Pre-Fatigue Isometrics for Greater Strength

This technique is part of the Ageless Athlete training series geared toward older lifters and athletes who want to train for a lifetime. As with these advanced extended set protocols, the goal is to make ‘light weights feel heavy.’

I’ve talked previously about the importance of isometrics as a way to secure ranges of motion, increase your ‘stopping power’, and as a very effective pre-fatigue mechanism for allowing older (ageless) lifters to drive muscular hypertrophy with submaximal weights, i.e., making light weights feel heavy. The motto of the @agelessathletes training system.

Here is another application of pre-fatigue isometrics:

1. 90/90 Lateral ISO-holds, 20 sec. => Cuban press with chains, 20 reps
2. Y-Press ISO-holds, 20 sec. => Y-Press with chains, 20 reps
3. Sunrises, 20 reps => Laterals with chains, 20 reps

Original article Pre-Fatigue Isometrics article below:

One way to accumulate more tension and more time under tension (TuT) is to introduce isometrics as an accessor AND as a pre-fatigue to primary work sets. With the @agelessathletes conservative powerbuilding approach, we use more conservative percentages of a lifter’s 1RM (one rep max) for the primary lifts. To further facilitate a more muscle building (hypertrophic) effect, we take sets into the first – greater than 40+ seconds of time under tension. This is the foundation of every Ageless Athlete program.

In this example, we show a very common Ageless Athlete upper body accessory of isometric holds at a “T” position. We also perform this brutal technique at Y (the hardest), field goal, and arrow (shoulder extension) positions. In this example, this is an accessory exercise performed as part of a superset or giant set. It could also be implemented immediately before, with minimal rest, a heavy primary lift.

Try this set out and let me know how it went! You don’t need anything heavier than a 5-10lb. dumbbell, but we have experimented with heavier weights.

Remember, the Ageless Athlete methods teach you how to make the most out of your supplemental training and gets you the maximize your time under tension!

Try this out and let me know what you think.

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