Dynamic Tension

"Dynamic Tension" is the name Charles Atlas gave to the system of physical exercises that he first popularized in the 1920s.

Dynamic Tension is a self-resistance exercise method which pits muscle against muscle. The practitioner tenses the muscles of a given body part and then moves the body part against the tension as if a heavy weight were being lifted. Dynamic Tension exercises are not merely isometrics, since they call for movement. Instead, the method comprises a combination of exercises in three disciplines: isotonic, isokinetic, and some exercises in the isometric discipline.

Charles Atlas Ltd., which Atlas incorporated in 1929, owns the trademark for Dynamic Tension.