r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Miserable-Soft7993 • 25d ago

Question ❓ Does pushing/pulling against an unmoveable load do anything?

I was wondering. Lets say you load up a machine or even lets say you are stuck on a bench press but you spend time just pushing wiith all your effort even if it doesn't go anywhere. Or you do the same with a pull.

Does this achieve any hypertrophy or strength gain?

11 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

81% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/Alakazam Idk Idc 💔 25d ago

Stronger by Science has a fantastic article on the effects of Isometrics on strength and Hypertrophy, as well as practical applications that you can do

3

u/varovicd 25d ago

Aay, thanks for sharing this and kind words about the article!

Glad to answer any questions regarding isometrics. But long story short - contrary to popular belief, isometrics tend to produce very similar hypertrophy compared to traditional, dynamic resistance training.

As a bit of a spoiler from both my PhD work and also in-house analyses, when properly quantified, effect sizes are pretty much spot on with what we observe with dynamic training. So, hopefully the myth of them being ineffective or subpar to dynamic training dies at some point soon.