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The Ultimate Isometrics Manual, Building Maximum Strength and Conditioning with Static Training
How to Get Stronger Sooner and More Safely—Using a Breakthrough Method of Isometric Training Discover how in only 10 minutes a day of isometrics you can make significant gains in whole-body strength, cardio conditioning, physique-building and explosive power. Get the science, the experiential know-how and the programming to blow through your current limitations and make measurable progress for years to come. “Finally, A No-Nonsense At-Home Training Device and Program to Give You Measurable, Satisfying Strength Gains for Years to Come!” Thanks to Paul Wade’s innovative ISOCHAIN, you can now — for the first time ever — quickly build a superb physique in just a few minutes a day, at home… “Isometric training is the most underestimated, misunderstood but powerful method out there. And because very few of you have been using them (or using them optimally) everyone who applies the knowledge in this book will get rapid and impressive gains. I have been using isometrics for over 20 years; yet when I read The Ultimate Isometrics Manual I had to read with a note book and pen (yep, I’m old school) because I learned so much new information. It’s a gold mine of practical and theoretical info presented in a clear and fun to read manner.”—Christian Thibaudeau, Strength & Conditioning coach, author, international speaker "The Ultimate Isometrics Manual is the most comprehensive resource on isometrics training to date. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced lifter looking to develop new muscle and strength, this terrific book covers all the programming strategies you’ll need, as well as the science to back it up.”—Dr. Chad Waterbury, author of Huge in a Hurry
460 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2020
197 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 25, 2020
I want to believe, which is why I must be skeptical, and this book doesn't stand up well to skeptical reading.
I came upon isometrics via Emamait's Never Gymless. I revisited Never Gymless when coronavirus closed my gym, and built a chain-and-plate. While looking for more information I found the isochain, produced by the authors of this book, and was curious about the spring.
The good news is that this book told me the specifications on the spring, and did an adequate job of convincing me that it's not 100% a marketing gimmick (it provided only a single source, an expensive textbook, for the claim that adding a stretch reflex to isometric exercises is helpful, but also some photographic evidence of use of springs in chain-and-plates from the '60s). The isometrics programming part (section 4) was also not a complete waste of space - I'm somewhat skeptical that these programs have been tried in practice by the authors, but it serves as a practical bibliography of other books to go read.
The bad news is that the rest of this book is pretty lousy. The science section (the first 20% of the book) is full of cherry-picked studies (like Rio's on analgesic effects of isometric exercise, which isn't borne out in this meta-analysis - which might be forgivable if the book hadn't been published a month ago), several deeply misleading graphs, lots of short quotes from primary sources presented with minimal context, and appeals to capital-S-Science-as-authority which reminded me of Kahneman's overconfidence on the Hot Hand. This is Salesman Science, not honest science.
The next 6% of the book is on the isochain specifically. It reminded me of the manual for a digital watch. As I have no intention of buying one, this was sort of a waste, except that the specs for the spring were here.
The next 29% of the book is on warming up, particular drills which can be performed (lots of pictures), and cooling down. A graph in the warming up section wins the Most Misleading award - yes, a muscle cooled to 15-20C is very weak, so warming up to normal body temperature makes it much stronger. But icing muscles only brings calf muscle temperature down into the upper 20s C, and 60 minutes in 45F water brings vastus lateralus temperature down to 34C, so... this graph feels like it mostly exists to convince Americans who don't know celcius that warming up is way more important than it is. The drill descriptions themselves seem like mostly filler / pretty obvious; if you are at the point in your lifting career where you care about Zercher squats, you probably don't need this to tell you how to do them isometrically given that it has told you how to do a front squat isometrically. I am curious how well split squats actually work with the isochain, as there's only a single foot holding it down. Seated rows were also not an exercise I had considered for my chain-and-plate, so points for that. It's interesting that the seated row is about the only picture here where the spring is clearly visibly stretched, which is curious. It makes me wonder if they have actually done all of these exercises with real force (ie, the same "preaching what you haven't practiced" failure mode as the original version of Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness Using the Lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength, by the same author/publisher). A few of the zero-equipment / self-resistance exercises were also interesting, though a lot of them are just bodybuilding poses.
I didn't actually read the cooling down chapter; it looks mostly like yoga and dynamic stretching.
The programming chapter comprises 16% of the book, and this was the most reasonable part. There's an FAQ section which is more practical science than sales science (some of it is still wrong, but it's not as bad). A lot of the programming advice comes from Verkhoshansky and Siff's Supertraining - I think if you're serious about this, that's probably the book to read.
The last quarter of the book is on bodyweight isometrics progressions in the Convict Conditioning model. I find the convict framing distasteful/dubious and am happy with Never Gymless for bodyweight work, so I skimmed this. It is interesting to note that the photos in this section are of people in a calisthenics gym actually doing (at least some of) the exercises; a stark contrast with the front-cover muscle-model holding the isochain handle in the right spot without exerting any force in a sterile, photoshoot environment in the earlier exercises chapter.
The editing and writing are poor, with many minor grammatical errors, run-on sentences, and poor choices of words, plus a few bigger issues like a whole paragraph being repeated twice in a row, and the same caption used on two pictures when it only applied to one. A lot of the material felt repeated. The extent of editing seems to have been spell-checking.
But hey, at least I got the specs on that spring.
I came upon isometrics via Emamait's Never Gymless. I revisited Never Gymless when coronavirus closed my gym, and built a chain-and-plate. While looking for more information I found the isochain, produced by the authors of this book, and was curious about the spring.
The good news is that this book told me the specifications on the spring, and did an adequate job of convincing me that it's not 100% a marketing gimmick (it provided only a single source, an expensive textbook, for the claim that adding a stretch reflex to isometric exercises is helpful, but also some photographic evidence of use of springs in chain-and-plates from the '60s). The isometrics programming part (section 4) was also not a complete waste of space - I'm somewhat skeptical that these programs have been tried in practice by the authors, but it serves as a practical bibliography of other books to go read.
The bad news is that the rest of this book is pretty lousy. The science section (the first 20% of the book) is full of cherry-picked studies (like Rio's on analgesic effects of isometric exercise, which isn't borne out in this meta-analysis - which might be forgivable if the book hadn't been published a month ago), several deeply misleading graphs, lots of short quotes from primary sources presented with minimal context, and appeals to capital-S-Science-as-authority which reminded me of Kahneman's overconfidence on the Hot Hand. This is Salesman Science, not honest science.
The next 6% of the book is on the isochain specifically. It reminded me of the manual for a digital watch. As I have no intention of buying one, this was sort of a waste, except that the specs for the spring were here.
The next 29% of the book is on warming up, particular drills which can be performed (lots of pictures), and cooling down. A graph in the warming up section wins the Most Misleading award - yes, a muscle cooled to 15-20C is very weak, so warming up to normal body temperature makes it much stronger. But icing muscles only brings calf muscle temperature down into the upper 20s C, and 60 minutes in 45F water brings vastus lateralus temperature down to 34C, so... this graph feels like it mostly exists to convince Americans who don't know celcius that warming up is way more important than it is. The drill descriptions themselves seem like mostly filler / pretty obvious; if you are at the point in your lifting career where you care about Zercher squats, you probably don't need this to tell you how to do them isometrically given that it has told you how to do a front squat isometrically. I am curious how well split squats actually work with the isochain, as there's only a single foot holding it down. Seated rows were also not an exercise I had considered for my chain-and-plate, so points for that. It's interesting that the seated row is about the only picture here where the spring is clearly visibly stretched, which is curious. It makes me wonder if they have actually done all of these exercises with real force (ie, the same "preaching what you haven't practiced" failure mode as the original version of Convict Conditioning: How to Bust Free of All Weakness Using the Lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength, by the same author/publisher). A few of the zero-equipment / self-resistance exercises were also interesting, though a lot of them are just bodybuilding poses.
I didn't actually read the cooling down chapter; it looks mostly like yoga and dynamic stretching.
The programming chapter comprises 16% of the book, and this was the most reasonable part. There's an FAQ section which is more practical science than sales science (some of it is still wrong, but it's not as bad). A lot of the programming advice comes from Verkhoshansky and Siff's Supertraining - I think if you're serious about this, that's probably the book to read.
The last quarter of the book is on bodyweight isometrics progressions in the Convict Conditioning model. I find the convict framing distasteful/dubious and am happy with Never Gymless for bodyweight work, so I skimmed this. It is interesting to note that the photos in this section are of people in a calisthenics gym actually doing (at least some of) the exercises; a stark contrast with the front-cover muscle-model holding the isochain handle in the right spot without exerting any force in a sterile, photoshoot environment in the earlier exercises chapter.
The editing and writing are poor, with many minor grammatical errors, run-on sentences, and poor choices of words, plus a few bigger issues like a whole paragraph being repeated twice in a row, and the same caption used on two pictures when it only applied to one. A lot of the material felt repeated. The extent of editing seems to have been spell-checking.
But hey, at least I got the specs on that spring.
June 23, 2022
This book is the most recent addition to my isometrics textbook! This is professionally written. It focuses on all the facts that every practitioner of isometrics has in their strength training arsenal. This is clearly composed. Although it focuses on the isobar. It also focuses on no-tech isometrics training, which benefits me most as I don't gain access to the isobar trainer at the moment. A must-read for anyone interested in isometrics!
July 19, 2020
The best!
I read the foreword by Dan John and was hooked. Bruce Lee's dynamic physique is rooted heavily in isometric training and made me a believer years ago. Mr. Wade's book is the best source on the subject I've seen.
I read the foreword by Dan John and was hooked. Bruce Lee's dynamic physique is rooted heavily in isometric training and made me a believer years ago. Mr. Wade's book is the best source on the subject I've seen.
March 18, 2025
Great book on isometric training!
Very comprehensive guide to isometric.
Yes it does push the virtues of the Iso-chain from Dragondoor, but all of the exercises are possible with a DIY version of the iso-chain which you could construct quite easily.
Would recommend the book.
Very comprehensive guide to isometric.
Yes it does push the virtues of the Iso-chain from Dragondoor, but all of the exercises are possible with a DIY version of the iso-chain which you could construct quite easily.
Would recommend the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews