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For trail runners trying to use isometric work deliberately rather than just adding holds to a programme because they sound useful, the distinction between yielding and overcoming isometrics is worth understanding properly.

Tendons do not respond to training the way muscles do, and most runners' strength programmes don't account for this. Muscles adapt readily to a wide range of stimuli - heavy lifting, bodyweight work, plyometrics, even running itself. Tendons are slower, more particular tissue, and the type of loading that builds tendon resilience most effectively is one that almost nobody programmes deliberately: the isometric hold.For mountain runners, whose sport places extreme and repeated