How Isometric Exercises Work Your Muscles Without Much Movement
Try this quick experiment: With the cup in hand, reach out in front of you and hold it for as long as you can. Your hand gets tired and burns after a while, doesn’t it? You work your muscles isometrically without moving, and yet it’s a great way to train and build strength.
Roman Fitness Systems shares a couple of isometric workout ideas with a few basic exercises. The idea is to hold a position in the middle of the movement in which you are especially weak or create a lot of tension. Here are a couple of exercises and positions that you can hold:
- Push-ups: keep yourself in the lower position. If you have a TRX trainer , you can just stick to the top too.
- Pull-ups: You can either hang to work on your grip strength, or hold on top of the bar for a serious challenge.
- Bulgarian Split Squats : Keep yourself in a low position by contracting the glutes of the leg that is still on the bench. If you’re having trouble with the split squat, you can try lunging instead and just hold the bottom position.
- Crunches: Hold and squeeze your abs in the middle of the crunch (not just rounding your back).
Each approach is based on how long you can hold the isometric contraction. For instance:
- DIAL 1: 5 seconds ON – 5 seconds OFF
- DIAL 2: 10 seconds ON – 10 seconds OFF
- DIAL 3: 15 seconds ON – 15 seconds OFF
Continue along this path until you reach 50 seconds.
Read the article to learn more about workouts and ideas related to isometry.
Without muscle movement | Roman fitness systems