The Main Reason We Do Iso's

July 8, 2025

One of the main reasons we do ISOs or movements where we're not actually moving is for the athlete or the individual to be able to pick up compensation patterns. And what I mean by that is, if we put our intention as not moving, as having absolutely zero movement, you're going to then be able to feel what feels like it needs to move or you're going to be able to be aware of what actually does move.

So, for example, let's say that we have you get in a position where the goal is to not move your elbow at all, or to not move your bicep at all, or to not move your lower half— like we're getting you to lunge or whatever it is. Right. We set that intent of the the goal is zero movement.

Because it's so simple, you're going to be able to feel, oh, I feel like I need to move my finger. Oh, I feel like I need to look to the left. Oh, I feel like I need to... Like I feel like I need to shift my foot. You're going to be able to feel all those different things. And those little things are— those things which are most inefficient in your system. 

And so by doing these holds, we can then work through that inefficiency, where we burn through every possible combination of way that you could hold that position or way that you could be in that position. 

And then, as a side effect of that, we actually get that more efficient, because we start to be able to get in the position that you want to get into, hold the position that you want to hold, and then be able to like burn through all those levels of inefficiency so that, when you actually go back into your sport or go into whatever it is that you're competing at, you can use all those different tissues, all those different aspects that we have in our system in the way that you want, because there's not a bunch of little things trying to pull you off.