When even this was too much, I went to Superslow training, once per week. Ken Hutchins is the brain behind this protocol of training: Very grueling, yet effective as can be! 10 seconds up, 10 down, on each and every rep.
I still like superslow protocol on chins and dips.

Next, I slowed it down even more by going to static contraction training as prescribed by Sisco and Little. I'd press into the pins (on my power rack, natch!) with the bar maxed out to my ultimate poundage and only move the bar through my strongest range of motion and then push into the immovable pins for about 5 seconds.

Sisco and Little recommend you only do this workout about as often as you'd get a haircut to
assure adequate recovery time. And it does work! You get remarkably stronger... at holding a maximum poundage in your strongest range of motion.

Unfortunately, this is truly a "one trick pony" type of accomplishment:

There is very little carry-over of either full-range strength or in the improvement of your physique!

I report this after having done the "Static Contraction Workout" for well over a full year.

And so I've gone from doing a conventional, fast-paced rep, multi- weight training exercise program, multiple times per week, to high- intensity weight workouts, 2X per week, to Superslow workouts, 1X per week, to partial lifts, once every two weeks....

So, where am I now? What really works?

I've come to a complete STOP!

Isometrics. Almost daily. And "Power calisthenics": pushups, situps, chinups, & dips. And "Dynamic Visualized Resistance", as described by Charles Atlas in the 1930's (and the Greeks in 500 B.C.!)

As I said previously: Our future is in our past.

I'm sure you didn't expect it to be so far in the past

Don't worry: I'll give you some real exercises soon. For now, just try to do pushups, as many as you can, in sets; until you reach 100 for the day. Then take a day or two off. Then, do it again, with fewer sets. (Instead of 20 sets of 5 pushups, try for 10 sets of 10... throughout the day...)

This will really improve you "aerobically", strength-wise, and also aesthetically.

Back to the future!

Jay