Isometrics for Martial Arts?

[scohen.mma]

I heard that Bruce Lee was a big fan of Isometric training (like for the benchpress, you hold it half way for 15 - 25 seconds then bench 3 reps immediately). I know he was more of a Kung Fu practitioner and then made his own style JKD.

As Martial Artists, what are your thoughts on Isometric training for Martial Arts such as Karate?

[Wastelander]

I heard that Bruce Lee was a big fan of Isometric training (like for the benchpress, you hold it half way for 15 - 25 seconds then bench 3 reps immediately). I know he was more of a Kung Fu practitioner and then made his own style JKD.

As Martial Artists, what are your thoughts on Isometric training for Martial Arts such as Karate?

I do some--stance training, for example, is an Isometric exercise that is applicable to karate. I think that Plyometric exercises are better for striking skills, in general, though.

[Zaine]

When I had a dojo to go to we never really did anything like that, although I do make use of isometric training in my personal workouts. When it comes to something that I think I want to apply to karate though I generally try to stick to something like Plyometrics, as Wastelander suggests, because it is incredibly physical and really drills control of your body.

[bushido_man96]

I think that using full range of motion weight training and things like plyometrics will benefit a lot more than isometrics. I think isometrics might be more helpful in spot training incidents where you are looking at trying to improve strength through a sticking point or something like that.

But, to each his own.

[Ueshirokarate]

I think the real question is, what are you trying to accomplish? I can give you a hundred books with all varieties of exercises that are each effective in their own respective way from barbell movements to Zumba. However, without a goal and some sort of progressive plan to reach it, exercise no matter how effective is pretty worthless. For example, you can do twenty push-ups (arguably one of the most efficient and effective exercises in the world) every other day for a year. Where have you gone? Does this make you capable of throwing harder punches or forty push-ups a year from now? No, it wouldn't. You would be in exactly the same place you are today. What if you rotated in twenty sit-ups on odd days? Net effect would be that you would be a little better trained, but would still be in the same place next year.

What you need to do, is define what your specific goals are. Saying you want to get more explosive is not a goal. It needs to be much more specific and have a time frame (i.e. I want to have a stronger upper body and be able to do 70 push-ups by May 31st). Once you do that, find a variety of exercises that help you meet your goals and then develop a program of progressive overload with these exercise. Look at the 100 push-up program for an example:

http://www.hundredpushups.com/index.html

Following this program, you will be far ahead of where you would be by doing the twenty push-ups I mentioned earlier. That said, it is a program that is limited to one compound movement and does nothing for many aspects of your conditioning.

Don't worry you're not alone, most people will jump from exercise technique to exercise technique thinking one is more effective than the next, or that they are missing out because they aren't doing that exercise they see others doing. This is a mistake. Most people would benefit the most from grabbing a core group of exercises such as push-ups, squats and pull-ups and then sticking with them for some time and increasing the intensity from session to session.

[ShotokanAcademy]

I am using Isometric training in my Karate particularly for achieving leg split. I won't go into the details as to how its done here but my gosh, how I wish Ive learned it 30 years ago. I have been trying to do my split since 1983, almost 30 years and never managed to, and now , having just started, I think Im going to achieve a full split in less than 30 days!

I will keep you all updated if that's an interest, Visit my facebook page (link below) and I will do my update there too.

[ps1]

Isometrics used to be very popular in the 60s and 70s. That's probably why Lee was a fan of it. However, research has shown that isometrics only give strength benefits and gains in the angle being trained.

So if I'm holding a bench press with my arms at 90degrees, that's the only angle that will have strength gains.

It's important to move through a full range of motion in strength training in order to reap maximum benefits.

[scohen.mma]

Ueshirokarate, thats some great advice! sorry about our earlier arguments, and i guess what i WANT is to be more explosive, but not that i really need it. So, trying to understand what you said in your comment, would it be wise of me to alternate from lower vollume, higher intensity workouts and then to higher vollume, lower intensity workouts?

An "expiriment goal" that i'm going to set for myself is to do 4x25 pullups, and 1x100 pushups. For Pullups, i can do about 25-30 for 1 set, and in the next set (after a 1-2 minute rest) i can do maybe 15 - 20 reps.

For Pushups, i start to slow down around 50 and then last time i checked (i havent done pushups in a while) i stopped around 70 pushups. Now, my 1 rep max on benching is 210 lbs. I know i'm not weak, i know i'm not freakishly strong, but i think i should be able to do more pushups since i'm able to do that much weight on bench.

would it have been better for me if i had asked this question first?