ISOMETRICS ON A ROPE: All the burn, WITHOUT THE IRON!, By: Mark Sias, Sports training expert Bionicplyometrics.com
Here’s a new method to build functional strength & jumping power fast! You won’t need any expensive fancy pieces of fad equipment to make leaps and bounds in your physique, power output (vertical jump & sprint speed), and strength levels. It seems most training equipment that comes around lately is aimed at fleecing your wallet rather that producing real results. Jumpsoles, strength shoe, calf isolator, etc. I understand most young athletes don’t have access to weights but strength training is a must. While I fully realize that impressive gains can be made with plyometrics alone, sooner or later you will get tapped out because you can’t produce anymore power that your capable of absorbing because of lack of strength. Let me use my friend & basketball star noted for his slam dunk prowess, Vince Carter for an example: In High school he had a 36” vertical jump with no resistance training at all, only plyometrics. Not bad! But after going to UNC and building a new strength base to develop more power he added another ½ foot to his leap! So what can you do? I answer you with… Isometrics!
Up till now isometrics have been dismissed because of a simple flaw. They only build strength in the range of motion that they are held in, but in the problem lies the solution! Multi angled contractions. More specifically about 3 per muscle group. The contractions only need to be held for 10 seconds maximally at each angle. So what this means is you can get a biceps blast in only 30 seconds of exercise, 2 days a week! Beat that Bowflex! The workouts will be quick, and very effective. I challenge you to 1 month of this workout and see what progress you have made. I see a lot of amateur programs posted on the web and my problem is this, you need to improve your strength -to-bodyweight ratio, so please quick fooling around with these lightweight, ankle weight, high reps non-sense that isn’t going to give you what you really want!
Before we go any further let me make a couple quick points for some of my readers will be skeptical. Not to many years ago a study was done with several elite level male gymnasts. The researchers had each gymnast, all of whom have never set foot in a weight room or so much as lifted a plate hit the bench press for a maximum. What they found out was astonishing! Every athlete was able to put up 315 lbs. easily for several reps. How was that possible with no prior weight training?
The answer is 2-fold. As an elite coach I can tell you that there are only 3 basic training methods employed in our gymnasiums: 1) In early development basic calisthenics. 2) In advanced levels plyometrics, even for the upperbody and 3) Yes, a lot of isometric training! You see isometrics at a peak contractile effort also cause you to innervate of much of the deeper motor units in muscles you can’t get doing any Nancy-boy light routines! This is the second reason for the impressive power. My athletes are using more of their available muscles, only do to this nature of training!
O.K., having said that lets get on with the program. All you are going to need is a 6ft long piece of rope, I’ll show you how to make it work for you. In my illustrations I am using an old karate belt, because it is thick and very durable. The rope will act as your resistance & immovable object. Some common isometrics like holding a position, or pause in a rep, are not what we are after. Those are iso’s , and they work but what we are talking about doing now are maximum force applied for 10 seconds to an immovable object! This is a far superior method that yields much faster overall results. For each exercise you will need to do only 1 set ideally in 3 positions: 1st is at the very beginning angle of the movement like the bottom of the squat & is usually where you are weakest. 2nd contraction will be in the middle of the movement, & 3rd close to the peak of the range of motion. This makes sure that the muscles in that exercise are fully worked and the strength will directly carry-over to a specific motion. Follow so far? Our rope is made stationary by either standing on it for some drills or tying it to something stationary in a few cases. I realize that some examples below are upperbody that you don’t need to do, just read them for example purposes so you an apply them to lowerbody isometrics.
Iso-biceps curl: Standing upright, wrap the rope around your left or right hand (which ever you choose to do first) and stand on the remaining cord, thus making it stationary. The 1st position the arm is only slightly bent like 10 degrees from full extension. Squeeze & pull with all your might for just ten seconds, then relax. Rest for a couple seconds, then move your arm into the next position at ½ way, about 90 degrees and perform the same! 3rd and finally hold is at the top, almost peak flexion point. That’s it, now you can repeat this process for the opposite arm. Just simply step on the rope at the desired length you wish to provide resistance at. This is the basic concept for every exercise, I will go through more examples, so you get the idea. But with a little imagination you can see how the entire body can be covered in minutes!
Iso-tricep press: For this one, start with the arm bent at full range behind your back with rope in hand, and try to straighten the cord. Same as before, you next want to open the arm to a ½ way angle and repeat the contraction. Next a final hold at near peak extension of the arm overhead, then switch arms.
Iso-delt holds: The shoulders have more complex movements so here are a few examples to give them a complete workout. Exercise #1 is for the posterior deltoid. Hold the rope in both hands in front of your chest, start at shoulder width apart. This is similar to the “chest expander” movement, as you will try forcing arms away from each other. As with before, widen the angle by moving your arms further apart for another contraction, then a 3rd position. Exercise #2 will target the anterior deltoid, 1 arm at a time. Hold the rope in hand at a level just above waist, stand on the end & pull! 2nd position at chest height, for this hold you are trying to raise the arm up overhead from in front of the body. Finally the arm will be positioned above the head, closer to being fully opened. Exercise #3 will follow all the same procedure but from the side of the body for a lateral deltoid lift.
Iso-chest pulls: Like the delts, the pecs can be developed for various movements. Here’s a couple examples. The 1st is similar to a cable cross movement, you need to tie 1 end of the rope to a stationary object like a door handle or any thing. Grabbing the cord again, pull inward towards your center just like a cable fly. Change the angles after 10 seconds of isometrics a couple more times. Always make sure at least 1 of your positions of hold, is at a weak angle of a certain lift for you. This example can also be altered to have an upward or downward focus to it as well. Another chest movement with a stationary rope is the iso-pullover. Do this by lying supine on the floor or bench and do a isometric pull downward across the torso.
Iso-abs: From that same position or on a Swiss ball with the rope tied to an immovable object & the other ends in both hands perform a sit-up hold at 3 angles. Then you can target the obliques as well by lying later recumbent left then right and simply doing a sideways sit-up hold.
Iso-deadlift: Stand on the cord with both feet, wrap the hands with the ends, start at parallel with your spine erect and try standing! This is sure to jack up your squat max! Most athletes are weak at the bottom. Hold this for 10 sec. then onto the next 2 angles. This one is the Pinnacle exercises for vertical leap improvement!
Iso-kicks: If you are into martial arts you’ll love these 3.They are sure to improve foot speed and kick technique! To target your Glutes, the Hip flexors, Illiopsoas, Hip Abductors, & Hamstrings you can do these kick-holds on the tied down rope or you can tie one end to a leg/foot while standing on the rope. The kicks should be done front, back, and lateral to target the bulk of the muscles in the legs!
I think by now you are getting the idea and virtually limitless number of exercises that can be done in this method. Let me mention a couple more and you can go from there!
Isometrics shrug hold for traps.
Isometrics bent over row for lats.
Isometrics 1leg curl for biceps femoris.
Isometrics Dorsi-flexion for tibialis anterior. Great for shin splints.
Isometrics stiff-legged dead lift for spinal erectors. A jumpers must!
Isometrics squeezing the rope bundle for the forearms & even Iso-wrist curls!
Isometrics calf-raise for plantar flexion. Another jumpers must!
There you have it! Fast & easy muscles on the go! A whole-body strength program in ten minutes that works like the most expensive of devises. You’ll augment any explosive power training you are doing & be jumping much higher with these added to the mix. As usual I have a plethora of isometric tricks I haven’t yet let out of the bag that work even better yet but that’s too much reading for now. Check with my site in the near future. I may release a download ebook with more exercises and detailed photos relatively inexpensive! And as always feel free to contact me with any exercise & physiology questions you may have! If your happy with the results you’ve noticed trying this you haven’t even scratched the surface! You’d definitely do right by yourself to pick up a copy of my best selling download “BIONIC JUMPING POWER”. While made for dramatically improving leaping ability, you can learn to gain the total body power necessary to enhance any sport!
