Weaving ISOCHAIN Isometric Strength Training Into A Kettlebell Workout

While isometric strength training has been around for ages, Dragon Door’s Isochain device is certainly brand new. There’s only a few hundred of them out in the wild at the moment (the first round of preorders … people who believed in the project enough to sign on as early as LAST October … shipped out semi-recently). And while yes, it looks like the stick and board that Bruce Lee famously trained with, the Isochain brings a number of extra features to the table. The most interesting (to me at least) is the ability to measure how much force you’re exerting. The design of it also allows for so many different exercise options that there’s a 400+ page book all about it — and an online course.

But the question remains (and is frequently asked): how do we fit this new protocol into our current training?  Well, lucky for you I’ve been experimenting with this – and also with the training of a very advanced client. I’ve come up with a generalized framework but will also share one of my own workouts using the ideas.  It should also be noted that The Ultimate Isometrics Training Manual (that aformentioned 400+ page book) contains several strategies as well – they do prioritize the Isometric training as you’d expect, and I wanted to keep my kettlebell training to the forefront.

Here’s the general framework of the example workout below:

1. Joint mobility warm up
2. Continued warmup with basic kettlebell swings and get-ups
3. Isochain training
4. Kettlebell strength circuit
5. Optional short duration high intensity cardio (true all out Tabata, 4-10 minutes fan bike intervals, 5 min kettlebell snatches etc.)
6. Mobility cooldown and self-evaluation

Anyone who’s trained with me for the past several years will recognize the larger elements of that pattern. It will change of course given the goal of the session and the larger goal we may be training towards. Something very important to note is that the continued warmup with basic kettlebell swings and get-ups portion is very sub-maximal – we’re really just getting moving there. We don’t want to go all out before the Isochain training, but we do need to get up to speed.

Example Isochain and Kettlebell Training Session

(Approx 1hr, expandable to 1.5hr)

Joint Mobility Warm-Up*

Kettlebell Warmup (sub-maximal)

• 10x 24kg kettlebell swings
• 1/1 Get-up No weight, pause at each transition
• 10x 24kg kettlebell swings
• 1/1 Get-up 18kg kettlebell, measured, controlled pace
• 10x 24 kg kettlebellswings
• 1/1 Get-up 18kg kettlebell, measured, controlled pace

Isochain Promethean Program (4-6 reps each execise)

• Deadlift 6 second pulls (first 4x are ramping up, warmup sets)
• Bicep Curl 6 second pulls (first 4x are ramping up, warmup sets)
• Overhead Press 6 second pulls (first 4x are ramping up, warmup sets)

Kettlebell Strength Circuit 3x:

• 20x kettlebell swings (24kg)
• 20x Standard Push-ups (strict form and controlled pace of course)
• 10x Double Kettlebell Front Squats (2x16kg)
• 5x Double Kettlebell Press (This could be left out, given the Isochain training above)
• 1/1 3-Way Lunge (24kg, 20kg, 18kg)
• 10/10 20kg Kettlebell Rows

Optional Fan Bike 4 Minute Tabata

Cooldown:
2/2 Get-Up with no weight, rolling practice, stretches, joint mobility

*