Strength without bulk: Types of isometric training and what they can do for you

Summary: Certain types of isometric exercise have the capability to increase your strength while not increasing your bulk. Some martial artists seek this out as it allows them a greater range of motion and more agility while still gaining strength.

I found a great article today by Christian Thibaudeau about the types of isometric (static contraction) training. This is one of the most comprehensive reads on the topic that I've found on the internet.

A quick summary:

There are ultimately two types of isometric exercise:

• Overcoming Isometric - pushing or pulling against an immovable resistance
• Yielding Isometric - holding a weight and your objective is to prevent it from going down

And three ways to do it:

• Max Duration Isometric (Repetitive Effort)
• Max Intensity Isometric (Maximum Effort)
• Ballistic Isometric (Dynamic Effort Method)

The most important thing to gain from the article is that the different types of isometric exercise yield different results and contribute to different types of gains.
Chris Thibaudeau's article focuses on bodybuilding (building muscle mass and bulk, not necessarily strength) so he includes some hints of information about isometric exercise that does not contribute to bulk and only to strength. This is seen as a downside by bodybuilders. However, we will examine this from the opposite perspective: Martial artists and others looking to increase strength but not bulk.

Why gain strength and not mass?

This is something Bruce Lee explored quite a bit as he realized looked to optimize his strength gains. Bruce found that the bulk he had gained through body building hindered his movement and thus began his search into training that could build his strength, but not increase the bulk. He found isometric exercise.

I have never seen any suggestion pointed at it and I have no idea how she works out or even if it's a hoax or not, but isometric exercise may be a key component to how Varya Akulova makes significant strength gains without gaining bulk.

This could be useful to plenty of others besides martial artists: dancers, gymnasts or maybe you just want to be discreetly strong.

It may not entirely make sense as a martial artist though. Mass is one part of force, acceleration (velocity) the other. A greater amount of useful mass could enable you to hit more powerfully. It all just depends on your own personal style really.

How does it work?

I have heard different things about how non-bulking isometric exercise actually does its strengthening. Mostly either tendon strength or muscle hardening/density. Not sure how much I believe the tendon strength bit, but all parts of your body grow and strengthen, even bone, so it's not that far-fetched. I just haven't heard of any evidence to point to whether it's real or not.

Isometric training for martial artists

So how do we achieve strength gains without getting bulked up? According to the article there are two ways:

Max Intensity Isometric (Maximum Effort)

From the article:

This type of isometric training doesn’t have a significant impact on muscle mass, however, it can increase muscle density and myogenic tone (also called "tonus" or the firmness/hardness of your muscles). Its main effect is on maximum strength development.

Earlier in the article Chris states something significant about the history of isometric training in general and makes a note about max intensity:

Many studies don’t report a lot of muscle growth from isometric training. This is only because the old German model (Hettingter and Müller) of six-second actions was used in the initial experiments. This duration of effort, albeit adequate for strength gains, isn't sufficient to cause hypertrophic changes in the muscles. In other words, it won't make you big.

This form of training is called maximal intensity isometric training and it's similar in effect to the maximal effort method (1-5 reps with 90-100% of your max), which leads to strength gains with little, if any, muscle size gains.

Ballistic Isometric (Dynamic Effort Method)

From the article:

This type of exercise is especially good to develop starting-strength and is very useful for any athlete involved in a sport where explosive starts from a static position are involved. But for bodybuilding purposes, it’s basically a waste of time.

How to quantify

So you're strong, but you don't want to be huge. How can you measure it? Strength to weight ratio (strength:bodyweight). Take how much work you can do (lift, hold, etc) and compare it with your body weight. Here's a sample from a chart I found:

Bench Press - Adult Men
Body Weight	Un-trained	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
114	84	107	130	179	222
123	91	116	142	194	242
132	98	125	153	208	260
148	109	140	172	234	291
165	119	152	187	255	319
181	128	164	201	275	343
198	135	173	213	289	362

Unfortunately weight-lifting tables are some of the only plentiful metrics out there. There are no bodyweight:reps or bodyweight:hold-time charts.

Keep in mind that chart is purely a weight-lifting-bench chart. There are other types of strength that won't necessarily be evident by comparing to that chart. Examples:

• A guy who can bench 200lbs but can't do 100 pushups straight
• A guy who can do 100 pushups but can't bench 200lbs
• A guy who can hold a static pushup position for 3 minutes straight, but can't do 100 pushups or bench 200lbs
• People who can bench 200lbs or do 100 pushups but can't hold a static pushup position for 3 minutes

You get the idea. There are different types of strength. I have seen these examples evidenced many places first-hand and it is often noted by gymnast, yoga, pilates and body weight enthusiasts too.

This is a good chart, but it's only one kind of strength.

Go to work

Try it out. I keep isometric exercise a part of all my workouts. About every 4th workout on a particular muscle group I will do an isometric version of my regular exercise on it.

Feel free to add comments.