Great post. I like doing what Westside would call “lightened squats” to get the best of both worlds. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on them.

Cheers

Jack

But both would be much more effective if you are already strong relative strength wise.

Not even the exercise I mentioned because deadlifts fatigue the lower back. I guess you could do some type of isometric split squat safely, but why? There are better options than isos in your specific situation I think, especially since you are relatively weak maximal strength wise.

That’s just my opinion, maybe the author of the article or a reader can add his opinion to this. We have many lurkers, it’s time for them to post

To add to Axel’s post, I too think isometrics are very useful…but for maximal strength gains for exercises like the squat or bench press you have to perform functional isometrics, because isometrics only improve strength for about 10-15 degrees of ROM. Therefore, you must work, bottom, middle, and top portions of the ROM of any given lift. They are very effective at overcoming sticking points and strength plateaus. At t-nation, Charls Poliquin has a QnA that briefly addresses the proper use of them and I believe Chris Thibaudeau has written about them as well.

The Winter is going to come and I plan to train at my home where I have a barbell and plates + a 24 kg kettlebell, and I was also wondering of some good isometric exercises I could do after deadlifts (remember - I don’t have a squat rack nor any other way to put a heavy bar on my back by any means).

You basically lower your body very slowly, counting to four, and then hold the position for three to four seconds. You should only lower yourself a few centimeters before the first isometric hold.

After the first isometric hold, you again lower yourself a few centimeters in 3-4 seconds, and then hold again for 3-4 seconds.

You do the lowering and the holding part for a toral of three or four times, until you are in a half squat position. After the last isometric hold, you jump as high as possible.

This exercise very taxing. Try only one set of 5-10 using light dumbbells or only bodyweight in the beginning (don’t underestimate it). Do it at the end of your routine.

It worked for me and I also tried it with a basketball player I trained.