![]() ![]() It seems he was just too damn strong for the early twentieth century military jails. He was made a prisoner of war four times: he escaped prison, four times. Zass was training with chains a century before powerlifters thought of it.ĭid these isometric workouts produce results? Unbelievably, Zass became so powerful from this training that he could split chains and bend bars. I’ve seen inmates use towels, walls, even each other to generate some brutal isometric workouts. This is the tradition that continues in jails to this day. Zass was using whatever he could to train. When he was put in shackles, he would pull against the chains, over and over, from different angles. He began grimly pushing and pulling against his cell bars, on a daily basis. Despite unbelievably poor training conditions-and food that would make a billy goat puke-Zass never lost his passion to become strong, while injured and locked away. Before he could fulfill his dream of becoming a famous strongman, World War I rolled around, and Zass was nearly killed by the Austrians, then made a prisoner of war. His first workouts involved pushing and pulling against trees in the local forest. Zass always used isometrics, even from a young age. Nobody personifies this more than the great Russian strongman, Alexander Zass- The Amazing Samson. It’s an interesting but little-known fact that the history of the old-time strongmen, isometrics, and prison training are all intertwined. Nobody wanted sand kicked in their face, did they? (Apologies if you’re into that kinda thing.) “Charles Atlas”-was another former strongman who took isometric tension seriously, and his Dynamic Tension system pretty much started the modern bodybuilding craze. He built an amazing physique on it, too, and his “muscle control” exhibitions were famous throughout the world. Maxick stands out as a guy who build his entire system around loadless isometrics: pitting one muscle against another. The Mighty Maxick (1882-1961): one of the great pioneers of isometrics. All the old timers used isometric holds, particularly as feats of strength: I’m thinking of the human bridge, various back lifts, crucifix holds, ridiculously heavy support holds, restraining wild horses-all this must have put thousands of pounds of force through the human body! But those guys thrived on it, and many of them were performing well into old age. Something I talk about a lot in all my books are the old-time strongmen and their methods. I even included a handful of examples in Convict Conditioning. I had a little, dog-eared notebook full of different techniques, bad pencil sketches of different angles and holds to work different muscles. It’s amazing how varied and productive bar pulling can be. I didn’t invent this inmates have been doing it for hundreds of years to get strong. In Convict Conditioning I wrote about how I used to pull on prison bars for an iso workout. I’ve used isos in some manner for decades since the earliest days of my training, in fact. ![]() Since Dragon Door is about to release the ISOCHAIN-a project I’ve been heavily involved in, from the get-go-I thought I’d talk a bit about bodyweight and isos to my PCC brethren. We’ve all read an article about their benefits, thought about seriously applying them, then put the ideas back in a dusty mental drawer and continued with our usual old training. We’ve all heard about isometrics static training “isos”. “Isometrics” is a word virtually everyone who trains knows pretty well. Let’s chit-chat about ‘em tumble some thoughts around in the brain-laundry, and see what colors run, eh? I’ve also been working isometrics- hard-for the last couple years or so, and feeling stronger and tougher than ever as a result. One type of training in particular- isometrics. I’ve sure been thinking about training a lot these days. ![]() …Uh…some training talk might take your mind off it, huh? …Wait, what? She did what with the mailman? She took the kids, too? Damn. I missed ya! How’s the wife? I always thought she was a honey…a real catch! ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |