End of Isochain Promethean cycle and Next Steps

The Isochain manual recommends changing your routine every 6-8 weeks, to prevent your gains from slowing down. This is based on the research of A.S. Matveyev who found that isometric accommodation occurs in approximately 6-8 weeks. What needs to be changed is the nature of the stimulus. The change could be as simple as changing the training angle of each Isochain drill by at least 20 degrees, if you want to continue with an Isochain routine. As of this writing I have done 22 sessions under my current Isochain Promethean cycle. Without interruptions to training, this would have been 7 weeks. However, I stopped training for 2 weeks because I had a house visitor and wasn't able to figure out a way to reduce the noise of the chain. Then I had another 1.5 week interruption due to the sewer line from my house being busted. So I figured I could do another 1-4 weeks under the current routine.

Then I saw No Limit Squad's video:

What he says about hypertrophy and muscular endurance reminded me of Thomas Kurz's recommendation to build up slow-twitch muscle fibers that stabilize joints and to improve blood supply of the muscles and their fibrous connective tissue, which speeds up muscles’ recovery and is needed for increasing structural strength of their fasciae and tendons. Thus, I started thinking about trying the Iron Man routine from the Isochain manual. This is an Isochain program that emphasizes muscular endurance, as opposed to Promethean, which emphasizes strength development with some hypertrophy. While my back has held up fine these past few months, I like the idea of improving muscular endurance for more insurance against future injury to the back, shoulders, or knees.

Iron Man requires measurement of 1-rep max values to start, because the target load is based on 20-40% of the 1-rep max. For back safety, I am not going to exert my maximum possible effort in the deadlift variation for my 1-rep max measurement session. Similarly to prevent another elbow problem, I'm not going to exert full effort on my 1-rep max test for the bicep curl.

The exercise selection for Iron Man:

Romanian Deadlift at High Angle - Recommended position for people with back issues.

Bicep Curl at High Angle - This will hopefully build up the slow-twitch fibers in my biceps, as well as the structural strength of the bicep tendons. Bicep tendon strengthening was one of the areas of emphasis in my prescribed rehab routine for my first shoulder injury.

Shoulder Press at High Angle - This will hopefully make my shoulders more resistant to injury, again per Thomas Kurz's statement. The shoulders are most vulnerable with the arms extended.

Zercher Squat at Medium Angle - This will hopefully make my knees more resistant to injury.

Bent-over Row at High Angle and Supinated Grip - The supinated grip mimics the grip that I would be using with bodyweight rowing movements on the. When I perform the row on the NOSSK suspension trainerutilizing the spiraling external rotation action taught by Red Delta Project, my hands end up in a supinated grip at the top of the movement, so the supinated grip on the Isochain at this angle mimics that. I chose the high angle because I worked the medium angle for two cycles in a row - the just-ended Promethean, and the Promethean Mk. 2 before that; and the low angle might have too much overlap with the deadlift.

Calf Raise - This is the last prescribed exercise for Iron Man in the manual. Maybe this will improve my foot arch and reduce occasional aches and pains in my feet while walking.