How To Build Muscle FASTER (with minimal equipment)

What if you could grow muscle without lifting, pressing, or even moving?
In this episode of the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast, Jerred and Dave break down a new 2025 study that proves isometric training — holding a position instead of moving through a lift — can lead to serious muscle growth.

Sound too simple to be true? Let’s dig in.

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The Study That Turned Heads

Study Title:
The Effects of Long Muscle Length Isometric vs. Full Range of Motion Isotonic Training on Quadriceps Hypertrophy in Resistance-Trained Individuals (2025)

Who They Tested:

• 23 experienced lifters (men and women)

• Average of 4 years of training

• Each person trained one leg isometrically and the other normally

What They Found:
Both methods worked — but isometric training slightly outperformed traditional lifting in building quad size.

Big takeaway:
👉 You can grow muscle by holding a position and pushing hard — even with minimal or no equipment.

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What Is Isometric Training?

There are three types of muscle contractions:

1. Concentric – lifting the weight.

2. Eccentric – lowering the weight.

3. Isometric – holding still under tension.

Imagine pausing halfway through a push-up and holding that position for 30 seconds. That’s an isometric contraction.

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Why This Study Stands Out

Most studies use beginners — this one didn’t.
These athletes already trained hard and still saw results.
Even better, each participant acted as their own control (one leg vs. the other), removing lifestyle differences like sleep, stress, and diet.

The setup was simple:

• Isometric group: Held a leg extension at a fixed angle (125°) for 30 seconds.

• Traditional group: Performed regular leg extensions for 30 seconds.

• Frequency: Twice a week for six weeks.

Result:
Isometrics matched — and sometimes beat — full range of motion for hypertrophy.

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Why It Works

When a muscle is held under high tension — especially at a long length (stretched position) — it triggers growth.
The key is intensity: these athletes weren’t casually holding positions. They were pushing 10/10 effort against an immovable object.

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How to Use Isometrics in Your Garage Gym

You don’t need fancy lab gear. Here’s how to apply this method:

1. Use a Fixed Object

Press or pull against something that won’t move:

• Push into the bottom pins of a squat rack.

• Pull against a locked barbell or sturdy doorway.

• Hold a wall sit at parallel or slightly below.

2. Go All Out

Hold for 20–30 seconds at max effort (RPE 10).
If you’re just “hanging out,” you’re not working hard enough.

3. Train at a Long Muscle Length

Stretch the muscle under tension:

• Bottom half of a push-up

• Slightly below-parallel wall sit

• Bottom position of a split squat

Avoid locked-out or resting positions — they don’t create real muscle tension.

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Example: Full-Body Isometric Workout

Jerred’s simple test session (no weights needed):

Pull: Hold chin above the pull-up bar until failure (4 sets).
Push: Handstand push-up hold (3–6 inches off ground, 4 sets).
Legs:

• Wall sit at parallel (4 sets, add a plate on your lap if needed).

• Rear foot elevated split squat hold, one inch off the ground (4 sets each leg).

Each hold: 20–30 seconds or until you can’t continue.

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Benefits of Isometric Training

✅ Muscle growth: Proven hypertrophy, even without weights.
✅ Joint-friendly: Great for those with knee, shoulder, or back issues.
✅ Minimal soreness: Low eccentric load means less DOMS.
✅ Time-efficient: Short sessions, big payoff.
✅ Travel-ready: Works anywhere — no gym needed.

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When to Use It

• Add it once a week as accessory work.

• Use it during deload weeks to train without fatigue.

• Great for rehab or joint recovery.

• Replace high-load lifts temporarily to reduce wear and tear.

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Key Takeaways for Garage Gym Athletes

1. Isometrics Build Muscle — Period

You can get real growth results with static holds. No movement required.

2. Long-Length Holds Are Critical

Hold where the muscle feels stretched and uncomfortable — that’s where the magic happens.

3. Push Harder Than You Think

You should be shaking, not scrolling.
30 seconds of true max effort can replace a full set of reps.

4. Make It a Part of Your Program

Isometrics shouldn’t replace all lifting — but they belong in a complete, balanced program.
Garage Gym Athlete’s Body Geometry Method already includes them for a reason: healthier, stronger, longer-lasting athletes.

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Final Thought

This study proves you don’t need fancy machines or heavy weights to grow muscle — just effort, tension, and time under load.

Want to see how we use isometrics inside our training cycles?
👉 Join us at GarageGymAthlete.com  for a free trial and train smarter, not harder.

Remember:
If you don’t kill comfort, comfort will kill you.

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Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week

Podcast Transcript

 

Jerred (00:01.218)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Garage Gym Athlete podcast. Moon here with Dave. Dave, how's it going,

Dave (00:06.324)
I'm

Jerred (00:09.366)
Yeah, today we're going to be talking about how to gain muscle with really minimal or no equipment. You could also use equipment. So this is a really interesting study. And to be honest, I probably haven't had my eyes light up in a study like it has this one. Like sometimes I'm like, yeah, OK, but they did this wrong or like you got to think about this as like a coach or the practicality for the athlete. This one, every every time I thought of something, I was like.

Well, you know this doesn't apply to our athletes It was like they took that into account somehow right? They were like they just had a really well-designed study So I'm gonna tell you the name of the study just for anybody out there who maybe wants to go check out the study You can go check it out because like I said, I feel like they did a really good job. It was really well designed You know there there are little things but we'll talk about it the name of the study is the effects of long muscle length Isometric versus full range of motion

isotonic training on regional quadriceps femoris hypertrophy and resistance trained individuals and it was done in 2025. So let me just tell you what that means. So they they train two different methods. They had an isometric training modality, which isometric is where your muscles are typically stuck in one of the portions of the range of motion. And then they are just held in that way. So if you think about

if you were to hold a bench press, you know, six inches off of your chest and just hold it there, that is an isometric contraction. It's where you're just holding the muscle and there three types of contractions. There's concentric, eccentric, and then there's isometric. And isometric is often left out of programs. And so what they wanted to test was how does isometric training versus just let's call it regular training. They called it isotonic, but we're just gonna call it regular training. You know, just going full range of motion on like a leg extension or a squat.

And how does that compare with hypertrophy? So muscle growth. Six week study and I like the people they had. So there are 23 healthy resistance trained humans. are 14 men, nine women, and they were between the ages of 19 and 37. And they were all well trained with men and women averaging 4.7 and 3.6 years of training experience respectively.

Jerred (02:32.09)
And the only other thing I'll say before maybe we can jump into some more of the weeds of this specific study is that they train like they trained each person's leg. So like your left leg would be the isometric and your right leg would be the isotonic or the regular. sometimes I'm like, yeah, that's kind of weird. But I actually really like that because and they even say in the study there are too many

too many variables, right, for a person. Like, even between you and I, if it seems like we're, like, you and I might have similar training age, similar training goals and everything, but at the end of the day, one of us might be sleeping differently. One of us might be eating more protein, the other consuming less. One of us might be more stressed out. There's so many of those lifestyle variables that you can't factor in, so I actually really like that one leg, you know, was the control for the other, basically. So anyway, overall...

I've kind of given the basics. I want to get your take on the study. What would you think about the study as you're reading through it?

Dave (03:32.5)
I liked it a lot. think to your point too, think there, I just started thinking of all these practical applications of like how I could use it, how our athletes could use it, how different people could use this where, because it was, I mean there was a difference between the isometric doing better, which would surprise me based on everything I've seen is there's a lot of get through the full range of motion and even people that, that's kind of, people have still moved into like, if you follow hypertrophy stuff, it's like even length and partials, it's like,

maybe those are as effective, but the full length and parts really, you know, important. You still have to get into that. And then this was looking at something that wasn't moving at all and the people had great results with it. So I think there's a ton of practical applications for it. The people were well trained going into it. had, I think they were hitting between like six and nine direct sets per week. So it's like for four years training.

Jerred (04:22.604)
Yeah, they're already training their legs, you know, that's sometimes an annoyance I have, and thought that that's what is going to be when I first read the title, I was like, they're going to use people who've never trained a day in their life, and they're going to see amazing results, right? Like, that's always really frustrating when we look at studies and that kind of stuff happens. So yeah, this one, they had really great subjects in the study.

Dave (04:42.919)
Yeah, so good subjects in there and then, you the training was two times a week for six weeks and these kind of max effort type sets, which kind of aligns with how a lot of people, you know, lot of people that do traditional, you know, splits, a lot of people, they're hitting legs twice a week. So it's like a lot of those things were, you know, it just interesting how a lot of those things align. But yeah, I'm excited to dive into some of practical stuff of how people can use it. But it was a...

It was definitely interesting to me and kind of surprised me with the results of it.

Jerred (05:10.454)
And I'll just kind of let the cat out of the bag because I think we've hinted around enough. But so the isometric condition was just statistically like better, right? Like it was or they were they were very close in some some regards, but like the fact that it can come anywhere close to normal training really surprised me. So big picture takeaway just for all the athletes listening right now, you can do isometric training.

and see hypertrophy results. And so you can do a completely different style of training that people don't typically do and you will grow and in this case specifically grow your quadriceps, but you can grow muscle this way and it's proven and they like I said, it was a really well put together study. And so how did they do it? Essentially it was 30 seconds of repetition. So they were trying to

Equate for time across both. And so if you think about leg extensions on a machine, that's basically what they were doing. And so the group doing the normal leg extensions, they're basically just doing like extensions for 30 seconds, right? And then they would adjust based off of how the person was performing. Then the isometric, they would put them into 125 degree flexion. So that's like the leg pretty far pinned backwards, right? And then they would just have to press against this pad. So it's what's this machine called like a diamond?

Diameter or something like that. People don't have these in gyms, period. So that's where people, that's the only bit of frustration I might have or an athlete might have reading the study like, I don't have that thing. So if you think about it, your legs get pinned backward like you're doing a leg extension, but the machine will not move. And so then you're just pushing force against this pad with your leg, you know, pretty far flex back, your muscle is lengthened pretty far and then doing that for 30 seconds, which can be very demanding.

And so I think the biggest takeaway other than, yeah, isometric contractions work for muscle growth. So you might not have to do all the bodybuilding stuff people say that you've had to do for years. That's takeaway one. Takeaway two is that it needs to be in a long length position. Right. And I think that that's something to note. Because if you talk about doing isometrics for the push up, if you just were decided, OK, I'm going to hold the top of the push up position.

Jerred (07:31.726)
Well, that's bone on bone. That's like you're locked out. Your skeleton is taking most of that. It's not really as, you know, practical. It's not as helpful in growing muscle. So now let's get to that. Let's get to the practical applications. I think people get the big picture takeaway. Isometric works for muscle growth, which is awesome because that means minimal equipment can rule the day. No equipment can rule the day and you can see a lot of results. You can grow muscle. But then also you need to be in these longer...

length muscle contractions when you're doing the isometric contraction. anyway, Dave over to you ma'am, what do you think some practical applications are, you know, given your background as a physical therapist and like what you would see in, you know, program prescribed for people.

Dave (08:12.551)
Yeah, we use, in the rehab setting, use isometrics a ton with people that are dealing with joint pain or tendon issues, any of those things, because you can find a range of motion that's a healthier position where they can still get some muscular work in without stressing the joints in a way. So if you think of something, like if someone has shoulder pain in the bottom of the bench press, it's like, okay, let's work in isometric at mid-range and slowly work up to that point to build.

like some strength and tissue resiliency in that. I think there's a huge, there's a huge upside for people that are dealing with joint pain, tendon issues keep flaring up. Isometric could be a good way to get nearly a lot of the benefits of full range training without stressing your joints. So I think that's one of the big upsides. I think the thing that people have to note though, and what was important with this study, and I highlight what Jared said about like.

It's a fixed object or something. You gotta be pushing pretty hard on this. They were instructed to go 10 out of 10 RPE. So if you think even, if you think even like, I'm just gonna hold the bottom of a pushup where you are in the length and position. But if you're a fairly strong person, if you can do, you know, even 10, 15, 30 pushups, just holding the bottom position, you're not getting near a 10 RPE. You're kind of on a stretch and you can kind of hang out there for probably, I mean, someone who's relatively strong could probably hold that for a minute or two minutes versus a fixed object. if you were,

You're at a place where you literally had to like push in the ground as hard as you can. So that's something that to get the benefits of it and that's where you know, newer people might not need to push as hard just because they, you know, there's a lot of flexibility for someone starting out of like you can get a lot of the benefits with maybe a little less of the intensity. But for someone who's advanced, this is a, we can maybe talk some of the creative ways you have to do this, but you have to be in a place where you're pushing, you're pushing hard for this.

Jerred (10:01.55)
Yeah, and that's what I was really thinking about. Okay, how could we use this? Because what I'd love to see someone do and I don't I don't want to say I'm not brave enough. I just don't know if I'd be interested enough to do it is like an isometrics only training program. Like I think it would be fine, but it's kind of like, you know, you know, the cereal commercials that used to say this is part of a complete breakfast or whatever when we were kids. It's like, that's how I view isometrics is like it's part of a complete program and

When you look at our body geometry programming methodology, isometrics are in there, but it's a part of like already moving. So going back to the push-up example, you're right. Like even if I put a 20 pound vest on and I was like, okay, I'm going to hold an isometric contraction one inch off the ground. It, I could probably do that for a long time, you know, and it would take a while before that became like something that was really challenging, but you know would make it super challenging is if I did 50 push-ups right before going into that isometric contraction and then holding it an inch off the ground.

which we used to do stuff like that in the military all the time, like they would force us to do just to like, you know, pain us a little bit more. But I think pre-exhaust, because that's a big thing with muscle hypertrophy too, is just like going to muscle failure is a major part of muscle hypertrophy. The research is very clear on that in every capacity. So I think thinking about things like that too. But if you're thinking like, okay, I want to take, I want to grow muscle. I want to get a bigger chest and I just want to do pushups. It's like, okay, do a near max set.

of regular push-ups and then hold that one inch off the ground. And now I think of that isometric contraction becomes like a whole lot more effective because you're coming into a slightly compromised position, you're reaching failure a whole lot faster and you're throwing in the isometric portion that as this study proves is very effective.

Dave (11:47.176)
And if you look at, I mean, you look at, okay, maybe, because I'm kind of like you, I'm like, I think isometrics are, you know, should have a key place in programs, at least for like overall resiliency and those things. even now, like I didn't think of them for hypertrophy purposes, but now I'm like, okay, that's got my mind spinning a little bit. But you think of stuff where like I'm on the road, I'm traveling, I'm in a hotel room, the gym sucks. It's like, now you got a lot more possibilities that like even if you can, I mean, you could hold into a doorway and like a lengthened position for your lats and, like sometimes find

a way to do like rows or pull-ups somewhere if you don't have something like you can just max like do three sets of 30 second max pulls in there like in a doorway and you have like a pump stimulus that can you that can effectively help you build muscle in very little time so that's where my mind's been in a lot of like okay there's a ton of ways you can you can apply this and minimal equipment's a big way or like if you don't have access to a certain piece of equipment you know without like a lot of people don't have GHDs or something like you can find a place to

to hook your leg in somewhere and like, mass contract your hamstring and get a lot of the benefits of it. So that's where I think there's a lot of potential with this.

Jerred (12:51.98)
Yeah, and I'm gonna update everyone all the listeners next week. I have decided I'm gonna do I want to do it pre this episode, but if you can't tell from my voice, I'm a little bit Not normal sick or whatever. So when I wanted to do the training session I wasn't able to knock it out, but I want to do an isometrics only training session I don't think I've ever done that before I've done a lot of isometric stuff, but I've never done isometrics only and I'm debating I'm like, well should I pre exhaust like I was talking about and I think

Here's what I've landed on, what I think would be good training session, still given minimal equipment. Here's what I plan to do and I'll update the listeners on how it felt. And going back to kind of the protocols here, doing things for 30 seconds, 10 RPE, up to four to six sets. I would do, for my pull, I would use a pull-up bar, because like you said, that's fairly difficult, even like pulling on a wall or whatever, just holding my chin above the bar. I've done that kind of stuff a lot. So.

Reaching 30 seconds in all honesty. I'm not gonna go like time base. I'm gonna go Failure based I'll probably take every single thing to failure to where I feel like I can't do anymore So for my pull I'm gonna be doing just holding my chin above the bar for as long as I can For probably four sets of that Then for my push really kind of an upper push. I'm gonna do a handstand push-up So hands down push-up position, and I'm probably gonna try and hold it. Let's just say

three to six inches my head off the ground, like somewhere in that, like, I'll just kind of know. You know, that one will be by feel because I think obviously, like I said, arms locked out, you're not getting as much benefit. And I want that to be a major takeaway for all the athletes. Like if you're gonna be doing isometrics, long length is important, but what's also important is like making sure that you're not locked out because before I move on and finish what I tell you in the program, like if you do a wall sit and I go all the way down,

like, ass to grass type, wall sit. That's not really helpful. That's, that's about as long length as I can get in the quadricep, right? But you're, if you're like, have good mobility or whatever, you can just kind of chill. Your muscles aren't really engaged anymore. And if they are, it's very minimally. So like, you have to make sure that the, the pain, the discomfort is there when you're doing this. And when I say pain, I mean, just kind of like burning muscle feeling. anyway, I'll do that for upper body. So I got the pull on the pull-up bar.

Jerred (15:15.746)
I got the handstand push-ups. would hold three six inches off the ground for as long as I could and then I would do one of two things or both on for lower body and that would be the wall sit like I said and I'd be either at parallel or slightly below trying to get that length and I know wall sits wall sits suck. They always suck. If you want to add a little bit to it, you can put plate plates on top of your on your lap. Basically when you're doing it if you need that extra stimulus and then also a

like a anything single leg. And I was trying to think of like the best way to do this. Like you could do a rear foot elevated split squat, something like that and hold like one individually, just because I'm a huge fan of like unilateral training these days. And so rear foot elevated split squat held like really again, just as low as you can go the the back knee being like an inch off the ground, something like that. So that's the training session I have concocted in my head. What do you think of that in terms of efficacy and like

I don't know, other athletes who might want to try it.

Dave (16:17.972)
think it's a good, I I no problem starting there. think if you were to do a follow-up session on it, think adding some fixed external load, I think of stuff, if someone has a, where I'm curious to try it is, because I'm really curious of how my nervous system would respond to it, because 10 out 10 RPE with a back squat, I can move some weight and that's gonna hurt, but having something that's maybe a little more joint-friendly, like we use body geometry in the deload weeks, something where I'm deloading,

But like, can I still get a pretty good muscle stimulus that's easier on my joints and my nervous system? But to do that, like for me, instead of a wall sit, like I would think like if you have bar basically under the pins, like, so if you can get, and then you're just driving max up into, into a bar, like you're able to produce more force. It's going to be closer to that. Like how they had it set up, like a 32nd thing versus a wall sit. You may be like scrolling on Instagram for three minutes before you're like, okay, now this is starting to hurt. Like, am I getting into that? And that's where.

Jerred (17:02.78)
yeah yeah.

Dave (17:16.404)
Like a lot of people when they do isometric at the gym, where I've always thought of them as like, okay, even say you're doing curls, you like hold it mid range or you hold it at a spot and you're just like holding this 30 pound dumbbell versus under some pins like I'm max, like this is a max effort biceps curl that I'm trying to hold for 30 seconds. I think that's at least what I got out of the research study would be a way to maybe follow up on that to see if you can add some, you know, like fixed object type training that would force you to like 30 seconds all out, push something into it.

Jerred (17:46.414)
Yeah, have you seen the videos of David Goggins doing wall sits with the plates in his lap? So, and so you're talking about external load and I talked about putting plates in your lap. So he's sitting next to, he's doing a wall sit and he's sitting next to, I don't know how many stacks, how many plates stacked? 45s, it's like probably seven or eight. And then he just, he's grabbing from his right side, putting it in his lap. And then he stacks them all the way up to where it's like as tall as his face.

and then he starts taking him down, right, to the other side. And then he just keeps, he goes back the other direction. And so, yes, a wall is really easy, but if you're doing something like that, I think it's gonna get really hard, really fast. I think chin over the pull-up bar and the handstand push-up, the reason I go to those is because they can be knocked out really fast, and those are hard, like those two things. To be honest, I don't know if a lot of...

every athlete out there is gonna be able to do the handstand push-up version. You could do some sort of pike, like put your feet on a box or whatever. But what you're saying, I do think is gonna be even more intense, you know, like, or even just a deadlift, you know, like with the pins locked in and you're like pulling up as hard as you can. I'm interested. I might work in some of that stuff too, because I'd like to know how I feel at the end of an isometrics only training session. I think I'm gonna be spent.

One because I'm not used to doing that much isometrics like we throw it into our training but like to do five six exercises like to failure over and over again I think it's gonna become quite taxing and I think that's something I learned in the strike zero program too is like the strike zero program You're basically taking every set to failure But you're doing that only with bodyweight and it's like pull-ups right pull-ups to failure multiple sets of that But because it's bodyweight That failure is never that

Intense and it but it is the first one or I'd say one to three training sessions. It's like, my gosh that wrecked me but then your body Acclimate so fast and that's the feedback I've gotten from a lot of athletes who've done it if you're doing what you're talking about with like actually loading the barbell like That's gonna be tough. I mean, I think that's gonna really be a tough program Like I don't think I could my point in saying all this like I don't know if I could walk into that training session Mentally like three times a week like I think I could do it like once a week

Jerred (20:07.022)
because of just knowing like, all right, man, you gotta, like you're saying push up on this squat bar as hard as you can for 30 seconds, four sets, you're do that three times this week. It's like, you know that I think I'd be mentally shot after one training session.

Dave (20:26.932)
week even would be, I'd have to mentally recover from that. But I can just do like soreness too, that's another thing. Like if someone's, if you're trying to, well that's my point being, eccentric part is what makes a lot of people sore. Like that's what, you take that part out of it. you wanna train hamstrings but have like a hard sprint day the next day too. Like you do some RDLs or something like.

Jerred (20:30.21)
Yeah.

Jerred (20:33.55)
You think you would be sore? That's what I'm curious. I'm curious like... Yeah.

Dave (20:48.916)
Good luck on you know on some of that But maybe it's a way like it could mitigate some of the soreness because you're training in a fixed position I don't I guess that some would have to to test but in theory you know it's the eccentric portion that is usually what caused a lot of the soreness that delayed the doms that people get from from someone's movement, so that'd be interesting test to

Jerred (21:07.692)
Yeah, that's what I like because that's what I was thinking too. I was like, I think you're going to feel like you had a good workout, but I don't think you're going to be very sore the next day. And I think we all know soreness is not the best indicator of your your workout performance, right? Like in all honesty, soreness normally dictates that you're either just doing something new or the fact that you're untrained like you don't have to be sore for the workout to be good. But I think maybe there would be some soreness if I try this out just like I said, because I'm doing something new very different than what I have been doing. But yeah, it might be

Who knows man, maybe this is answer. Maybe this is everything. Maybe this is what we just should have been doing our whole lives. Because I think you also the chance of injury are quite low. Like you said, you utilize it in rehab settings for this very specific reason because the chance of someone getting injured is really low. And what is it blood flow restriction training right like that. That's not necessarily isometrics, but it's a way to train like very unloaded. So you're not like hurting your body right and so

We keep coming back to this thing and I keep finding it. I keep talking to athletes about it. It's like we love barbell training. We love lifting weight, but eventually it will catch you. It's going to catch you in some capacity, whether you tweak your back, tweak your shoulder, whatever something's going to happen. And I don't know why. I don't know if it's because you know what you think you have good form and you really don't or maybe it's just that's what happens when you utilize the instrument called a barbell for too long with too high of a load.

But maybe you should always be able to do that. This is where like I'm at right now. Like I would say in my training journey is like how necessary is are these things? Because it's like, well, I want to grow muscle. It's like, well, apparently I can just do a bunch of isometrics. I don't have to risk do. I don't have to do sets of 315 for 15 reps on the back squat to hit my, you know, max is where they should be for hypertrophy training. I'm like, I could just do this stuff. So there's just so many more variables coming out that I think kind of throw the

status quo or like the traditional way of thinking on its head. And I don't know, this will never gain traction. Like this will never, like it's cool that we're talking about it and people like garage and athletes, you can apply this, you can grow muscle, like you can work through injuries or you can just add it to your program. But at end of the day, this will never catch on. Not only just because of the difficulty, just because I think the fitness industry is too dogmatic. Like there's no way three sets of 10 gets thrown out of the window for three sets of 30 second holds. Like that's just not gonna happen.

Dave (23:33.685)
I agree. I that's probably people's desire too. Like you said, I'm like, I think this could be incredibly effective. Do I really want to do it? it's going to be harder than people think if you're advanced. you look at the range of people that can apply this. look at someone who's, you look at everyone from an older female worried about bone health. It's like, you get that thing we're talking about where you can push even into a.

Like press maybe you're like, you know some kind of squat machine or something like that's overloaded Smith machine or something that doesn't move It's like you can get this great axial loading with like no minimal joint stress like teach them how to how use their core you look at someone who's advanced and your isometrics are a great way to teach movement competency and things like bottom of squat like I Every time I out of the out of the hole of a squat like my butt comes up first and it's like, okay You either have maybe you have weak quads or maybe you're not using your quads well enough like

get an isometric position from the bottom of that. And this is something we would teach people a lot of like even just feeling like, okay, you've got some load onto you, like shift a little weight to the toes. And they're like, yeah, no, feel my, I feel my quads activated more like shift more to the heels. Like, that gets more hamstring. And it's like, that's a way you can teach people. Okay. You maybe need to be the overused cue of like sit back on your heels, on your heels, where it's like some people it's like, no, you actually need more mid foot or more pushing through your toes to get your quads activated. Like that's something you can teach really well in a low risk situation.

Because to lower the weight enough on a squat to actually like feel that you might not be able to and you don't want to necessarily play around with that going heavy, but you set up this right in a isometric position. You can just hold there and even like during a set you can shift a little more forward and be like, whoa, like that lights up my, my VMO and my quads are like you shift back and you can, you can teach even advanced athletes some, you know, some pretty good body awareness with some of this.

Jerred (25:19.534)
Yeah, and you almost have to be a garage gym athlete to do it because if you're in the gym doing isometric like barbell work on either Smith machine or locking pins in place, people are just going to think that you don't know what you're doing. They're like, oh, do you need help? you want me to adjust? Looks like this is in the way of the bar moving. Like, no, man, that's what I'm trying to do.

Dave (25:29.716)
Yeah. give me six weeks, at my muscles and I'll tell you, I'll tell you I know what I'm doing.

Jerred (25:42.038)
Yeah, I'm increasing my muscle size. Don't even worry about it.

Dave (25:45.512)
Yeah, just time to listen to this podcast.

Jerred (25:48.559)
Yeah. All right. So athletes out there. So here's the deal. We went over a lot of practical applications. Bottom line isometrics work. The science is backing it up. And so if you want to add it to your program, go add it to your program. I think it's worth it. I'm going to try it. I'll report back on the podcast. Really just how the workout felt. I'm not going to do like a six week stent and tell you how much bigger my muscles got. Really just not a goal of mine right now. But I think what this really did for me, my bigger takeaway is

When I developed the body geometry method for garage gym athlete that we do utilize in D loads, but sometimes we just do full cycles of it. I was trying to look at everything that was needed in a strength strength training program. So making sure that we're hitting different planes of motion and then also hitting all three muscle contractions because oftentimes isometric is just completely left out altogether. It's just not even there. Like you can look I'd say nine out of ten programs.

and 99 out of 100 programs are just not gonna have some sort of isometric thing other than maybe a plank just because they don't know what else to do with your apps. And so having isometrics in your program, I think the bigger takeaway is like make it a part of the program somewhere. We already do that for you. You're doing it at least once a month with body geometry as the deload. And then when we do full cycles of body geometry, we're throwing isometrics in there. And I didn't throw isometrics in there when I originally created this method because I wanted people's muscles to grow.

It was just because, like I said, I thought it made for healthier athletes to be, you know, working every muscle contraction that a human can do. And it was more bulletproofing the athlete, future proofing them, right? That's what I wanted to do. But this just gives me more like, damn, this is a great, great methodology. We need to keep doing it and, you know, make sure that we're really focused on what the isometrics are and how they're executed. Maybe we can update that based off of this science and make our isometrics even better in the body geometry program.

So anyway, make it a part of your program some way, or form. I don't think this means like go do isometrics forever. But hey, if you wanted to, or like Dave saying, you're at a hotel gym or whatever, you could just easily throw in some isometric training and have a really solid training session. What takeaways you have for the athletes?

Dave (28:02.452)
Yeah, think long length muscle position, I think that's important to remember. If you're unsure of it, just make sure you're looking up or thinking where the muscle's on stretch, that's really what even the people that argue for full range of motion, that's big piece of what they're arguing. And this is showing that you can maybe have the same benefits. But long length stuff, think if you have joints that are bothering you, this is a great thing that I think you should at least experiment with. you're

Like I just can't seem to squat without pain, but I still want to squat. Like working some isometrics can really help with that. And then having minimal equipment, I think, is going to be a great use that I plan to use it with.

Jerred (28:38.638)
Yeah, and let's talk about that real quick because I think you and I can gloss over this pretty easily, the long length stuff. And I feel like I wanted to hit on this a little bit more because I think for most people, I'd say advanced athletes and just coaches in general, you understand what we're saying by that. But I think that we should discuss what long length means. Just hit on it for a second. like when you're contracting the muscle, it's getting smaller, right? Like the muscle is pulling.

together and it's getting smaller. So if you think about my bicep, if I'm doing a bicep curl and my hand is up near my chin or up near my shoulder, I've contracted my bicep as much as I possibly can, right? And so the opposite of that would be lengthening it, right? The eccentric motion coming back down from that. And so lengthening it out and then holding it. So just think about what's making the muscle actually like less sexy.

I think is like a good way to think about it. I don't know if that holds 100 % of the time, but like if you wanted to flex your quads for somebody to show them what your quads look like, you would contract, right? You wouldn't like you wouldn't lengthen them like you wouldn't you wouldn't squat down to show body like hey look how cool my quads look right? You would you would contract those as much as you could same with your bicep. You're trying to show somebody off show off your bicep muscle. You're going to contract it as much as you can to show somebody the size of your bicep. So I like to give very practical like

How do I think about this? What's the least sexy way you could put that muscle in place? And that's probably, you're probably lengthening at that point if for some reason you can't wrap your head around what that means. And if you have any further takeaways or how athletes should think about what that longer muscle position actually means.

Dave (30:21.02)
Yeah, muscle in a stretch position, if you're feeling the muscle stretching, that's more where people think about the part where it's most contracted or doing that. But I think practical example, even looking at the program, you mentioned you talk about chin up over the bar. That's actually the shortened position. So if we think of, you almost have to find a way to get enough resistance in a fully stretched position. And that's just a way, because that is the toughest part of the movement for most people. But you have to get a little more creative with thinking about.

Jerred (30:39.235)
Yeah.

Dave (30:48.046)
and I didn't realize that till we started talking about it, but it's like, yeah, there's like the lats overhead are gonna be where they're most, where they're most, and for the biceps, but yeah, that's just something that, that and then realizing that joints, some muscles cross multiple joints. So like for the biceps, like your elbow, when it's all the way straight, isn't necessarily as max stretch if your elbow's all the way straight and having your shoulder in extension too. So there's things that you have to be aware of for, and that's where knowing anatomy.

Jerred (31:10.36)
Right.

Dave (31:15.956)
comes in handy. mean, thankfully I went to.

Jerred (31:17.366)
Or just knowing like those basic principles too that we mentioned is like, if you're not feeling it, you're probably doing it wrong, because isometrics should be painful. And then also don't stack. Like going back to the the pull up chin over the bar, what I actually really love to do in those situations is I like for gravity to win that movement. And so I will just hold until I'm just like slowly falling down until my arms are stretched out because and it's very painful.

to do that. I've done it multiple times. It's a part of several programs that I've done. But that's more of the eccentric, right? That's more of a, it's not necessarily isometric, but it's isometric until you can't win anymore. Gravity's gonna win. And normally that eccentric portion, lasts four seconds. You're just like, you know. So anyway, those are the things to think about. Don't stack bone on bone. Don't go, like I said, the bottom of the squat. If I go all the way down,

and I'm sure this is different for everybody, but I have really good mobility for the lower body. Like I could just sit in the bottom of squat for this whole podcast if I had to. Like it would, and I wouldn't have taxed quads. And I know some people that's not true at all, right? But if you go too low, I feel like you're not getting as much stimulus. So just I'm like, okay, well, where is this kind of painful? Where does this hurt? Where's the muscle burn? If you can answer that question, you're on the right path to doing isometrics correctly.

Dave (32:40.552)
Yeah, it's such a line you thought about wall sitter like the chin up too. It's like you you full dead hang. It's like, okay, I'm not really doing anything except maybe my grip gets tired but like one inch higher like pulling in the bar. You're like, okay now now something's starting to hurt and I think that's what you're that's what you're mentioned with that. But yeah, the thing that helps me when I like when I read the study is that like it's not just holding and trying not to let the resistance win like you actually still need to be contracting into the resistance was like and that's pushing into it versus like

Jerred (33:06.188)
Right, like pushing into it some way.

Dave (33:09.778)
Okay, I stack a leg press machine. I'm just like trying not to let this crush me versus like, no, I'm actually trying to move this forward even though it's not actually moving. Like that amount of force that you have to think about I think is where this would really be effective at least in terms of where it relates to the study. And that's a little bit of a just like mindset shift of, okay, I'm not trying to just not let this weight win. Like I'm actually trying to beat this even though I know I'm not gonna move this because it's either overloaded or there's a way that can't do it.

Jerred (33:32.303)
Right. Yeah, and that's what, you know, we talked about Louis Simmons from West Side Barbell. He did a lot of like dynamic efforts, right? And he would add chains or bands or whatever. And that's something we did in our one man system programming. For the dynamic side of it, this wasn't isometrics. It's just dynamic is like set a heavy kettlebell on the on the ground, put a band on the kettlebell, put the band around your around your neck and shoulders, right? And then you pull you're doing a pull up a banded pull up with resistance.

So I almost feel like maybe you could do that in this case too, but you'd have to, like I have a very serious band that I would never use for something like this. It's like the, what is it? like four or five inches thick. You know what I'm talking about? It's like, it's ridiculous. I would never use this for a banded pull-up, because I won't actually be able to do one, but maybe that's a better approach. I also don't know if I can anchor. I mean, I'm sure I could wrap it through enough kettlebells, but like to not lift it, right? It's gotta be anchored to the ground. So maybe that's a better approach, like you're saying of like.

Dave (34:14.984)
Yep.

Jerred (34:32.302)
All right, I'm gonna throw this five inch band around, attach it, permanently attach to the ground however I have to, whether that's barbell or kettlebell or whatever, and I'm just gonna pull. Maybe I get halfway up for 30 seconds, that's not gonna happen for 30 seconds. And that's where the, that's why I wanna go test one of these sessions, because I'm like, I might only be able to do that for four seconds. I'm like, is that enough stimulus on the isometric side to count? I'm like, I don't know. So I gotta go experiment with all this stuff, so I'll definitely update athletes as I.

As I try it, maybe I'll write some prescription for people, put it on social media.

Dave (35:06.292)
Just spell it out. I think it's gonna be cool to test some of it and see, yeah, because I think it's gonna be incredibly taxing for someone who's more advanced. We've done a lot with barbells and body weight movements and different things. sounds easy, like isometric sound easy, but I guarantee you I would be shaking like crazy trying to do some of this stuff.

Jerred (35:23.758)
Dude, isometrics always suck. Even when they're in the BodyGeo program, I'm like, I'm fine with all the leg stuff. And then we get to the wall sit and I'm like, yeah, sucks. You know, it's always, always sucks. All right. Well, that's it for this one. Athletes. Hopefully you learned something, took something away with isometrics in general. I think we nerded out on that for over a half an hour. So it goes to show what we, we love and enjoy. But hopefully you got something out of it too. For all of our athletes sticking around, doing the programming.

As you can tell, things are only getting better and better. We're really focused on improving the program right now, making it the best possible thing that it can be, making sure we're hitting on having the best program, putting in body geometry. know, Dave's doing athlete briefs on the hard to kill track, things like that. Like we are really, really trying to improve the program, the best of our ability. So hopefully the athletes, you all notice that. Now for anyone who wants to see what that means, why don't you just go to garagegeomathlete.com, sign up for a free trial.

Come join the programming, see what you think, where we're always learning. We're going over studies like this. Like I said, I might make adjustments to how we do some body geometry based off of actual science on how isometrics should be performed, which is slightly different than like my general take on what isometrics have been. So like we're always doing those things to make the program better. And you can come check it out anytime with free trial over at garagejimathlete.com. But that's it for this one. Remember, if you don't kill comfort, comfort will kill you.