As a form of exercise, isometric training has been around for thousands of years. It is an important part of disciplines as disparate as Yoga and Martial Arts, for example. However, in modern times, isometric exercise probably peaked in the 1960s. What explains its explosive growth and subsequent demise is an interesting story. This is what happened.
Like many things, the fitness and health industry seems to go in cycles. For example, Atkin’s low-carb diet was huge in the early 1960s, before it was forgotten until it was rediscovered in the early 21st century. That’s the way things are, it seems. Isometric training’s peak in popularity was definitely in the 1960s. During this time, famous athletes like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris trained using isometric contractions. Bruce Lee dedicated himself to the practice, as did President Kennedy. Books and pamphlets extolling the virtues of isometric training can be found in every grocery store aisle and newsstand. Everybody was talking and doing isometrics of some sort and then all of a sudden he fell from grace.
What happened? Well, for one thing, isometric training became a fad during this time. Like the Atkins diet a few years ago, everyone was trying it, though few stuck with it. In addition, the market was flooded with isometric courses of dubious value. With crazy titles like “Isometrics: Total Fitness WITHOUT Effort” and “The Lazy Man’s Guide to Physical Fitness,” they all promised amazing results with little effort. One of the advantages of isometric exercises is that they ARE easy to LEARN. However, this does not mean that they are EASY TO MAKE. Like everything worthwhile, it requires effort. I suspect that when the “Fashion” folks learned this, they abandoned training in their endless search for an “effortless” training solution. This search still continues today. Hence the popularity of products like the Thighmaster.
A second factor that undermined isometrics as a form of exercise is that it was associated with steroids. In the previous decade, the major weightlifting teams had discovered the benefits of isometric training. However, the Soviets first, and then the Americans, also discovered the benefits of steroid use. When the records started to fall, the question was always asked “What are you doing differently?” The answer was always a half truth. “We’re using a new form of training called functional isometry,” or something like that. Steroids were never mentioned.
Steroid use continued to seep into the rest of the fitness industry, particularly among bodybuilders. When asked how they build their impressive physiques, they followed the lead of their Olympian cousins. “We are using isometric exercises.”
So it was. However, at some point the truth comes out and that time was in the 1960’s. Even though isometrics DO WORK, they were associated with steroid abuse. People thought that the gains weightlifters and bodybuilders had made were ALL due to steroids, and that isometrics were useless. Isometric training pretty much fell out of favor at this point, relegated to the fringes of the fitness industry.
However, what goes around comes around. It seems to me that people are beginning to rediscover the benefits of isometric training. The bottom line is that when you push yourself, isometrics can make you look great and build natural strength in record time. The bottom line is that this form of training works. I hope you will hear more about this training method in the years to come. Preparing for the rise of isometric training in the early 21st century? We’ll see!
