Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Save yourself time, money and energy and forget about Static Contraction Training (SCT). I followed this method for 8 solid months. Every workout I attempted to lift heavier weights and I did succeed- I did "hold" heavier weights. Here's a few examples- Seat shoulder press I started with 225lb. and built up to a 370lb. hold. Bench I started at 365lbs. and built up to 465lbs. Close bench 290, up to 385. I was using more than 2200lbs. on the leg press, the machine couldn't hold anymore weight. I was amazed at the weights I was "holding", and was pleased that I was able to increase almost every workout. I also made sure to get enough rest- I increased my recovery time between workouts up to 1 month, meaning that I had 30 days to recover before doing the same exercises again. The books states that you need to increase recovery times in order to grow stronger. Then last week I decided to "test" myself. See what I could do using full range dynamic exercise. I thought that for sure I would be able to add 20lbs. to my bench press- I thought that would be very easy to do. WRONG! I was able to bench my normal weight- 200lbs., but it felt a bit heavy. When I tried 220 the bar got half way up and that was it- no way was it going any further. I was stunned! I'm holding 465 and yet I couldn't get 220 up. After a few days rest I tried a few more full range exercises. I did seated dumbbell presses- I struggled to get 4 reps with 50lb. DB's. I dropped down to 30lb. DB's and 8 reps felt quite challenging (remember that I was statically holding 370lbs.). 80lbs. on the leg extension was heavy for 6 reps (I'm statically holding 380lbs. on that exercise). On dumbbell concentration curls I would use 75lbs. and get 6 reps (prior to SCT), now doing 65lbs. for 6 reps was a challenge. Before SCT I could do over 100 non-stop pushups and do chinups for 3 sets of 10 with 30lbs. tied to my waist. After 8 months of SCT I struggle to get 40 pushups and can barely do 10 chinups with just my bodyweight. Forget all the hype about this program, it just doesn't work. I believed very strongly in this method and based on my static holds I thought it was working wonderfully. But attempting a few full range movements as proved to me that static holds do not transfer over to full range movements. Now don't think for a moment that I wasn't pushing myself during SCT. I kept looking to increase hold times and/or amount of weight being used. I busted my butt trying to hold more weight. So lack of effort was not the problem. The method sounds great in theory but falls well short in reality. If you want to "hold" more weight then use SCT. If you want to use your muscles in "motion" then look for some other training method.