CS/Essentrics - using dynamic tension?

[OSusanna]

So I’m the one who said this year I’d do all my Margaret Richard workouts this year and I got through about 2/3 of them before I got burned out. I did 50 separate workout sessions. I will return to her stuff eventually but right now my antennae has picked up a Classical Stretch/Essentrics frequency that neither I Nor my wallet could ignore.

So in my CS journey, I’m noticing that moves while keeping the muscles tense are common. A great example is the way that we pretend there is a ball and we pull it up as if it has weight and push it away from us. Is this what Joyce Vedral calls Dynamic tension? And have you found it effective? What other workouts besides CS/Essentrics use it? I’m slightly sore, a workable pleasant soreness. Does this movement shape muscles?

[killoffsonny]

Sorry I don't have any answers to your questions but those are questions I'd like answers to also. I hope someone chimes in. Jackie B?

I've been doing CS semi regularly for the past month. Trying to replace it for yoga. I don't always know how to fit it in since I do other things but when I do it I can feel that it helps.

[Lannette]

Originally Posted by OSusanna

So I’m the one who said this year I’d do all my Margaret Richard workouts this year and I got through about 2/3 of them before I got burned out. I did 50 separate workout sessions. I will return to her stuff eventually but right now my antennae has picked up a Classical Stretch/Essentrics frequency that neither I Nor my wallet could ignore.

So in my CS journey, I’m noticing that moves while keeping the muscles tense are common. A great example is the way that we pretend there is a ball and we pull it up as if it has weight and push it away from us. Is this what Joyce Vedral calls Dynamic tension? And have you found it effective? What other workouts besides CS/Essentrics use it? I’m slightly sore, a workable pleasant soreness. Does this movement shape muscles?

No real answers here either. I also hope Jackie B or Pam will respond because I’m curious.

To me the two seem very different and I admit that it could be my execution of the movements. With Joyce the dynamic tension feels more isometric in nature - though I haven’t done Joyce’s stuff for a while.

With Essentrics, it feels more like I’m extending/pulling my arms away from the midline of my body. This activates more muscle than just reaching out or up without any pull. I don’t need to isometrically contract, not sure I could even, because the muscles are all ready contracted.

I love Essentrics teamed with weight training and boxing.

Essentrics experts please feel free to correct me! I’d rather be doing it right than just think I am.

[OSusanna]

Thank you Lannette and killoffsonny for your responses. I remember that in one workout Miranda mentions Tai Chi. I’m curious what other non -CS workouts are out there that work the muscles that way. Maybe barre?

I really feel it in my deltoids when I do the arm movements especially.

[JackieB]

Hi. So probably the proper terminology would be dynamic stretch training. The whole "strengthened in a lengthened position". Miranda's earlier work really put an emphasis on pulling through a stretch and a big part of the Essentrics technique is pulling up and out....developing "long lean muscles" and decompressing joints.

Miranda's ideas and focus have evolved a lot in the last 2-3 years. Her more recent workouts revolve around the idea that "relaxation is the new strenthening". Going to what you think is the end of your stretch, relaxing and stretching further finding your true end. Seasons 11 and 12 are very focused on this piece and move a much slower and gentler pace. There are things I enjoy about these new seasons and prefer some of the focus of her earlier work.

You'd probably enjoy Sahra's Barre workout or the new BSS2 workout as they talk about that pulling up and out and the technique of toning. Not sure what you currently own! My past favorites for a more toning based workout have been Class of 2012 or Stretch and Strength in Motion.

[Judith L]

Originally Posted by OSusanna

Is this what Joyce Vedral calls Dynamic tension? And have you found it effective? What other workouts besides CS/Essentrics use it? I’m slightly sore, a workable pleasant soreness. Does this movement shape muscles?

To me it most resembles what is called "Dynamic Strength Training" in the Martial Arts, pitting muscle against muscle, and used by Bruce Lee and Harry Wong, so I would say "Yes, it not only shapes muscles but builds strength and power and without bulk." See: Harry Wong Dynamic Strength Exercises.

[Lannette]

Originally Posted by Judith L

To me it most resembles what is called "Dynamic Strength Training" in the Martial Arts, pitting muscle against muscle, and used by Bruce Lee and Harry Wong, so I would say "Yes, it definitely not only shapes muscles but builds strength and power and without bulk."

Hi Judith,

This describes what I think of as Joyce’s Dynamic Tension but is quite different than how I experience the “strengthened in lengthened position” that Jackie described. In this Essentrics technique I feel the joint decompression.

I need to think about this as I may be missing an opportunity. Thanks for describing this so clearly.

[Judith L]

Originally Posted by Lannette

In this Essentrics technique I feel the joint decompression.

Yes, I feel the joint decompression! Miranda emphasizes it. Yet I feel in getting there it is the technique I learned from Wong's work because I am resisting and pushing at the same time. She just pushes/elongates to the uttermost. So their techniques are not the same but, to me, quite similar, just taking the first to a greater length, so to speak.

[Lannette]

Originally Posted by Judith L

Yes, I feel the joint decompression! Miranda emphasizes it. Yet I feel in getting there it is the technique I learned from Wong's work because I am resisting and pushing at the same time. She just pushes/elongates to the uttermost. So their techniques are not the same but, to me, quite similar, just taking the first to a greater length, so to speak.

Thanks for the clarification. I’ll check it out next time I do Essentrics!

[Judith L]

It seems to me that Joyce Vedral's "Dynamic Tension" is just contracting those muscles which you are contracting, more. Gripping a weight more tightly and contracting the contracting muscles to the utmost.