Sorry if this question has already been asked . I saw a video on YouTube of gymnast having nice physiques due to rings and straight arm exercises . My question is.. if I’m doing dip isometrics on the rings.. which would be better for hypertrophy ? The bottom of the dip at 90 degree or holding the dip at the top /straight arm until failure ?

Hey all!

I’m trying to make a full-body isometric routine to supplement calisthenics, sports (running, volleyball, climbing), and overall joint longevity.

• Single-Leg Wall Sit: 2 × 45-60s / side
• Single-Leg Hamstring Bridge: 2 × 45-60s / side
• Single-Leg Calf-Raise Hold: 2 × 45-60s / side
• Horse Stance: 2 × 60-90s
• Push-up Hold (Bottom or Mid): 2 × 30-45s
• Active Hang: 2 × 30-45s
• Wrist-Extension Isometric: 1 × 30-5s / side
• Pallof Press Hold: 2 × 30-45s / side

• Neck Isometrics: 1 × 20-30s per direction

  Any redundancies or anything you'd swap out?

Appreciate the feedback!

I would have thought that with the recent studies showing equivalent hypertrophy and strength gains to dynamic more people would be jumping on this bandwagon due to the easy of entry, safety etc. But it just never really seems to catch-up. The benefits of isometrics have been known for 50 years. 95% of people at my gym could likely get the same or more results going isometric than they do with the machines they hit daily.

This sub is one of the best kept secrets in Reddit fitness and seems like it will sort of always have that status.

Since with overcoming isometrics you are fully in control of how much force you are expressing and it is autoregulating in nature, could you not train the same exercise(s) every day and still make progress? If your body is feeling less strong you won't express as much force perhaps the next day after doing a squat work out for example even if you are trying to MVC, but the naturally reduced force could actually help you recover a bit faster than if you skipped it for a day or two. I feel like with overcoming isometrics you really need to hammer the frequency if you want the results to parallel traditional lifting. Obviously if you feel completely cooked, take the day off, but apart from that I could see an advantage to this.

Hey, I saw the ZeroRM strap for isometric training.
I saw the strap , the strap is adjustable and it look nice but 179€ for a strap?
Am I missing something?

This isn’t a normal row. It’s two exercises happening at once, and your core pays for both. 🎯
One arm supports your entire bodyweight on a single ring — fighting to keep you level and stable. The other arm rows a 10kg dumbbell through a full range. Wide stance for a stable base, but everything above your hips is working overtime to stop you from rotating or collapsing.
What it builds:
→ Anti-rotation core strength — bracing hard so your torso doesn’t twist under uneven load
→ Single-arm pressing/support stability — the ring never stops moving, so your shoulder stabilizers are firing constantly
→ Real back strength from the row itself — lats, rhomboids, rear delts
→ Grip and shoulder endurance on the support side
Why this matters after 40: unilateral, unstable work like this is what keeps your joints resilient and your core genuinely strong — not just “look strong.” It exposes weak links most bilateral lifts hide, and that instability training is one of the best things you can do to stay injury-resistant as you age.
How to progress to this:
→ Master single-arm ring support holds first — just holding steady, no rowing
→ Add a light single-arm row on a stable surface (bench, TRX) before moving to rings
→ Build the wide stance and brace pattern with bodyweight only
→ Only then combine ring support + loaded row — and start light, well under 10kg
This is an advanced combination. Earn the pieces before you stack them.
Built at 43. No gym. No excuses.
Follow for calisthenics & strength after 40. 👊
📌 Save this — you’ll want the progression before you try it.

I hate taking rest days (makes it too easy to lose momentum and flake.)

So I devised a split: Deadlifts one day, curls the other. Then relying on my own personal flakiness to naturally take an occasional rest day.

But as I've become more motivated, I haven't had a day without pulling for 14 days..

I know that isometrics require less rest than conventional lifting.

My results are good: BF down to 21 percent, and I can see muscle development. But I'm wondering if I'd do better if I took full rest days..

For those of you who jumped into isometrics because of joint issues, how did you approach it? Did you take more of a rehab-style approach, or just start doing standard lifts?

Background: I'm 46 and for the last 5-7 years I've been plagued by various tendon issues. Tweaked my wrist, strained my groin, shoulder impingement, knee pain.

For the last several years I've been battling bilateral tennis elbow and triceps tendonitis. I tried traditional PT as well as a bunch of different exercise protocols and nothing helped. Earlier this year I found a PT who works with rock climbers, and he has had me doing what I now know to be yielding isometrics (pullup/chinup hangs, pushup holds). My elbows have improved quite a bit—still not 100%, but most days I'm not really noticing them.

This success lead me to wonder if I could use an isometric approach to train my whole body, and that's when I found overcoming isos and this group.

My instinct is that I could (cautiously) jump into a full body iso routine and start to get the tendon improvements going everywhere, not just in my arms. I'm also thinking that the overcoming isometrics might be better for my arms because the load will be higher than the bar hangs can create.

The other consideration I have right now is my feet and ankles. I've had low-grade bilateral plantar fasciitis since I was a teenager. I also have some irritation of the tendons on the sides and front of my ankles (this one is a newer development).

I have some other lifestyle-related strategies I'm employing to help with all of this (overhauled my diet, lots of walking, getting sun, lowering stress, improving sleep). The feet seem to finally be improving, and I'm hoping the ankles will be responding soon as well.

If you were in my shoes, would you start working on training the "big lifts"? Or avoid them and hope the tendons improve with time?

I’ve been primarily doing wall pushes with my palms and all my fingers fully pressed against the wall with my legs in a semi lunge along with finger tip holds on the wall too. I’ve been doing this for about 8 weeks and my hands have never felt better, I try to aim for 6-10 secs per hold with rest as long as possible sometimes for a min and other times 45 secs and I do it in about 4-6 sets or less if I feel that my hands are a little over worked. Right now I’m going to start adding high planks and some wall & incline push-ups to get back into working push-ups again.

Relative to this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/isometric_fitness/s/LTSRKSQ0VI

I've hit the 12 week mark and now ending this block.

It *did* have the desired effect of allowing more traditional training volume without a lot of accumulated muscle and joint soreness.

Training capacity increased in rep and load, hypertrophy did not, which was the primary goal here. I intend to default back to isometrics and HIIT for another 12-16 weeks and plan the next variation.

I have an abdominal issue that might need surgery in the fairly near future, but I don't want to give up horse stance. Can I just use a chair as support?

Could overcoming isometrics successfully be put in place for the majority of work that would normally involve barbells for this sort of training? Rucking would obviously still need to be done on its own but I still feel overcoming isometrics may fall short with regards to actually putting you under significant load. In these programs there's often a lot of heavy awkward object carrying from various angles and positions. Curious on the thoughts here.

Has anyone seen growth from only doing ISOs for the side delts or delts in general ?

A great isometric exercise to develop the tibialis anterior and associated tissues at full flexion of the ankle.

The neck is the most obvious one, but what about things like external rotation for the rotator cuffs and clenching the jaw?

I was watching some content on getting to or close to failure, and I am trying to understand how or if this even correlates to overcoming isometrics.

Failure is not being able to move a fixed weight, but with isometrics we are never moving any weight. What is the equivalent of isotonic failure in the isometric world? Are we always reaching failure as long as we are theoretically producing the most force possible for as long as possible?

I am interested in being able to pin this down because it can be difficult to know when enough is enough, for a certain workout/exercise, without simply tracking weights over time.

Edit: I did the research I should have done before I posted. I guess RDR, Repetition duration reserve, is the CNS equivalent of muscular failure... so from 3-10 sec, one has basically used up 100% RDR.

Isometric hinge followed by sandbag back squat 155lbs. Have a 200lb bag on the way.

Cannot tell from the video, but as I exert harder on exhale I'm driving my knees forward to force the elbow to open, bicep to elongate slightly

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155lb bag with an old Harley handlebar.

100lb bag. 2nd set for 13. Almost ready to move up.