- What's up, it's Chris Heria, welcome to another vlog.
Today I'm gonna show you how to build insane strength
and muscle without doing a single rep.
To be more clear we'll actually be holding
an exercise position for time, versus performing
an exercise for concentric or eccentric repetitions.
When it comes to isometrics training
there's neither a concentric or eccentric contraction.
Instead, it's constant tension that's placed on the muscle
without lengthening or shortening the muscle.
And just like exercises where you rep them out,
isometric exercises where you hold a position
can build strength and muscle as well.
In fact, isometrics training will also
greatly strengthen your ligaments, tendons,
and surrounding connective tissues,
which are needed not only for more advanced exercises,
but also heavier lifts and greater overloads.
And the strength that you receive
from doing isometrics holds and increasing
your time under tension in these positions is different
in the strength that you acquire from repetitions.
So you want to make sure that you're doing both of them.
For example, an experienced lifter
that can lift 400 pounds or well
over their body weight still won't be able
to do a full planche if they're not training for it.
Isometric strength and concentric and eccentric strength
are too different types of strengths.
But if you put them both together
you can get full planche push-ups
and more advanced exercises that require
an enormous amount of strength from both sides.
And ever since I started incorporating isometrics training
with concentric and eccentric training
into my workout routine I've never felt stronger.
My strength and muscle gains have tremendously increased.
Best of all, isometrics exercises
can always be done without weights.
So they're easy to train anywhere.
And you can always increase the resistance
or the difficulty by adding more weight
onto your body and doing the exercise,
much like you would increase the weight in the gym.
But for today we're just gonna be using our own body weight.
And for each exercise we'll just be holding for time.
I'm gonna start with the most advanced movement,
so you can see what you're working up towards.
But I'll give you a progression for every fitness level.
Work on the progression that you can do properly,
and do it with perfect form.
As soon as you can master that one you want
to move on to the next harder progression
that I have for you, until you've built the strength
and worked your way up the progressions
to be doing the advanced exercise that I'm doing.
Now, all these exercises are gonna work
every single muscle in your body.
But it's mainly gonna emphasize on your upper body,
as your upper body is supporting
the majority of your body weight.
Your lower body is mainly used to stay engaged and balanced,
helping to lift and stabilize the lower half of your body.
So, if you're ready to get started make sure
you've downloaded the Heria Pro app
in the App Store or Google Play store.
Open up to the YouTube workout section.
You should find this routine, and you're ready to go.
The very first isometrics exercise we're gonna get into
is gonna be full planche hold.
This is a super advanced exercise
that builds enormous upper body strength.
Lifting your entire body weight
with straight arms from your waist line.
Now, it definitely takes time to work
your way up to this exercise.
So as a beginner the first progression
you want to start off working on
is straight armed full planche leans.
Make sure your arms are straight and locked out
when you're leaning into your full planche leans.
It only counts if your arms stay locked out
because you're building your straight arm strength.
So only lean as far as you can to where your body
allows you to with straight arms.
If you start bending your arms
at any moment you're doing it wrong.
You need to start over and keep your arms straight.
And that goes for any of the progressions,
including the full the planche hold.
If you're intermediate I want you working
on the progression tuck planche with your arms locked out.
For more in depth detail and instruction on how to do
these exercises and work your way up
to the full planche check out my video, how to full planche.
All right, for whichever progression
you're choosing you're gonna for three attempts
and hold it as long as you can.
If you're at a higher progression on your second
or third attempt if you feel like you can't do it
or you can't perform that progression
with good form go down to a previous regression
like the planche leans, and max those out.
All right, let's go for it.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have a full planche.
Now, you can give yourself at least 30 seconds
to rest, regain your strength.
And you can either try the same progression again,
or go for an easier progression,
and hold it for a longer amount of time.
In this case that would be something
like a tuck planche hold.
So, we would get down on the ground.
Make sure your arms are locked out.
We're gonna transfer our body weight
from our feet to our hands as we look forward.
Keep our arms locked out and release.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have the tuck planche hold.
Now, all of these exercises
can be done on parallel bars as well.
In fact, if you have some at home I'd advise starting
with them because it's a whole lot easier.
But, eventually, you definitely want
to move on to your hands on the ground.
Doing these exercises with your hands on the ground
is like five times more difficult.
But you also gain five times more strength.
If you can do them on the ground
you can basically do them anywhere.
Now we have one last attempt.
We can either stay at this progression or go down
to an easier progression and hold it for a longer time.
So, that would be the full planche leans.
Let's get down on the ground.
Have a good grip on the ground,
pushing down with your scapulas.
Point your chin forward, and you're gonna lean, lean,
until your hands get to your waistline, or just as far
as you can go while still maintaining locked out arms.
And you just want to hold as far as you can lean.
(heavy hip-hop instrumental music)
Now, eventually, the more you get better
at this you're gonna find yourself leaning further
and further, until your hands are by your waistline.
And eventually you'll feel like your feet
start to pick up off the ground.
Because the majority of your body weight
starts to go on to the other side.
Now, this exercise is a killer for your chest, triceps,
shoulders, abdominals, forearms, and lower back.
It's a very difficult exercise
that requires a lot of strength.
But you can definitely achieve it
if you work up the progressions.
You normally see Olympic gymnasts doing this exercise,
only holding it for about three to four seconds.
But by the time you can hold the position
like the full planche for three to four seconds
you would have developed a significant
amount of strength and muscle.
Now, moving onto the next isometrics exercise,
that's gonna be a handstand hold,
emphasizing on your shoulders, your core,
lower back, stabilization muscles, and upper body.
Now, I'm gonna go for the handstand hold.
But for the intermediate athletes watching, I want you
to go for the progression handstand hold against a wall.
Or if that's too difficult just start
off with an elevated pike hold.
You're gonna build your strength in your arms
and get used to being up inverted and upside down.
Then you can move on to the handstand hold against the wall.
And for my beginner athletes I want you to focus
on the very first progression to mastering your handstand.
That's gonna be the pike hold.
So, let's get down on the ground
and hold it for as long as we can.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have the handstand hold.
You want to take a second to catch
your breath, regain your strength.
And then you want to go for two more attempts.
Now, you can go for a handstand hold again.
Or you can start working your way down the progressions.
And for a full breakdown in detail
of these exercises and a full list
of progressions working your way up
to the handstand check out my video, how to handstand.
Now, for our second attempt I'm gonna demonstrate
the easier progression, that's gonna
be handstand hold against the wall.
We're gonna hold it as long as we can.
Walk up, want to get
as close to the wall as possible.
You want to be as straight as possible,
pushing down with your arms,
keeping your arms straight and locked out.
If they start to bend it's only a matter
of time until you start coming down.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, now we have one last attempt.
I'm gonna move on to the beginner progression.
That's gonna be a pike hold.
If you were already doing the beginner progression
you should go ahead and do it for your third attempt now.
Let's get into a pike hold position.
We're gonna go from a push-up position.
We're gonna bring hips up, keeping
our legs straight, core tight.
And walk all the way up, and pike as much as possible.
And then lean forward, putting the majority
of our weight on our hands.
You want to be straight from your toes
to your hips and your hands to your hips.
Squeeze, squeeze your core, shoulders,
grip on the floor, everything.
All right, there we have the pike hold.
Now, make you start from the beginning
and start mastering and building your strength
up through these progressions.
These were the same exact progressions that I did
and used to get my handstand and full planche today.
Now, moving on to the next exercise,
we're gonna be going into a front lever hold
and the professions that I trained
to build my strength to get there.
This exercise is a killer for your back,
rhomboids, traps, arms, core, and upper body.
I'm gonna make my way over to the pull-up bar.
You're gonna need to find a place to hang.
I'm gonna start with the hardest progression.
That's gonna be the front lever hold.
For my intermediate athletes I want you attempting
a single leg tuck front lever hold.
Make sure you're training with both legs, both sides.
And for my beginner athletes I want
you just holding a front tuck lever hold.
So, choose your progression, and go
for the hold as long as you can.
(heavy hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have the front lever hold first attempt.
Let's take a second to catch
our breath, regain our strength.
The next one we're gonna get into,
you can stay on this progression,
or you can move down to the previous progression
if you've lost the strength to be able
to do this progression properly.
Just hold the easier progression
for a longer amount of time.
I promise, the next time you're fresh,
and you try the progression that challenges you
the most you're gonna be so much better at it.
You're gonna hold way longer.
And you're gonna feel a lot stronger in that position.
Now I'll demonstrate the intermediate progression
that's gonna be single leg front lever hold.
So, we're gonna go up, bring in one leg, come out, and hold.
You want to make sure that your arms are straight
and you're pushing through your lower hips.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have it.
Just like the full planche holds, perfect form is crucial.
You need to have your arms locked out.
And you need to be emphasizing from your lower back.
If you're not pushing from your lower back and trying
to get your wrists and your belly button to meet,
you're gonna have a really bent front lever,
which is basically not a front lever.
So make sure you're using perfect form.
It's a lot of lat strength pulling down.
And almost like you're pushing your hips in like a deadlift.
You want to keep your legs straight.
So like this, and relax.
Now we're on our last attempt.
We're gonna go for the easiest progression.
Keep in mind you don't want to have a round back.
You want to be pushing with your lower back.
We're gonna go for tuck front lever.
So, let's grab, raise our knees up, leaning back,
engaging our lats, picking our hips up.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have the front levers.
Now we're moving on to the last exercise
for the isometrics training.
That's gonna be a back lever hold,
which is a killer isometrics hold for your upper body
from your chest, shoulders, tricep,
lower back, and so much more,
including your glutes and lower body as well.
I'm gonna go for the back lever hold.
For my intermediate athletes I want you going
for a single leg back lever hold.
And for my beginner athletes I just want
you doing a tuck back lever hold.
So, let's get into position
and hold it for as long as we can.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have back lever hold.
Let's take a second to catch our breath.
Now I'm gonna demonstrate the single leg back lever hold.
So, let's breath in through our nose.
(exhales deeply) Exhale, let's go for it.
Remember to do both legs.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, there we have the single leg back lever.
Definitely a killer for the split of your chest
if you've never tried that before.
Now we're gonna move into our last attempt
with the beginner progression.
Remember, you can stay at the progression
you're at or move onto an easier progression.
But just make sure that you're hold it
for a longer amount of time and using perfect form.
So, if you're ready let's go for the last attempt.
You want to bring your legs up.
Just put your feet through the bar, look forward behind you.
Once your back is flat you're gonna engage.
Squeeze your grip, squeeze your core, and hold.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)
When you're ready to come down you can either drop down,
or you can come back all the way around.
And that is the tucked back lever.
Now, all these progressions if you train them properly
and strengthen them in order will definitely lead you
to the final exercise, the final result.
They're the same progressions that I used
to build my strength and work my way up
to do the more advanced exercises.
And for more in detail breakdown on how to do
the back lever check out my video, how to back lever.
Now, that's gonna be it for this routine.
I already have a crazy pump, and we haven't done any reps
at all, just holding our body in different positions.
If you were able to get through this workout
with me congratulations, you're on your way
to developing some insane isometric strength,
taking your training to the next level.
And the more you train like this you will
eventually be able to go for more rounds.
And to benefit the most out of this routine
you want to be able to do it at least three to four rounds.
That's the same way that I trained this routine.
In fact, to get this full routine on your phone,
as well as full access to all my personal workouts
and workout programs that I've created
with specific goals in mind,
like building solid muscle while simultaneously
getting shredded with minimal
to no equipment, make sure you've downloaded
the Heria Pro app in the App Store.
And make sure you upgrade your account to a member
at heriapro.com, so that you can have full access
to all my routines and take my workouts with you everywhere.
It's like having me as a personal
trainer right in your pocket.
Now, if you enjoyed the video
don't forget to smash that like button.
Leave a comment down below.
Let me know what you want the next video to be about.
I'll be in the comments section checking
all your comments for ideas for the next video.
And don't forget to share this video
with a friend that wants to make some strength
and muscle gains without doing a single rep.
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Mad love, peace out.
(rhythmic hip-hop instrumental music)