Workout of the Week: ISO Sore
Extremely challenging workout focused on muscular endurance and mental resilience through the use of isometric holds.
ISO Sore
4-minute horse pose hold
4-minute hollow rock hold
4-minute right leg only hip bridge
4-minute left leg only hip bridge
4-minute bird dog pose hold
4-minute bird dog pose hold on other side
4-minute left leg balance hold
4-minute right leg balance hold
10-minute forearm plank hold
1-minute rest between holds
Try to accumulate as much time as possible for each hold.
Take minimal breaks when needed.
My preferred timer app:
Timer for the first eight sets of today’s workout prior to the ten-minute plank:
Optimal Resilience Training
I’ve said many times before that my favorite type of exercise to train resilience is muscular endurance, particularly isometric holds.
There’s nothing like putting your body in an uncomfortable position and trying to hold it for as long as possible.
Maintaining any of these poses for four minutes is an impressive challenge.
This workout, in its entirety, tests the soul.
Regardless of how physically adapted you may be, the building pressure each of these positions will cause after a few minutes is profound.
The one-minute breaks between each pose are just enough to stabilize your system. The positions are in an order to allow certain muscle groups to recover while other ones are working.
Pain will be present throughout.
Where does your mind go when you’re in the presence of a continuous stressor?
How about during a short break when you know another wave of difficulty is coming?
What kinds of mantras, breathing techniques or other strategies do you think would be most effective to help you persist?
This is THE workout I would recommend for anyone to use in order to train resilience.
The first ten seconds of every position feels easy. The stress then begins to build.
How will you respond?
Stress is Not Linear
The mind controls the body.
When the muscles are screaming in these positions, you can always push a little longer through the power of your brain.
Let your preferred strategies to combat stress be optimized during this challenge.
Position Examples and Modification Descriptions
Horse Pose
You’ll notice my toes and knees splayed out as I sit into position for this pose. Modify by not sitting as low or using a stable object for support.
Hollow Rock
Engage your core to bring both the legs and upper body off the ground for this pose. Only the glutes and lower back should be touching the ground. Pin your arms to your side and attempt to find a good breath rate while holding this difficult position. Modify by either holding just the legs or upper body off the ground. Place hands under your butt if doing a leg raise hold to support lower back. Bend your knees and hold your upper body in a midway sit-up for the upper body raise.
Single Leg Hip Bridge
Initially lay flat on your back, bend your legs bringing both heels to your butt, and then perform a standard hip bridge by lifting your hips to make a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Complete this pose by now lifting one foot off the ground. The only points of contact you should have with the ground is one foot, your shoulder line, and back of your head. Modify by allowing your opposite foot to lightly maintain contact with the ground to provide support.
Bird Dog Pose
Starting in a tabletop position on your hands and knees, stretch one arm forward and the opposite side leg straight back to enter into this pose. Modify by only holding your arm or leg in the correct position while having your other three limbs on the ground.
Single Leg Balance Hold
Pretty straight forward for this position. Balance on one leg. I eventually had to hold my arms out to each side to support balance as my calf and foot started to fatigue. Modify by allowing the other foot to barely touch the ground or use a stable surface for support.
Forearm Plank
Engage your core, upper back, and glutes when establishing this position. Modify with a low knees plank. Modify further by bringing your knees closer to your hands. As long as you’re contracting the previously mentioned muscle groups, you’ll experience adaptations as you challenge yourself during this brutal last set.
Recommended Approach
My recommended approach for each set is to start out holding the pose as long as you can. Note the time when you take a break. From that point forward, try to determine a challenging amount of time to hold the position with periods of rest in between. What I love about using the EMOM timer I shared at the beginning of this post is that it will tell you when you’re halfway through and have ten seconds left within each minute of a given set. This allows anyone to have a good sense of time without watching the clock (which is never a good idea unless you’re wanting to further challenge your mind).
Start using a modified or unmodified position that is relatively easy for the first twenty to thirty seconds. Modifying now versus a limited amount of time under tension without modification allows for quicker adaptations and overall success sooner rather than later.
This is a workout you can always come back to with the goal of beating your previous time through mental fortitude.
My Experience
I’ve done this workout several times and it’s always BRUTAL.
Never had I ever made it through all the sets without taking at least one break during a given pose until most recently.
The horse pose to kick off the workout challenges the largest muscles in the body which inevitably impacts all subsequent holds. I had never held this position for more than three minutes. At 3:30, my quads were absolutely on fire while my body was uncontrollably shaking. I probably looked like Michael J. Fox trying to squeeze out his Thanksgiving meal (I’m confident he’d be cool with that joke). When the timer hit four minutes, I collapsed.
The next minute, like every other rest period, I laid completely still and focused on nothing other than slowing my heart rate down through controlled breathing with prolonged exhales.
Next up was the hollow rock hold, a position I couldn’t hold for more than a minute not too long ago. With my legs still burning, the building pain in my core while trying to maintain a steady breath rate was very difficult. My mental strategy for overcoming the excruciating pain in my gut during this hold was challenging myself to just make it another thirty seconds. Every time I did, I convinced myself the fatigue still wasn’t unbearable (unbearable is a mental state) and went for another thirty. Focus remained on my breathing and getting to the next self-created checkpoint.
Now that the quads and core were smoked, the hip bridges initially felt like a break. While both of those muscle groups were engaged, it was much more the lower back, glutes and hamstrings managing the load. Very quickly, it felt like someone snuck a Bunsen burner under my ass and the only way I could put it out was to quit.
Unacceptable.
Separating my thoughts from my senses is a strategy I always lean on when I know the impulses aren’t dangerous. This pain was intense but not going to injure me. Focus was on counting my breaths and trusting that I can overcome anything. Before I knew it, the right and leg were finished while I was recovering in the fetal position.
Bird dogs are a pose from the McGill Big 3, part of the December Daily Fitness Challenge. An excellent exercise for lower back and core health, it’s also extremely challenging to hold for time like any other isometric position. Similar to the single leg hip bridges, I anticipated the bird dogs would be a break.
Wrong.
My back and core were already hurting by the two-minute mark, but I kept grinding. While not as terrible as the other poses, I was reminded there are no breaks throughout this workout.
Single leg balance holds are typically more challenging mentally than physically. This is especially true when doing the pose outside when the weather is cold and windy. Maintaining balance is more cognitive than anything else when you’re not fatigued. Once tired, however, balance holds test your spirit. The mind and body have to work together despite extreme discomfort. Not falling from fatigue, lack of focus, or the elements is a never-ending test that requires every ounce of energy I have once the later minutes arrive. I’m unable to go mentally dark when I have to center my attention on a skill like balance. I was proud of being able to complete these holds without a slip up as nothing had tested my mind more than the balance holds up to this point.
My biggest test, however, was still to come.
A ten-minute plank hold is an achievable challenge for me when I’m fresh. When every muscle in my body is exhausted, ten minutes feels like ten hours, especially when I have a timer that gives me thirty second updates.
Time goes slower when you are conscious of it.
The pain I felt throughout this test continued to come from unusual areas: posterior chain muscles, quads, glutes, shoulders, and even feet. Eventually fatigue from the intended area, my core, overtook everything else. Commonly referred to as our second brain, the gut has a funny way of encouraging mental resistance when it is the target of stress.
Breathing is harder.
Limbs feel weaker.
The literal core is under attack.
Good.
Strengthen the foundation to encourage relentless resilience.
Nothing feels better than the feeling of dropping to the ground after an extreme challenge knowing you conquered your inner demons.
Ultimate delayed gratification.
I experienced some of the best post-workout euphoria I’ve experienced in a while after the timer reached zero.
Mindset
The goal is always to be better than your last time up.
Beat yourself.
If you’ve never done a given workout, the goal is to simply test yourself.
Develop realistic expectations for future challenge.
Understand your opportunities for improvement physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Each set can feel like a mountain.
The entire workout can feel like Mount Everest.
Don’t focus on the peak.
Optimal outcomes are derived from owning each moment in the journey.
One metaphorical step at a time.
Control your breathing.
Center your mind.
Detach from your body.
Overcome your urges.
Master your spirit.
Let a difficult workout be your vehicle for character development.
Become more resilient with intentional stress.
Thank you. I’m going to do some of these holds today.