Dynamic Tension Exercise.

[Boardsdonthitback22]

As far as I've read this exercise is about Flexing the muscles really hard and moving them though a range of motion.
I was wondering if any of you have done this type of exercise, and if so did you experience any benefits as far as Muscle/Strength?
Thank you.

[1000pushups]

I always wanted to know this also. Read it in a book.

[Dave.cyco]

We used to do it in karate. Not the kind of thing that I would say builds strength at any rate, but beneficial all the same. If I were to do it now, it would be more as a warmup or recovery tool in combination with deep breathing and stomach vacuums.

[Sepanto]

It's just another tool. Isometrics and self resistance in my eyes rein supreme for fixing sticking points in exercises, but far less for actual hypertrophy or for increasing strength via full rom.

[onelasttime]

It works very well. Use the same movements you would use if you had weight's. Use the same set and rep schemes as well. THe more tension you develop the fewer reps you will be able to do per set. Always use as much tension as you can for the number of reps you want to do. It works almost as well as lifting weights for adding muscle mass if you use it just like weight lifting. The way it is used in martial arts is not the best way to use it for increase in muscle size and strength. In fact the Russians studied this form of training. It is used by all of their athletes when they are traveling and can not get to weights. The only exception is that the Russian weight lifters never used it. The weight lifters found that it caused their flexors to get out of ballance with their extensors and they also gained some muscle mass that was not ideal in a weight class restricted event. Dr. Mel C. Siff's book "Supertraining" has a section on this under a different name. The best material onthe subject is called VRT "Vissualized Resistance Training". It is a bit pricey at $49 for the DVD but well worth it in the end. Some people call them DVR's Dynamic Visulized Resistance.

Isometrics are best for strength but is you extend the hold times out past the 1 minute mark then you start to see some dramatic increases in muscle mass. Most isometrics practices have you hold the contraction for 7-12 seconds which is all about strength gains. Steve Justa though coined the term aerobic isometrics as any submaximal isometric contraction lasting longer then 2 minutes and they will burn the fat and build muscle mass. They are fairly avandces though in that you must first learn to fully contract the muscle with conventional or clasic isometric contractions before trying to move on to these longer submaximal holds. Infact you would be suprised how hard it is to contract ones muscles hard without any weight it takes practice to get good at it!!

[Fatman]

Isometrics are all right, they are a useful tool to add to your training. Nothing more, nothing less. As a stand-alone system they are not good at all. You need dynamic movement to develop full-ROM strength. But in combination with weights or BWEs they work really well.

I have yet to see someone who claims they got huge muscles from isometrics (usually when they do it's a lie, most isometric practitioners are small and wiry). Even the aerobic isometrics are good for muscle tone and definition, not size. Steve Justa explains it well in his book.

Self-resistance, dynamic or visualized is more or less utter crap. It is essentially pretending you're lifting weights or working on a machine. Unfortunately, this kind of "training" became associated with isometrics in the era of Charles Atlas (a popular bodybuilder of the time who claimed to have built his body through self-resistance only, which was a notorious lie). So people started confusing isometrics with this shit, and as a consequence they fell out of vogue for a while.

Isometrics = good. Self-resistance = bad. I guess it is better than doing nothing, though.

[cheesedog]

Isometrics are all right, they are a useful tool to add to your training. Nothing more, nothing less. As a stand-alone system they are not good at all. You need dynamic movement to develop full-ROM strength. But in combination with weights or BWEs they work really well.

I have yet to see someone who claims they got huge muscles from isometrics (usually when they do it's a lie, most isometric practitioners are small and wiry). Even the aerobic isometrics are good for muscle tone and definition, not size. Steve Justa explains it well in his book.

Self-resistance, dynamic or visualized is more or less utter crap. It is essentially pretending you're lifting weights or working on a machine. Unfortunately, this kind of "training" became associated with isometrics in the era of Charles Atlas (a popular bodybuilder of the time who claimed to have built his body through self-resistance only, which was a notorious lie). So people started confusing isometrics with this shit, and as a consequence they fell out of vogue for a while.

Isometrics = good. Self-resistance = bad. I guess it is better than doing nothing, though.

All true. Another problem wih self-resistance is that your nerves and joints have proprioceptors that NEED to feel an actual weight, whether a barbell or bodyweight, to get stronger. If you mix dynamic tension with BW/weightlifting moves (like some traditional hard-syle martial artists do) you can get good results, but by themselves their ability to make you gain strength is VERY limited.

[Dean68w]

Cheesedog is absolutely right. There was a time when I did dynamic tension for over a year. Then when I got into BW exercises, they kicked my ass. My bench wasn't going anywhere either. With the BW exercises, My bench is steady climbing. Don't get me wrong, w/ DT I did make some gains, and my physique was looking great. But all of a sudden it all stopped. Your going to make steady gains for a little while but then you're going to hit a plateau that you'll never get past with DT.

[onelasttime]

Well I will have to agree to disagree on the usefulness of DVR's and VRT which are both forms of self resitance. Now I would be willing to say that lifting weights is a better more result produceing method if someone has weights available!!! In the abscence of weights though it will do what it claims to do. It is definately not crap and is not worthless and it will definately produce results. I have a basment full of weights and have been lifting weights for over 20 years. I have tested it myself for a period of 90 days just to see if it was absolute crap or not. The amazeing thing is that when I did go back to lifting weights I was back to all my old poundages in one weeks time so I did not loose any size or strength and I think my forarms and chest actualy grew but I cannot find my old journal. I just moved so everything is still in box's.

Now as to the isometrics you are 100% correct they are not the best tool for hypotrophic muscle gain but they will produce an increase in size just not on the level you can achieve with almost all other forms of exercise. My point about the AIC's the aerobic isometrics being biased towards muscle mass and anerobic endurance was to be taken in relationship to clasic isometric contrations and not other forms of training. What Isometrics is great at though is building your fast twitch muscle fibers and your ability to contract and relax them. A bunch of motor units is no good if you can not volanarily contract them when you want to. So strength comes quickly with isometrics.

I think it should go without saying that it is always better to make dynamic movement related exercise the core of ones workout since 90% participate in movement related sports!!!! Too many people though that poo poo Isometrics and VRT/DVR as part of their training and they suffer for it. Cheesedog you are 100% wrong on self resistance especialy as it related to visualized self resistance. The science has been done and it has been proven to work. Sure it is not meant to be used as the main method of training as the Russian stated in your research it is a tool that can be used when weights are not available like while traveling. It worked so well in fact that it was not allowed to be used by their Olympic weightlifters because for them it was counter productive to their training but was used by all the other athletes. The best part is that it is almost impossable to hurt yourself with it.

So the key is not to look at these methods alone or by themselfs but rather to look at what they can bring to your training. Each method produces it's own results and by incorperateing body weight exercise,DVR/VRT, and Isometrtics you can almost create what ever effect you want. Isometrics can even be used ballisticly to train explosiveness if done properly.

As to plateau's you will always hit them with any training method includeing weights.

So to recap. If you have access to weights use them! If not then use all the avialable body weight, self resitance and isometric techniques you can. The trick is in combineing them in a program that will allow for variety and consistent gains! All exercise is better then no exercise!