Bill Starr explains how to incorporate isontonics and isometrics into your strength program.
The isometric concept was the brainchild of Dr. John Ziegler, a general practitioner from Olney, Md., who specialized in physical rehabilitation.
Isometrics, along with the more advanced combination of isotonics-isometrics, swept across the country almost overnight. Then in the mid-’60s, the isotonics/isometrics bubble exploded. Word had finally leaked out that along with the rack training, several key athletes were taking an anabolic steroid. Doc Ziegler was behind this innovation as well. When he learned that Russian Olympic lifters were experimenting with male hormones, he dug in the research and ended up developing a little pink pill, which he took to CIBA Pharmaceuticals. That’s how Dianabol was born.
The isometric craze came to a screeching halt. It didn’t matter what kind of routine lifters used just as long as they were using Dianabol. The consensus was that the rack training had been nothing more than a smokescreen. Many believed it was the drug that made the only difference, and almost overnight isometric training in any form was abandoned—except for one group of lifters: those at York Barbell. They continued to use the isotonic-isometric routine. Why?
Because they knew the system brought results.