Charles Atlas Training, why does it work?

[Turk Malloy]

Charles Atlas's Dynamic Tension has been around for years, and has worked for many individuals. In fact Charles atlas won a court case, in which a competitor, Bob Hoffman of York Barbell Company, claimed it was impossible to build muscle without an apparatus.

Dynamic Tension is;
a self resistance exercise method of pitting muscle against muscle. The practitioner tenses the muscles of given body part and then moves the body part against the tension as if a heavy weight was being lifted.

Looking at the science behind HS Training, I dont understand exactly why
dynamic tension works? Can anyone explain why it does work to the degree that it does and where does it fall short as far as hypertrophy is concerned?

 

[RUSS]

Funny Atlas story:



Judge: "Did you  really use free weights to build your body ?"

Atlas: "no your honor I use the same system I sell to my customers, I only ever lift free weights to test my strength."

Judge: "how often do you test your strength?"

Atlas "for a couple hours every day..."

 

[Bulldog]

LOL...that's pretty funny.

I remember seeing his program a long, long time ago. And if I remember correctly it also incorporated a lot of body weight exercises like push-ups!

 

[Slapshotz]

LOL!!!!

 

[Lol]

Yeah that's funny Russ.

Any exercise regime that demands more of the body than what it is used to will have an effect on it to some degree. A lot of the dynamic tension exercises are static contractions which have been shown to be effective for hypertrophy and strength gains. The problem comes from the loading potential if you aren't using any form of added weight resistance. Maximum strain potential from static holds is somewhere between max for negs and max for normal reps. In other words, it's possible to hold pretty heavy weights in a static position. As there's only so much resistance you can apply yourself, once your body is conditioned to your max resistance it'll stop adapting.

Using your bodyweight as the load can be very effective for some smallish muscle groups (say delts if you do hand stand presses or holds) but it's pretty rubbish for large muscle groups like quads and hams (although sissy squats are pretty tough just with body weight). Single-leg work would go some way to making exercises harder but not for long and balancing is a pain too.

 

[quadancer]

You can always say "clank" at the end of each rep...

 

[Fausto]

Limited gains, mate, limited gains!

 

[Morgoth the Dark Enemy]

Considering that Atlas sorta kinda looks like complete shite even in his booklet, where he`s supposed to look his best, I wouldn`t say the thing works all that wel. Sandow, on the other hand, was one ripped mofo...small but ripped.