The Static Contraction Workout

[Samurai Jack]

Alright guys, this is going to take some time so I may have to spread the information out over several days. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the basic method of holding a static weight in your strongest range, please bear with me as the actual details of how to perform the lifts will take me the most time to write.

The Bare Bones Workout

To perform the Static Contraction workout you will need access to the following pieces of equipment:

1) A workout log

2) A stop watch (you will be asked to record the length of time you are able to support your lifts in seconds)

3) A squat rack and/or a smith machine (preferably both)

The workouts are arranged in two split routines, one being performed per week. This means you are actually only performing one workout every other week. You can read the article on one of my future posts for an explanation as to why.

Workout A

Seated Barbell Press
Deadlift
Weighted Crunch
Bench Press
Barbell Shrug

Workout B

Lat Pulldown
Close Grip Bench Press
Cable Curl
Leg Press
Toe Press

"Range Of Motion

In every exercise there is a range of motion through which you could choose to move the weight. For example in the bench press you could hold the weight one inch off your chest, or one inch from lockout, or anywhere in between (in other wordws anywhere from your weakest range to your strongest range). In SCT, all of the exercises should be performed in your strongest range-but do NOT fully lockout during the e3xercise time as this takes the tension off of the muscle.

"Timekeeping and Reps

Time is a critical element in the measurment of strength and of exercise intensity. Fortunatly, this SCT routine will be the simplest with which you have ever trained in thios regard. Since there are no reps, your entire set consists of holding the weight motionless for 5 to 15 seconds. This time was chosen as a middle ground from all of our research so far.

"Progress is made by using the same weight until you can hold it for 15 seconds. Once a 15 second static contraction has been achieved, increase the weight by 15 to 30 percent to find the weight you can statically hold for 5 seconds. Every "set" will consist of holding the weight for a duration of between 5 and 15 seconds."

-Sisco/Little Static Contraction Training

I need to point out here that the amount of weight you will initially start with is quite a bit more than you might expect. This is usually due to the fact that you can support up to 150% of your one rep max with a static hold. So if you can leg press 400 lbs., you'll statically leg press 600 lbs. on your first workout, for example.

More later...

[Samurai Jack]

You will be performing one set per exercise. It is possible that you may see slightly better results with two or three sets, but the intensity of this work will make it somewhat difficult to do more than one set at the beginning. I'm planning on moving up to two or three sets on specific body parts that appear to be lagging behind in a week or so, but there is no way for you to know how your body is going to deal with this program until you try it. For the most part, research has shown multiple sets to be unecassry.

Write it down!

You will have much better success if you write down your weights and hold times. It is not likely that you can remember the exact weights and times you will be using from one workout to the next, and this would greatly sacrifice the precision of your work. Remember, the purpose of this program is to ensure steady progress from workout to workout. You must be able to keep track of your numbers in order to monitor for over training.

And now, a word on overtraining and frequency from Pete Sisco, the co-author of the SCT book:

[Samurai Jack]

"Q. How often should I train?

A. There are a hundred variations on this question. Usually it’s prefaced with ‘I do cardio 3 times a week’ or ‘I do intense martial arts training’ or ‘I’m just getting started…so how often should I train?’

The greatest single pitfall that bodybuilders and other athletes fall into is accepting a flat, cookie cutter answer to this question. And I can hear that awful standard no-brainer answer now…”You should train three times a week.” Bull. If you want to distinguish yourself as a thinker amid a herd of obedient sheep, read on.

The frequency that you, and everybody else, should train with is variable. Not fixed. When you lift weights as a means to develop more muscle the intensity of your workouts has to progress upward. If it remains at the same intensity there is no reason for new muscle to grow. Show me a guy who has been lifting three days a week for a year and I‘ll show you a guy who hasn’t changed his physique whatsoever for at least ten months.

If you want to train efficiently and effectively you have to understand the relationship between the ever-increasing intensity of your workouts and the ever-decreasing frequency of those workouts. As an example, when a person is just starting out, he could, indeed, train three times per week performing bench presses and leg press of, say, 150 pounds and 350 pounds. But he should only lift those weights during one workout. On his second workout he might be hoisting 165 and 375 on those two lifts. On his third workout they should increase again. (Or, if he just can’t get more weight off the pins, he should be increasing the number of reps he performs. Something must increase.)

But soon a Monday will arrive where he either doesn’t feel like going to the gym (a sign of overtraining) or he’ll discover that he can’t even lift the weights he did last time. He’s gotten weaker! When this happens to most bodybuilders they decide to ‘try harder’ in the form of more frequent workouts, or switching to a new ‘system’ or they head to the supplement store to buy something that promises new muscle from a can. But all they really need to do is adjust the frequency of their training…allow more time for full recovery by training twice per week for a few weeks. When the problem shows up again they need to train once per week or once every ten days…and so on.

Maybe your proverbial Monday arrived a long time ago and you haven’t seen changes in your physique ever since. If so, do this: Take two weeks off of all weight lifting. (No, you won’t wither up. I work with advanced trainees who train once every six weeks.) When you return to the gym make sure to increase the weight on every lift you perform. Then cut your training frequency in half and try to get increases every trip to the gym. So if you’ve been training once every three days, change it to once every six days. As soon as your intensity goes up you’ll feel that new muscle growing and soon see the changes you’ve been wanting."

- an e-mail I recieved from Pete Sisco

[Samurai Jack]

Okay, so for the first month or two, you're going to work out using SCT one day per week. It is critical that you do no other weight training during this period, and that you keep your cardiovascular work to the lowest intensity level possible. Martial Arts should be O.K., but you must listen to your body. Never do a SCT workout when you are still sore from the last one.

To know how or when to adjust your individual workouts and your training frequencey, just follow these two simple rules:

1. If on any work out, you fail to make progress on one or two exercises, you need to skip those exercises on the following workout. When you add them back in, you will find that you have gotten stronger with them by allowing yourself time to rest and heal.

2. If you fail on three out of five exercises on that workout, it's time to add and additional day of rest to all of your workouts from now on. Don't just add the day "this once". You have graduated to a new level of power and your body is going to demand more rest to account for that power.

[Ford Prefect]

thanks for posting this, sj.

[Shaolin-Do]

interesting.
Are you doing this training?
If so, let us know how it goes.

[Samurai Jack]

O.K. I'm bumping this back up to answer questions from another thread.

[IronFist]

SJ - my question was "where in the ROM do you hold the weight?"

And above I found this:

In SCT, all of the exercises should be performed in your strongest range-but do NOT fully lockout during the e3xercise time as this takes the tension off of the muscle.


So it's the "strongest range." Usually the strongest range is right before lockout (I have a feeling the author of that article knew this, which is why he put the caution about lockout). So for example, in bench press it might be and inch or two below lockout. That's strange. I guess I would have assumed that you would hold it at the maximum contraction spot, which for bench press, would be maybe 1" above your chest.

And with squatting you're holding it nearly at the top of the movement; this is much easier than holding it at the bottom, in which case it could become like a horse stance plus hundreds of pounds.

I just read a static training article in a muscle mag (Muscle and Fitness I think, I don't remember; it's the one with the fighter on the front and it has the UFC fighters article, which is why I bought it), and they say to hold the weight at near maximum contraction, but when they do it you're using all these machines for it. Like after a chest workout you would go to the fly machine and hold the weight with your hands 2-4" apart.

I just thought I'd mention that article since it's kind of the opposite of what you posted. Plus, it's different in the sense that you're also incorporating regular, full range of motion stuff in the M&F one.

I'll look over the SCT stuff again, I guess.

IronFist