by Back in the 1990’s, the French were outperforming everyone in rockclimbing. Their secret? The french were training their pulling strength with isometric contractions. An exercise now called the “Frenchie”.
A frenchie is a series of pull-ups which incorporates isometric lock offs in the range of motion.
One repetition of a frenchie is shown below.
- Start Hanging
- Pull Up fully to the highest position and lock off at the full lock position
- Lower down to a dead hang
- Pull Up and lower down to lock off at a 90 degree arm position
- Lower down to a dead hang
- Pull Up and lower down to lock off at a 120 degree arm position
- Lower down to dead hang
- Repeat
This is the standard frenchie, however there are many variations of incorporating isometric contractions into your training. The video below shows incredibly strong calisthenics athletes incorporating isometrics in a different way.
Isometric contractions are great because they offer higher muscle fiber recruitment. A recent study comparing the level of muscle activation during isometric, concentric, and eccentric muscle actions found that a person can recruit over 5% more motor-units/muscle fibers during a maximal isometric muscle action than during either a maximal eccentric (lowering) or maximal concentric (lifting) action; that’s 95.2% for isometric compared to 88.3% for the eccentric and 89.7% for the concentric. [Babault et al. 2001.]
Nathan Adrian is know to be able to perform 4-5 reps of pull-ups with an additional 132 lbs on him. Michael Phelps can do 30 consecutive bodyweight pull-ups (which is quite incredible given his height and weight). It is quite evident that pull-ups translate well to swimming.
Isometrics are a great way to break plateaus. As evident in the force-velocity curve below when you perform an isometric exercise you will be able to pull or push more weight than during a dynamic exercise.
Personally when I was stuck at a 1RM (one rep max) of 125lbs for pull-ups, I incorporated this trick into my training regiment by performing isometrics with 125-140lbs. When doing weight over my 1RM (supra maximal training), I would use a box to to get my chin over the bar and just work the isometric and eccentric portion. I was able to break 140lbs in a matter of weeks.
Although dynamic training should always be the bread and butter of your strength training program, the isometrics are a great supplement!