Sometimes, for whatever reason, you don’t have the time or the energy to do a full and proper workout, or maybe you just fancy trying something a bit different. I felt like that once, and a bit of research later and I’d combined several unusual training techniques in order to come up with something original, simple and highly effective. And it’s since benefited me greatly, when tired, when rushed, or when on holiday in a small room with a friend or two who don’t appreciate me rushing around the room drenched in sweat.

The first piece of the puzzle I found was ‘static contraction training’. This type of training refers to exercises that don’t involve any movement. You simply either pull or push against an immovable object (such as a wall, a chain or a work top) for an extended period of time, or hold a heavy weight in a difficult position for an extended period of time. This has been shown to have similar properties as doing a full range of movement for growth, and to be even more effective for developing strength and power. Bruce Lee used to swear by this method and he ended up developing enough static strength that he could hold a 40kg barbell out in front of him with one extended arm for over a minute – that’s the average bench press!

So that’s one way to train without moving anywhere – literally – but you still need to get up and find an appropriate surface/heavy object. That’s when luckily I read a book ‘Pushing Yourself to Power’ which described a training method that simply involved pushing or pulling against your own limbs. So say you were doing a bicep curl, instead of using a dumbbell you would use your own other arm to provide the resistance by pulling down on your forearm.

I also read up on Charles Atlas’ Dynamic Tension method, which describes simply tensing your muscles while you go through the movement; so there’s no resistance at all but you’re tensing your muscle as though there was. Your muscle just feels a contraction and doesn’t know any different.

So I realised you could combine these exercise methods to create the most simple and powerful workout possible. You press against yourself, contract the muscle as hard as possible, then stop and repeat. It’s brilliantly simple. For example, a replacement for doing the pec dec or pec flies would be to push your hands into each other as hard as you can in front of your chest. For your biceps pull up against your opposite hand which is pushing down on your wrist and hold. For triceps do the opposite. For your abs either sit down or lie down, raise your knees in front of you and push against them with your hands while pivoting at your hips and tensing your abs. It burns right? And no need for any equipment, movement or anything! It’s static contraction using your own body as the immovable force. It won’t replace a full workout (though you could probably develop a fairly good physique from these alone) but it will work excellently as something you can do on the move. I call it ‘The Statue Technique’ – copyright Adam Sinicki 2009.

Mack LeMouse

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