Why do you think you need zero resistance in an exercise program? Rehabilitation, before you can start to train you need to be able to move through the range of motion without pain. Pain is a good indicator to stop or lower the resistance. Now if you were to do 300 to 400 reps with zero resistance would you get stronger? How about if you dialed in some resistance? You’d start to get better results in a shorter period of time. Remember we talked about variable resistance. The Exer-Genie® is the greatest variable resistance device ever discovered because it allows you to do any motion at any resistance level through any plane of motion. Simply the best way to do isokinetic exercise training.
Now if you did 3 sets of ten curls you would be doing what we’ve all been taught. Working with the Exer-Genie you the control line which gives you more than enough resistance to be able to pull at 70% effort (or more if you want) for ten seconds to fatigue the bicep muscle. After this initial 10 seconds, you allow the control line to move to let you do a 12-second curl at 70% to 100% effort. That allows you to do 3 reps instead of 3 sets of 10 and you build strength because you fatigue the muscle and get to the last rep right away.
Isokinetic Exercise: Leg Press
If you don’t have any strength, you will not have any energy to be able to do aerobics to work your heart. If you don’t have any energy – you will sit and when you sit, what you we usually do? You Eat!
We discovered that our legs are 3 times stronger than our back. Our back is 3 times stronger than our arms and shoulder. Unfortunately, most of us will end up near the end of life, pushing ourselves out of a chair with our arms, because we can no longer support our own body weight with our legs. At the starting position of the leg press, I can press 200 lbs., halfway up is 500 lbs., almost full extension it is over 700 lbs. This is the strongest lever in the human body. Is there any way I could put a 700 lb. weight on my back? The Exer-Genie will give you exactly the resistance you need to get the best stimulus in each of these angles. And on top, you have totally taken your lower back out of the exercise!
What about knee problems – let’s forget any cartilage damage, but if you’ve put on weight and your quadriceps are weak, guess what’s going to ache? Your knee joints. This exercise I’m doing right here can double your leg strength in a short period of time and if you need to rehab a knee, ankle, or hip you can limit the range of motion and intensity. As you get stronger you don’t do more reps but a greater range of motion and more intensity, time stays the same but the results improve.
If you did 3 sets of ten at zero resistance it would be for rehab but as you get stronger and more flexible we add resistance and also can control the starting point by using the control line. Add resistance and have a limited isometric contraction then the leg press. How did that rep compare to the zero resistance? Let’s try one more. Do a controlled leg press using a limited isometric phase for 10 seconds (do you feel that the legs are fatigued like doing 9 reps?) then let the control line move through the range of motion.
Let us look what happened physiologically in about 3 reps and 1 minute:
- Your heart rate is up
- You started to sweat
- You worked your legs probably safer and more effective than 15 minutes on the weight machine
- All with no danger to your back
Isokinetic Exercise: Lats Pull (Upper Body Workout)
The average American man over 30 was designed to have a body that is 10 inches wider at the chest than at the waistline. However, by 35 most of us are straight up and down, and by 45, we’ve inverted. If you were to go into most gyms today, what would you see? A lot of lifting! We want to stay away from any lifting which causes compression on the spine. A better way is Pulling Down. If it were not for gravity, my head would fly up and hit the ceiling, “anti-gravity” exercise – no compression on my lower back. By combining the different systems of exercise, we are getting maximum results in a minimal amount of time. I tire for 10 seconds, then move for 12, that one repetition is equivalent to 8 to 10 reps with the lat pulldown machine. As you get stronger, you never do more than 3 reps; you just increase the resistance – major breakthrough because we’ve solved the time problem.
Isokinetic Exercise: Triceps Extension (Triceps Workout)
Another thing we’ve discovered is that if you work a muscle in only one direction, you will not get sore the next day. You can see my triceps is “loaded up”, but the bicep is totally relaxed. Also, when you change directions in “positive-negative” movement, you create a lot of added pressure on the joints (tendon insertion points) but not with this System. Guys, if you what a great set of arms, you should be working the triceps. Unfortunately, most of us are 3 times stronger in our bicep than our triceps because it’s a larger muscle group. Ladies where’s the first sign of aging in your bodies? Right here, isn’t it? Some say it’s a family problem–Mon had it, Grandma had it, it must be genetics! What we know is that there’s no diet in the world that will tighten this up. We took 12 women, ages 54-69 and had them do 3 repetitions of this exercise every day. After 6 weeks, they had lost an average of 1.9” in their arms. Now, I don’t think we lost a lot of body fat, but we did take a loose, saggy muscle and tighten it up.
Isokinetic Exercise: Soft Tissue Stretch (Over-head Stretch)
Now, if you sit behind a desk all day, typing or on the phone, or in the car– guess what muscles are going to become stiff and tight? We’ve discovered an interesting thing; most people are more motivated to exercise to relieve pain, than the other benefits of exercise! Here is a simple movement called the Soft Tissue Stretch, It’s not a pulling exercise, just a stretching one. We’ve been showing this exercise for over 35 years. You may recognize it but in a doorway. The problem with the Physical Therapy Doorway Stretch is you can’t just relieve the stretch pressure, you must return to the starting position. Whereas with The Trainer® you just drop the handles. Also, you have more range of motion and safety. One important note though! Make sure you lock the door because if it opens it could ruin your whole day.
Isokinetic Exercise: Standing Abdominal Pull (Standing Sit up)
Another problem in our bodies for most of us is our power-center. Currently, most people are referring to our CORE. This muscle here is the key to your body. In terms of strength, this muscle is weak. Look what happens to my lower back – my posture shifts to compensate for the lack of strength. Look where all the pressure comes to bear, my lower back.
We know this doesn’t work (sit-ups) and this doesn’t work (doe touches) because 30% of muscles used are the abdominals. I’d like to show you an exercise that saves time and combines three areas of exercise at one time.
It does three crucial things:
- Tightens the abdominal wall (in the isometric contraction pound hard enough on your abs to make a thud sound everyone can hear to confirm the abs are working).
- Stretches the lower back (Show the forward bend)
- Stretches out the hamstrings with no compression on the spinal column. (Gently stretch the hamstrings and show a safe recovery movement)
Strength and flexibility are a pre-requisite for any aerobic exercise program. Do you know why a lot of us don’t like to run? Because we can’t! Seriously, we don’t have the strength in our legs to support our own bodies for a sustained period of time. This is what I do every day, I run! Because an exercise program is incomplete if you aren’t doing your aerobics. We do resistive aerobics, which is like pulling a car down the street. I run in this harness for 9 minutes, 3 minutes for each rep every day. I only run 30 feet – any distance longer than 30 feet and I take the car. When I started this program, my resting heart rate was 79 beats per minute, today it is 65! One problem you will have running on level ground is the impact on your hips, knees, and ankles. The resistive aerobics run with the Exer-Genie® is a toe to heal jog or run and it keeps the pressure off your joints and works the legs without the pounding. I guarantee if you’ll start with 1 minute every day and build it to 7 to 9 minutes you will be able to go out for a run, jog, or walk and be able to get back.
Isokinetic Exercise: Side Bend (Oblique Workout)
We can isolate the obliques (or “love handles”) with this exercise.
Isokinetic Exercise: Chest Workout
This is a great exercise for the chest. Three reps on one side and turn and do three reps on the other.
Now, let’s look at what we’ve just accomplished:
- Worked every major muscle group in our body
- Raised our heart rate into the Target Zone
- Done it in just 15 minutes
Have any of you ever experienced that euphoric feeling after exercising? Well, I used to think that it was just because I was finished! But a number of years ago experts discovered a chemical called endorphins that are released by our brain after vigorous physical activity. It’s a natural Stress reducer, 200 times more powerful than morphine and it’s already built into our own bodies. Unfortunately, 90% of us aren’t experiencing it on a regular basis, if ever!
Let’s review the needs of your body:
- Rest – anyone ever goes a night without sleep? It doesn’t take long for that one to show up!
- How about the fueling process? Have you ever heard of hyper or hypoglycemia? It’s a blood sugar disorder that’s affecting more and more of us each year. It’s predicted that in the next 25 years “on-set diabetes” will become our number one killer!
- And what about exercise? 100 years ago, 95 % of all work was being done by manual labor, but today less than 5% is being done by our own bodies… our need for exercise is growing every year!
The biggest question is what are you going to do? Would you spend 45 minutes to an hour, 3 to 4 days a week? How about 15 minutes 6 to 7 days a week? How about 6 minutes? 2 minutes? If you had just 2 minutes, here’s what I’d have you do to get most of the Isokinetic Exercise Benefits:
- 3 Upper Body Stretches
- 3 Abdominal Workouts
- If you had another 1-1/2 minutes add the Upper Body Workout and with 3 more minutes finish up with
- Resistive Aerobics to get that heart rate up and oxygenate your body
How do you get an Exer-Genie System? This perfect Isokinetic Exercise Equipment is available on www.exergenie.com. Our unique exercise program is taught through training and rehab professionals and our Exer-Genie Online Academy at http://master.exergenie.com. The cost of the Classic System is $229.95. The Exer-Genie Classic includes a hardwood training footboard, padded training harness, carrying case and links to the instruction manual and the basic instructional videos.
If you feel your family and friends could benefit from this article, please send them the link or use the free manual download page with the referral-game at https://www.exergenie.com/x-trainer-manual
I’d like to leave you with this thought: You can have the biggest house on the block, the nicest car in the parking lot, but without your health, you have precious little.
