Wall sits and other similar exercises

Mindwraith

New Member
Do wall sits (sitting against a wall using your quads to hold you up) increase strength? If I were to increase the amount of time, say from 60 seconds to 120 seconds that I can sit against a wall would that help to increase strength enough to affect my squatting. Or will only squatting heavier weight increase my strength in squatting? Or will it do something different aside from simply allowing me to sit on a wall for longer periods. Where would this benifit me. (i.e. I was told this is good to do before skiing when I was younger, also in Tae Kwan Do I was told it increases kick strength heh)
 
They would definitely improve muscular endurance. I can't see them doing much, if anything, for either power or limit strength.
 
This is a form of isometric training (pushing or pulling against an immovable object). Isometrics has been shown to improve strength in several studies, and more strength gains with isometrics than with other forms of strength training have been reported in some studies. It's probably the best way to get over a "sticking point" in certain exercises- I used it to take my bench press from 140 to 180 when I first started training. 180 was easy at the bottom, and easy at the top, but came to a dead stop in the middle of the lift- even lighter weights got stuck there. However, true isometrics requires maximum force applied to an immovable object. To see an effect in your squat strength, you need to be in a squat position pushing up on a fixed object- such as an overloaded barbell in a rack (by overloaded I mean a weight you can't even budge, no matter what). Also, in a wall sit the force you apply to remain sitting is transferred forward, not down as in the squat- that's why it might improve kick strength. You also need to apply MAXIMUM effort for a much shorter period of time (about ten seconds) to improve strength. Otherwise it will definitely only improve endurance, as Chupacabra stated. :)
 
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