Can't seem to gain size and strength?

cnine92

If you're like most people who start a workout regimen, you will inevitably get stuck in a plateau. A plateau doesn't mean that you have reached your maximum potential, or that your body isn't willing to change anymore; a plateau simply means that your body has adapted very well to the stresses you've been placing on it whilst training.

One of the most frustrating plateaus both men and women alike will face is a stoppage in strength and muscle gain. An easy way to blast through the plateau is to change up your workout, but how do you know what to do? Do you add more reps? Subtract reps? Add a new exercise? Change the order of the exercises? All of those options will work, but if you want the absolute easiest method to spark new strength and growth in a short amount of time, try to add isometric movements to your weight training!

Isometric movements are static contractions, which are exercises that include absolutely no movement. You'll be using all of your strength to try to move an essentially unmovable object; since you will never move the object, no matter how strong the muscle gets, it can constantly improve; your muscle will always break down to a great degree trying to move an immovable object, rather than using a weight that you can move concentric and eccentrically. I have personally included a few isometric training sessions into my otherwise unchanged routine, and I have noticed ten to twenty pound increases in strength in the exercises I trained using isometrics.

You'll need a gym that includes a power rack, or something equivalent to get the absolute best benefit of isometric training. A quick example of a static movement that has provided me with great gains in strength is an isometric shoulder press within the power rack. To properly complete this shoulder movement, (isometrics can be added to various other exercises, such as squats and bench press, but for the sake of this post, we'll stick with shoulder) you'll need to position the power rack's safety bars at different positions within the typical exercise range of motion; since isometrics can only increase strength on each specific point in the movement that you're completing the static contraction, you'll need to move the safety bars further up through the shoulder pressing movement, hitting each point in the lift.

Typically you'll want to start at the very bottom of the movement, so situate a bench underneath the safety bars, and press the empty Olympic barbell up onto the safety bars. The first position should be somewhere around the mid-face area. Press as hard as you can for about 10 seconds, using the proper grip and form that you'd use in a normal shoulder press. After the first 10 second set, rest 5 seconds and repeat. You'll want to aim for 3 sets of 10 second sets on each point in the movement. To get from bottom of movement to the lockout overhead, for me, usually takes about 5 sets of this.

Put isometrics in place of your typical pressing movements and see how much stronger you can get! Be sure not to overdo it, however. Since this is still a contraction, you're still breaking down muscle tissue, so you shouldn't keep the same workout volume as you normally would on the days you use isometric training.

I personally recommend one isometric session per body part, if possible, every two weeks. I have seen immediate next-week difference in strength while using this method. Hope it works out for someone else, too!