Isometric exercises – Everything you need to know

Resistance training is the key to decreasing body fat, increasing bone density, and building lean, healthy muscle. But to maximize your results with resistance training, it’s important to mix things up; otherwise, you will stagnate and stop making profits. To avoid this, you need to incorporate a form of resistance training called isometrics, which allows you to really challenge your muscles, and make gains, without any movement. In fact, you can perform isometric exercises virtually anywhere, whether you’re at the gym, sitting at your desk, or driving home from work.

What are isometrics?

Isometrics are a form of resistance training that involves static muscle contractions. In other words, the muscle does not lengthen or shorten. For example, an isometric exercise is holding a dumbbell in each hand while bending your elbows at a 90-degree angle and holding for 60 seconds. Even though you are not actively moving, your muscles are still active.

Benefits of isometrics

Isometrics have many benefits, but one of the biggest is that they don’t require expensive equipment, gym memberships, or large amounts of space in your home. In fact, many isometric exercises can be performed using only your body weight, such as planks and squats.

Isometric Training Basics

One of the key things to remember when adding isometric exercises to your training regimen is that the muscle gains you make will be joint-specific. In other words, using the example above, if you only train one muscle group at 90 degrees, then any benefit you get will be limited to just that angle. That’s why it’s important to use isometric exercises that train muscles at a variety of angles, not just 90 degrees, like 20, 40, and 60 degrees.

To develop your own isometric exercises, simply decide which muscle group you want to target, choose a challenging weight, and then determine what angle you want to train at. Then lift your weight to that angle and hold it for three to ten seconds before releasing it, that’s one rep. You will need to perform between 5 and 10 repetitions of each exercise, five days a week. And don’t forget to vary the angles!

Dangers of isometric training

While isometric training is very effective, it can be dangerous if not trained properly. If you suffer from any cardiovascular issues or have high blood pressure, you’ll definitely want to consult your doctor before doing isometric exercises. Why? Because isometrics are static, which means we tend to hold our breath during exercise. This causes an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure due to reduced venous return to the heart. To avoid this, you want to make sure that you always inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth throughout the entire muscle contraction rather than holding your breath.