This is NOT the Isometrics You Think You Know!
One of the first questions people ask when they see the 1-Rep machine is: Isn't this just isometrics?
Isometric training -- where you exert force against an immovable object (like pressing on a wall, or grabbing your left wrist with your right hand and trying to bend your left arm while resisting with the right) -- has been responsible for some of the strongest, fittest, most athletic and best developed men and women in the world.
Here's the best way to think about Isometric Exercise:
When you do a standard weight lifting workout, say, 3 sets of 10 repetitions, the idea is that on that LAST repetition, you're putting out all the effort possible.
In a way, ALL the work you've done up until that last rep, the one where you give it your all, is just a warm up for the last rep. BUT, doing all that work before the last rep actually tires your muscles and makes it impossible to engage the complete muscle and exhert maximum force!
With isometric training, it's like doing the last rep first! You go straight to the most valuable part of the workout.
But there is one problem with Isometrics, and the 1-Rep Gym solves it!
Measurement
In order for a muscle to grow, it needs "progressive overload." That means each time you work out, the muscle does more work. With standard isometrics, you have no way to know how much force you're exerting and how much work you're doing. You could have a day where you feel great, but don't actually push or pull with more force than last time. Or, you might have a day where you're a bit tired and, without realizing it, you just don't give the exercise as much as you could, let alone more than before. That's why the results with isometrics can be lower than you would want.
One evolution of isometrics, to address the measurement issue, was shown in a book from the 60's by Bob Hoffman and later refined by John Little and Pete Sisco. John and Pete developed Max Contraction Training and Static Contraction Training (SCT). In this variation, you hold a weight without moving it (actually, you're using a weight that's heavy enough that you can't move it). And, as you continue to train, you add more and more weight to the bar.
This is a great improvement, but it's not perfect.
Let's say you try a bench press with 400 pounds (if that sounds heavy to you, just wait until you try the 1-Rep Gym and see how quickly you can be benching 400... or more!). So you put 400 pounds on the bar and try to lift it... but you can't. So you take off some weight and try 380 instead... success! So, great, you have a measurement 380 lbs., but maybe you could have lifted 397 on that first attempt (or some other odd weight that you can't fit on a bar). But trying 400 tired you out! Either way, you can see that at 380 you were CLOSE to lifting as much as possible, but not quite there.
The 1-Rep Gym isometric training machine totally solves this problem by giving you a 100% accurate reading of EXACTLY how much force you're applying to the bar.
In each workout and for each exercise you know exactly what you need to do in order to provide progessive overload to your muscles... and the digital readout gives you feedback and motivation to make that effort to do more muscle-building work each time.
Just imagine knowing that last time you bench pressed 400... and this time, as you push, you see the meter hit 398... I'll bet you can already feel the extra motivation that wells up inside of you to get those extra 2 pounds of force out of your chest muscles, stimulating muscle growth (which burns more fat, better coordinates your nervous system, and improves athletic performance).
Because the 1-Rep Gym lets you put out your maximum effort every time, that means you're working more of your muscle fibers. That's one reason why the 1-Rep Gym produces better results than standard Isometrics or Max (or Static) Contraction Training.
Plus, there are other problems with weight-assisted isometrics:
First of all, it takes a lot of time and effort to load and unload the bar you're using with weights. In fact, for a workout that you could do in 5 minutes on a 1-Rep Gym, you might spend 30 minutes just stacking weights if you were doing weight-assisted isometrics.
Secondly, working with weights can be dangerous. And not just the lifting itself. It is very common for plates to be dropped on a foot or worse.
You won't have those worries with the 1-Rep Gym.
This is a solidly built machine that's easy to setup and use with nothing that could fall or break no matter how much force you use. In fact, it can handle over 4,000 pounds (2 TONS) of force!
