Resistance training is the key to decreasing body fat, increasing bone density and developing lean, healthy muscles. But in order to maximize your results with resistance training, it’s important to mix things up; otherwise you will hit a plateau and stop making gains.
To avoid this, you should incorporate a form of resistance training called isometrics, which allow you to really challenge your muscles and make gains, without any movement. In fact, you can perform isometrics pretty much anywhere, whether you’re in 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, one isometric exercise is to hold a dumbbell in each hand while bending your elbows at a 90 degree angle and holding that same position for 60 seconds. Even though you aren’t actively moving, your muscles are still being engaged.
Benefits of Isometrics
There are many benefits to isometrics but one of the most important 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 isometrics to your training regime is that the muscle gains you make are going to be joint specific. In other words, using the previous example, if you only train a group of muscles at 90 degrees, then any benefits you gain are going to be limited to that angle only.
That’s why it’s important to use isometric exercises that train your muscles at a variety of angles, not just 90 degrees, such as 20, 40 and 60 degrees.
To develop your own isometric exercises, simply decide what 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 – that’s one repetition. You’ll want to perform anywhere from 5 to 10 repetitions for 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 you don’t train properly.
If you suffer from any cardiovascular problems or have high blood pressure, then you will definitely want to consult your physician first before doing isometrics. Why? Because isometrics are static, which means we tend to hold our breath during the exercise.
This causes an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure because of a reduction in venous return to the heart. To avoid this, you need to be sure that you always breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth during the entire muscle contraction rather than holding your breath.