Isometric Exercises, Charles Atlas, Alexander Zass and N.A.SA.

What Do They All Have In Common... Isometric Exercises!

Did you know that you could build muscle and become stronger without weight training? It's true!

Here's the rest of the story:

It's called isometric exercises and it increases muscle mass giving you that great-looking body you always wanted. In addition, you can get fit without going to the gym or buying very expensive home exercise equipment.

Isometric exercises involves muscular contractions performed against fixed resistance.

The system gained scientific acceptance in 1953 when a couple of German researchers named Dr. Theodore Hettinger and Dr. Eric A. Muller published a study showing people who did isometric exercises obtained dramatic results by causing their muscles to tense for no more than 10 seconds at a time using this "isometric exercises."

Charles Atlas And Isometric Exercises

Muscle tension became popular in America when a young man from southern Italy, Angelo Sicilano, teamed up with marketing genius Harold Roman to produce an advertisement in comic books.

It showed how a 97-pound weakling became a "real he-man" and punched out the bully who had kicked sand in his face. This ad launched the mail order bodybuilding program called "Dynamic Tension."

Young Angelo went on to win the title The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man. Most people believe it was isometric exercise but in reality, it was both isometric exercise and bodyweight exercise.

He changed his name to Charles Atlas, put on a pair of leopard skin shorts, and the rest is history.

Probably the only man Atlas could not help was Mahatma Gandhi. When the great spiritual leader of India wrote a letter to Atlas asking for help, Atlas devised a diet and recommended a series of exercises to help restore Gandhi's weakened condition.

"I felt mighty sorry for him," Atlas said. "He was nothing but a bag of bones."

Alexander Zass
Father Of Isometric Exercises

A few years before Charles Atlas started flexing his muscles, another strongman used isometrics to build and maintain his strength.

Like Atlas, Alexander Zass better known as "The Amazing Samson" offered his training through a mail order course. Zass was born in Vilna, Poland in 1888, but lived most of his early years in Russia and after 1924 in Britain.

He developed a great belief in the application of isometrics and "maximum tension" for the development of strength. He believed such an approach was superior to the normal use of weights in developing strength.

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