Charles Atlas Workout: Building muscle with dynamic tension

Charles Atlas Workout: Building muscle with dynamic tension

Can you really build muscle with dynamic tension?

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “dynamic tension,” it is the name of the exercise system that Charles Atlas gave his course. It became very popular back in the 1920s.

However, “Dynamic Tension” is not an isometric exercise as we currently know it.

The idea behind this system of muscle building is to use your own body weight or resistance to pit one muscle against the other. In some exercises, you tense a specific body part and then move that body part as if you were performing an exercise with a dumbbell or resistance band. In other words, you want to move your body through the full motion of the exercise.

Dynamic tension uses some isometric, isotonic and isokinetic exercises. The biggest advantage of dynamic tension, according to some people, is that it is impossible to get injured using this method. For some of the exercises you will need two chairs to train with. This helps increase resistance when doing only bodyweight exercises.

This is a great muscle building technique and part of any dynamic tension training.

For example, in an exercise that Charles Atlas calls "dipping," you place two chairs about shoulder-width apart and then perform push-ups while dipping as deeply as possible between the two chairs. Once you can simply do this exercise - a third chair is brought into play - on which you place your feet. You would continue to do push-ups between chairs, just like regular push-ups.

However, I want to assure you that they are much more difficult than regular push-ups and you will get a great breast pump.

Another great exercise to build your triceps is placing two chairs about shoulder-width apart. Then place your palms on the edge of the chair and do a triceps dip.

To build your back, again use two chairs and place a broom handle or pole on the tops of the chairs. Then perform a pull-up.

There's nothing better than handstand push-ups for building your shoulder muscles. To perform this exercise, you need to approach the wall and then push yourself up so that your toes are against the wall. You then lower yourself until the top of your head reaches the floor and then push back up.

Perform as many repetitions as possible. You can increase the difficulty by playing around with your hand positions. The further your hands are apart, the more difficult the exercise becomes.

This is a great exercise for building the shoulders and triceps and was used by many of the strongmen of old to build their upper body.

These are just a few examples of some of the best dynamic tension muscle building exercises.

Inspired by Robert Deangelo