VRT Strength Training and Muscle Development

Fred Hutchinson, former author of Milo, writes this. I have modified his remarks to label the exercises as VRT rather than DVR, for I developed the term Visualized Resistance, and dynamic visualized resistance's three letter acronym is simply a borrowed child of VRT....they are one and the same.

"Mike Dayton in his "Chi Mind Control" course also advocates slow VRT type movements, including martial arts punching--and he says the reason to do them slowly is to "overlearn" and strengthen every muscle involved, the point being that if you go too fast you might shoot right past a weak area that you could stand to strengthen...Even Pavel says in "Power to the People" that VRT type exercise does not cause you to "put on the brakes"; he cites Russian research that VRT exercises build not only strength but ability in quick lifts also. If by doing VRT you were causing a lingering case of antagonistic tension, that would not be the case...Also, VRT, in my experience, does not lead to excessive residual tension. If anything, the muscles are more relaxed after VRT than before. One reason for this is advanced in Scott Shaw's book "The Ki Process", wherein he uses some VRT type movements; he says that moving with tension and then relaxing opens up the ki channels in your body, and with a better ki flow you are automatically faster and more powerful, even if you do nothing else to strengthen your muscles.

Clearly, at least in my opinion, there is much more going on with VRT type exercise than merely tensing muscles; call it ki, chi, or nerve force, there is something extra going on here...Oh, and the belief that to move fast you must train fast is one of the biggest fallacies in exercise methodology. One of the very best ways to build explosive power in the legs, for example, is through the traditional practice of holding a static horse stance for time. A far, far more valuable practice than plyometrics or even conventional movement exercises, and I couldn't care less what the "authorities" say..."