Hi Everyone,

I have been training following MIT training protocol for 5 months now with
training session intervals progressively growing from 4 day to as long as 4
weeks and based on my experience can testify only one thing now (that I
suspected all way along) - the static system of training is great for increasing
tendon and ligament strength BUT it doesn't affect muscle development to the
degree a classic full range of motion training would do. MIT had significantly
increased the digital readout numbers on my 1RepGym but failed to produce any
significant muscle growth and even more so every time I had 4 week rest periods
I had noticed that my muscles have actually shrunk not to mention I gained some
fat in the process. So MIT and static training could be a great tool to
supplement a more complex and well rounded training system that includes classic
full range of motion training and periodization principles but in no way it's
all in one simplest and best solution for muscle growth and muscle strength
increases. Unfortunately it takes a lot more than MIT to produce consistent
muscle growth and muscle strength gains.

The above is the opinion and observations of many on this forum - I just voiced
the results of my own experiment with MIT. Also these results don't mean that
I'm stopping the MIT training - I will just start supplementing MIT with full
range of motion exercises as I had have 100% proven to myself that MIT is
targeting development and strengthening of tendons and ligaments first and
foremost and not the muscles.

The links below make some additional points such as:

- why short range or static exercises target tendon and ligament development;
- why it takes much longer (weeks and not days) to properly recover from static
training than from regular full range of motion exercises;
- why this long recovery has nothing to do with muscle growth but rather repair
of tendons and ligaments to allow them to handle much heavier lifts;
- why it's important to not just train tendons and ligaments (static or short
range of motion training) or just muscles (classic full range of motion
training) but combine both training methods together to develop balanced muscles
and strength and avoid muscle and tendon/ligament injuries in a long term.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson18.htm
http://beastskills.blogspot.com/2005/02/tendon-strength.html

Enjoy your reading and your comments are welcome.

Best Regards,
Alex