4 Ways You Can Add Isometric Exercises To Your Current Routine

I've always been a fan of Isometrics no only for building superior strength but to learn how to focus on a single point without moving a muscle. When done right, Isometrics can increase your strength, create vitality & health, give you an incredible body and doesn't take up much of your day to get awesome results. There are different ways to include Isometrics but here are a few main ones to get you going......

1. Use Isometrics as a finisher:
Isometric Exercises are intense and build strength quickly. By adding an isometric whole body exercise to the end of your workout you fatigue the entire body to a greater degree.
What do I mean by Whole Body Isometrics?There are several isometric exercises that incorporate the entire body. Try this for example. Stand next to a wall. Place your hands on the wall about chest level. Get in a low lunge position and push against the wall with all of your strength.
Did you feel your whole body engage? I bet you did. You’ll feel it from your calves and quads up to your shoulders and arms.
Do this exercise for 30-60 seconds as a “finisher” to your current routine and you’ll be blasted.

2. Use Isometrics in your Super Sets:
A super set is a combination of exercises that you do immediately without taking a rest in between.
One example is doing push ups and pull ups. You start off doing a set of push ups then after you fatigue you go straight into pull ups. That’s a super set because you do one exercise after the other.
However, try adding an isometric into the mix and you’ll increase the difficulty of your super set. For instance, you can add palm pushes right after you do push ups and isometric pull ups after the normal pull ups.
Here’s how to do palm pushes. Place your hands together in a prayer position. Push your hands together as tightly as you can. Do it for 30 seconds. This works the chest muscle group which is why you would want to do it right after the push ups.
Here’s how to do isometric pull ups. Lift yourself up on a pull up bar and hold the position with your elbows at a 45 degree angle. Do it as long as you can. This works the back muscles which is why you would want to do it right after the normal pull ups.
Adding both isometric exercises to your super set will fatigue your muscles so much more quickly.

3. Include Isometrics To Your Drop Sets:
A drop set is a series of exercises that are slightly less difficult than the previous exercise. Each exercise works the same muscle group but you recruit more muscle fibers and tear them after each step.
Most drop sets are used in combination with weights. Let’s take dumbbell curls which work the biceps, as an example.
A typical drop set is to start with a weight that you can do for 8-12 reps. Then once you fatigue fully, you grab a lighter weight and try to do as many as you can. Then you keep repeating this process until you can’t even lift a 10-15 lb dumbbell.
Try this: After you drop down in weight, while doing a drop set, lift your arms so they are in a 90 degree angle and squeeze them as hard as you can for 30 seconds. Do this before each drop and the pump will be amazing.

4. Do Isometrics During Your Recovery Period:
Exercise programs that are focused on strength or muscular gains need to incorporate rest days. Your body needs time to recover and “take a break” from very intense physical activity.
Isometric exercises can be done on active recovery days to help recover from typical strength programs.

I don’t recommend that you do a 30 minute isometric routine on your off days. Yet, you can certainly spend 5-10 minutes moving through some isometric postures to keep your muscles engaged.
If you’re interested in seeing a full 8 week isometric training plan to help you build strength and size, check out my fitness buddy Todd’s Isometric Strength program. Its super intense!

There you have it to get you started in your Isometric Training. Remember to ease up on the tension at first because Isometrics can be very exhausting. Build yourself up and that Isometrics can be used for Muscle Control, Speed Strength and many more.
8 Week Isometric Strength Training Program 

Starting Out With Sledgehammer Training

            

          A friend of mine asked me the other day he was interested in working with Sledgehammers and wanted to know what exercises and weight to start with on the hammer? I gave him a little bit of it because that was what I could figure out to say at the time. To me, it’s a lot of fun and has many benefits in terms of muscle building, strengthening the tendons and building great lung power; but it’s also very demanding and when you start out too fast or too much weight it’ll hit you hard.

            To give you some ideas; I've worked with different types of hammers, the ones you get like at home depot, the Epic Sledge, Thor’s Hammer and others so each one has a different feel or a different set of ways to move with the hammer. Just the basic swing on a tire is crazy enough as it is but there are other exercises that don’t always require striking. When you work with a long implement, the leverage factor will be a bigger point to look at because the weight shifts and you have to move your body to where the weight is in order to move it.

            Some people like using the Mace and although it’s very useful in many ways, I like using a sledgehammer better because it has a better interest in what you can do in terms of lever work and working with weight at a more odd angle. The Mace has more of a rounded ball so it has a smoother way of moving, the Sledge has more of a 4 sided shape like a rectangle or square as the head of the hammer. When you start out, you want to feel how it works in your hands, how your body shifts with the weight and try different things and no matter what you try, your grip will be a factor. If you don’t have a good grip you won’t last too long.

            Start out with a good 7-10 hammer to get the feel for it. There’s a DVD you can get from Bud Jeffries that is part of his Monster Conditioning Program specific to Sledgehammer Training. If you don’t have a tire that’s fine you can still get great benefit from sledge training. The exercises you can do are nearly the same as if lifting a barbell or dumbbell but the weight is shifted to one side so you have to work the stabilizing muscles and your grip needs to be strong and tight. Here’s a website that shows certain exercises although done with a Mace you can do the same with a sledge. Play and experiment with various reps and sets.

            I highly recommend the Sledgehammers from Stronger Grip because if you want to add weight to the hammer; you can put in shot led or steel shot otherwise if you use a hammer like from home depot, it’s expensive to buy more hammers and prices vary depending on how heavy the hammer is. I also recommend you do get a tire because once you get the ground work for non-tire exercises you’ll eventually want to strike it. You can find tires at a junk yard that no one wants anymore or you can get Half Tires that take up less space and have better strikes to work on.

            When you work on getting good with the sledgehammer, your body will begin to change, your muscles will have more definition, your tendons will become stronger and your breathing will skyrocket because it takes strength to use the hammer the way these guys can show you and the heavier the hammer, the more your breathing becomes a factor. Your grip will become much stronger and have that crushing strength. Take your body and mind to Super Muscle level and watch your strength skyrocket in ways you haven’t had before.

An Epic Review

          

            This is a special treat because I rarely ever write reviews for a certain product so today you’ll get an un-cut and uncensored review of the Epic Sledgehammer from Stronger Grip. Granted in this review I will not hold back how I feel about this Hammer and why it is one of the most awesome tools in no nonsense grip strength and conditioning that it is not to be underestimated.

            When you have a Hammer of this size & power and you have it in your hands; it strikes into your very soul because its beauty is without equal and its strength is unmatched. There are many great tools in the world of strongman but like with Highlander, there can be only one that hits you with ferocity and the power to take you down if you don’t have the guts to withstand it.

            It is not to be underestimated. Sure it looks awesome and has a mystic to it that even the folk legend John Henry can smile about but at the same time, you will either be handle it or you won’t and if you can’t, you don’t have anyone to blame but yourself. People believe that to get strong you need weights or machines to do the work and slug off anything else that seems to extreme or not enough for them and I say bullshit. This one tool has the power to give you crushing grip that be used in many sports like Football, Baseball, Hockey, Golf, Wrestling, MMA you name it because when you strike it at a high volume or work it in different positions it tackles the mind more than anything else.

            I've held it in my hands and did quite a few exercises that don’t require a tire and I can tell you first hand it is brutal and your lower arm will get sore. It’s not a tool for just sports but to build that functional and enduring strength with a powerful grip, hand-eye coordination, lung capacity increase, shaping the body of a man with mighty tendons and super muscle. When you begin to train with this bad boy, your body will never be the same again. It takes effort to swing it, it takes to endure it and it strengthens your mind in ways most tools can’t. This Hammer is a tool of the gods that only one man has the guts to create and does it with style and class (and a bit of nerdyness) and that’s Ryan Pitts. He has built some of the most powerful tools in the world of grip strength and if Thor, Zeus and many of mythology’s famous gods were around today, they’d look to him to build the strength for the people and the strength that we all have within us.

            It is up to you if you have the guts to take on a challenge that could very well be the most fun and powerful challenge in your quest for physical strength.