My weight has always had a habit of fluctuating like a lot of people, so consistent weight loss and/or fat loss wasn't always easy. That is until Isometrics started becoming more of a priority. For about a year now I've kept my weight between 260-265, still had good agility, endurance and plenty of strength along with decent conditioning. I still do Animal Moves and use other implements to stay in shape but what has given me more of a fat burning edge and putting on definition has been Isometrics on a consistent basis.
Off and on for a decade and a half I would go through these phases of training and was always fascinated with Isometrics and practiced from hand balancing, hanging, push-up holds on my fists, wall pushes, wall sits, using a strap, bodyweight, holding weight in a horse stance and muscle control. With the consistency as of late especially within a month, not only have I lost weight but starting see more consistent muscular definition, the way I move and my stamina.
These have been my results as of now......
Like I said, normally I've kept up my weight between 260-265, these current photos are at a BW of 257.4, under 260 for the first time in a long time. Because of mainly Isometrics, I've accomplished a weight loss and fat loss I didn't expect to have. My eating habits haven't really changed and only eat when I'm hungry. Other than playing around with my workouts, my biggest recreation is either going on hikes or going for walks around the neighborhood. If I could keep this up, maybe it's possible to be under 250. Who knows?
Isometrics are a key component to aiding in fat loss especially with certain intensities. When it comes to a huge fat loss and weight loss with the results of Isometrics is Steve Justa. I don't know how much he weighs these days after doing his Isometric DVDs 6 years ago but back then he was around 206-210 I believe and looking like a beast with strength many would kill to have. Isometrics don't make you just looking good, they can give you strength from angles other methods can't touch. They can help aid in preventing injuries, strengthen the bone structure and even rehab certain areas of the body.
I use the Isometric Power Belt from Bronze Bow Publishing as my ultimate tool for Isometrics but that might not be in your budget, so if you're looking to save a few bucks maybe the WorldFit Iso Trainer may be more suited for you if that's your interest. If you're really looking to save money, just use your bodyweight and use the environment around you, you can still get in stupid shape and build incredible strength. Karl Gotch had a saying that said "always work your muscles from every possible angle", Isometrics applies to this in very high regards.
However you do Isometrics, make them a priority and see how far you can go and who knows, with consistency and decent eating habits, you can get shredded and possibly look like Hugh Jackman from The Wolverine (I said possibly, not guaranteed).
The Zercher Squat which refers to the location of the barbell during a lift. Holding the bar within the crook of the Elbows and can either be used in a Squat, Isometric Hold, carry or even a deadlift variation. These can strengthen the core muscles, activate the glutes and quads, work the biceps and improve on the Front Squat. The inventor of this Lift was Ed Zercher who was a strongman based out of St. Louis in the 30's and 40's.
The person that really got this lift going in the new millennium is Strongman Bud Jeffries bar none. His poundages in this lift whether partial or full range is absolutely mind blowing. A partial of over 900 pounds and at full doing 600+ lbs. I started noticing how powerful he has become as he kept up with this lift and although i'm not a lifter, I can appreciate the level he has risen up on. What if there was a different route to make this a good form of strength training to build strong tendons in the legs?
When I do the squat in my Isometric Workouts, I always felt something wasn't right, when I use my Isometric Power Belt, I would put the strap wrapped at the back of my neck, step on the strap and do Isometric Squats. It's good and can be done either with high intensity for 7-12 seconds or at a lower intensity for a minute or more but it didn't feel comfortable in the sense where it was pulling more on my neck and not doing enough for the legs. I switched it to where I mimicked a Zercher Squat and not only did i feel stronger but I also felt naturally comfortable in how I applied it. I can make it feel like a deadlift and Squat at the same time or one or the other, it's weird to explain.
What I've noticed about Bud's Zercher Squat Lifts (Partial or otherwise), his strength seems different, more powerful than even his Anderson Squats (Squats starting at the bottom) even though his poundages are much higher, to me he looks like he can go faster in his sprints when he utilizes the Zercher but that's just my observation and I could be wrong but either way, the strength in his bone structure is just phenomenal especially when his tendons and ligaments seem almost impossible to break, he just continues to amaze at what he is capable of and sending a message that if it's possible for him, why can't we?
In the Isometric Zercher Variation with the strap, my knees feel more in tuned with that hold than the squat itself and I feel my tendon strength has increased. When I did 1000 Step Ups on Tuesday, I finished in 51:38, a new PR for me and I felt not only stronger and had better endurance but my pace felt faster. I've only done the Isometric Zercher a few times but yet felt a major difference in my speed and stamina when I went on a hike and the Step Ups. It has put greater strength on my lower back and powers up my quads like crazy along with strengthening my knees.
Between the lift that Bud does and what I've read on others and the Isometric Variation I do with the Strap, I see a ton of benefits with this exercise, it builds strength from a different point of view and as a lift, may be even safer than regular Heavy Squats. It's not just a leg exercise, it hits practically everything more so on the arms, core and obviously the legs. I find it safer to do than the squat and I believe can be used as a source of rehabbing the joints on the knees.
If you have a strap long enough to mimic the Zercher for Isometrics, I highly recommend you do them as an alternative to the regular squat and see how they benefit you. If you're a lifter, go for these but I highly suggest you use more of a power rack with this lift especially if you're a beginner, even as an advanced lifter these are awesome to work on and is a damn cool lift to see if you're hitting heavy weight.
Isometrics isn't a big mainstream method for a reason and it's mainly because many see it as inferior to other methods or have boring entities that is completely misunderstood. The truth is, Isometrics are a forgotten art of exercise that strongmen of the past used to not only crush plateaus but to help perform better in certain acts such as Steel Bending, taking shots to the stomach or twisting horseshoes (look up Alexander Zass and The Mighty Atom).
It's slowly making a comeback but for reasons that have nothing to do with certain aspects of strength, conditioning or performance (even fewer today make these attributes a priority) but to shed fat, look far leaner and have a more approach to bodybuilding. The seekers of strength and/or conditioning rely heavily on strengthening beyond the muscles but more of the tendons, ligaments and joints to help protect them from injuries and utilize their power for purely functional reasons. Isometrics help develop not just leaner muscle but muscle density and hardness that is tough to match.
Isometrics help develop a kind of suit of armor for your body to help prevent injuries as much as possible. Steve Justa was heavy into weights and picking up odd objects so heavy, an inch off the ground was the best he can do (partials really) and became so heavy himself it started tearing him up and having type 2 diabetes really solidified where his health was going. After focusing more on Isometrics than anything else, it helped get his health back in order and rarely gets injured these days. With the endless ways to do Isometrics, having a strong body is one thing but to have strength that keeps you from breaking apart is a whole other ball game.
Look at it this way from a comic book perspective; Wolverine's entire bone structure is laced with adamantium and has a remarkable power to heal much faster than the typical human; when you practice Isometrics, your bone structure develops strength that tends to be more of an anomaly than anything else and gives you that extra juice of power within your system that makes injuries less likely to happen and to heal at a greater rate. Now this isn't to say to test that theory in stupid stunts or to see if someone can try to break your arm with a bat, injuries happen but the less chance of that happening if your structure is strengthened and maintained properly. This is a perspective of the inside of the body.
From a perspective of the outside of the body, let's look at it from Batman's Suit; in various films seen such as the Chris Nolan Batman Trilogy, Batman V Superman and The Dark Knight Returns, his suit has armor that is extremely difficult to penetrate and helps him keep fighting and keep pushing the limits of his endurance and will to keep going. The only villain that broke him (literally) was Bane and that was a 1-1000 odds of happening with any other villain. Practicing Isometrics can help up the odds of breaking the body from the outside as well and help you fight off certain aspects of injuries to the shoulders, back, legs and wrists and develop greater durability and endurance. Now this isn't meaning to go out and fight and test your durability and see how long you last while hurt. Bruises happen, scraped knees happen and we can't completely prevent an ankle injury but with proper training, the odds are in more of your favor than against you. You can create your own suit of armor.
The more you strengthen your structure, the stronger your armor is. We can't always prevent injuries from happening but we can definitely up the score in our favor. People like Steve Justa, Bud Jeffries, Logan Christopher, Steve Maxwell, Batman O'Brien and others have done and practiced Isometrics along with other methods to the degree where injuries are less likely to occur yet can do things with weights and other things that baffle the human mind and can do them at a superhuman level. Who's to say you can't do the same thing? Isometrics are hard but that doesn't mean their inferior, they can do things for your body other methods can't come close to touching and your conditioning will soar when you work them with intention, safety and focus.
How profound is that? To justify a moment beyond reason as to how great moments happen either in the blink of an eye, or the minutes/seconds leading up to something glorious with incredible results. Not just in the minutes but life as well when something happens or continues to happen. Not many of us truly understand the gratification of what happens either as we experience it as an onlooker or experiencing the moments right in the thick of it.
When it comes to working out, many don't completely understand what they're experiencing. It's mainly just going through the motions and doing something just for the sake of saying yeah I did this or that so what? Yeah we can just go through the motions and not have a second thought of anything else, but where's the fun in that? We all have the opportunity to experience things in the moments we participate in and for one moment out of thousands, we can experience something so astounding and awesome that it also has the chance of never being duplicated.
In those minutes of moving like a wild animal or setting a new PR, I've learned to cherish those minutes and bask in the vast power of what results come of it. With my Wild Workouts, I get to imagine as I move what it would be like to be the most powerful animal in the universe. When I went for over 82 minutes in one workout, it felt like I was invincible, the beauty to continuously train like an animal for that long was one of the best workouts in my life, I felt like I could take on the world. When I first fell into a bridge and kicked over, I was so elated and full of happiness, I just couldn't contain myself; Logan Christopher was in that moment with me as he was training me in that move. All that hard work paid off and got to celebrate like I hit a grand slam to win the World Series, it felt that glorious to me.
There are days where I don't give a second thought what I'm doing but when those moments arise, the reactions may be different but the end result is that I got to do something that feels amazingly awesome. I don't look for those glorious moments in my workouts, I just love to train, its when they come out of nowhere that makes it all that much more incredible. The first time I did over 1000 Squats, it felt like a weight came off my shoulders because in that moment, I knew something amazing would occur later because it signified my hard work after months of rehab on my own learning how to walk again after breaking both my legs. I nearly cried when that happened.
Cherish those moments and the things that happen during your training will show what you have put into it. You never know what you're capable of until something comes out of nowhere. It's not just the end result, it's the lead up to the result that makes it all worthwhile and getting to do something that could never be experienced again. It's not just the minutes, it's what happens in those minutes that become the greatest experience in your life.
There are countless exercises that can be done with Isometrics, some are hard, others are fairly easy but in all fairness, Isometrics are a key component to overall strength, conditioning and durability. Every now and then, I like doing Horse Stance type holds and either just hold it or use certain implements and either hold with the weight or move the weight in the Horse Stance. This builds strength in a unique way and combining movement and Isometrics makes up for building unusual strength.
One of the things I have demoed was holding a Horse Stance and walking my hands up and down Big Bertha (my 59 lb Sledgehammer) at the same time. This builds grip strength, agility, reflexes, leg power and core strength. I call it Thor Catches Loki, the exercise itself is something I learned from Strongman Kevin Wikse from his former series where he utilized strength programs based on Mythical Gods. The Horse Stance was an add on that I came up with on my own and damn it's brutal.
Recently, I did an exercise that I have never tried before and that was holding out (at near lockout) a 15 lb. Indian Club in each hand while holding a Horse Stance. This felt extremely awkward and just using strength to hold them out was hard enough but to balance them took a lot more Core than I expected and it was felt in my shoulders, my forearms and my fingers. I held it for over a minute which I felt was a great accomplishment since I've never attempted an exercise like that.
The Horse Stance is a staple for many who practice qigong and other internal arts methods and is a foundational exercise for those like the Shaolin Monks. It's a simple hold and has no impact on the joints but it's also a hard exercise when you start to hold it for an extended period of time. Some people can barely hold it for 30 seconds yet others like those of the Shaolin can hold it for hours, it's ridiculous.
Practice the Horse Stance and see if you can go more than a minute without shaking. The longer you hold it, the more your entire body comes into play. It strengthens the knees, works the feet and puts long-term strength on the quads and hamstrings.
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