Isometric Training
Just recently I started doing this incredible method of working out – Isometric Training, without actually knowing much about it at fist. I started intuitively, because I felt a bit exhausted and somewhat bored from my usual workout routines. I wanted to take a little break, but still stay active. I have been studying for my personal training certification, but this method was not mention in my study guide. I’ve always known that if you do regular sets of exercise and at the last repetition you hold it for an extra 10 seconds or so, you can increase the effectiveness of your sets. It recruits more muscle fibers. Isometric means ( putting one muscle or part of the body against another or against an immovable object in a strong but motionless action, like holding a push-up position, or holding a lunge position)
So what I did was just different types of exercises ( I called them Yoga inspired exercises, since they weren’t explosive ) that were held in Isometric contraction. And what I found was an incredible results right after the first workout that I tried. Then I started to combining Isometrics with my other workouts. I really loved the results. I started doing some digging around on the Internet and much to my surprise, I found out that Isometrics have been around for a long time. ( I am not sure why my study book didn’t mention this type of training ) So here is some interesting info that I found about Isometrics:
What is Isometric training?
It is a series of static contractions that stimulate the development of lean muscle tissue. This means you will burn more calories, burn fat, build a firm athletic physique and develop incredible strength.
In isometric exercise, your muscles neither contract or lengthen, it is holding a position for 10 seconds or up to a few minutes per exercise. As you get more advanced the time of hold can be increased. With Isometric exercises, you use your body’s own resistance or you can implement external objects like dumbbells, medicine ball, things you can find around the house, etc. Depending on the particular exercise, you contract the various muscles involved and hold them at a specific level of tension for a short period of time as I said earlier from 10 sec and up, coupled with good breathing techniques.
An Isometric Contraction is the tensing up of a muscle without moving the angle of a joint. You can do it with or without weights.
Here are some of the great benefits of Isometric Training.
Regular isometric training increases lean body mass, stimulates the growth of new lean muscle tissue, strengthen your bones and keeps you young.
The more lean tissue you have, the more calories you burn and the faster your metabolism becomes. Lean Muscle tissue is metabolically active – it requires more calories to sustain it than fat.
The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn.
Isometric Training will increase your strength faster than any other form of training – because it works the muscles more intensively and in a shorter amount time over conventional methods. In fact you can finish a workout in as little as ten minutes.
Isometrics teaches you body to recruit more muscle fibres for each movement, thus your increased strength comes not just form more muscle, but form more efficient muscle.
Can be done anywhere – it requires no special equipment. If you have a few minutes of time to spare, do an isometric exercise, hold it for 10 seconds or longer depending on your strength level. It will make huge difference in your body composition.
Safer than conventional training – Because it doesn’t involve movement or weights, so they are far safer than any other form of exercise and often used in rehabilitation.
You can also use it in weight training, like holding a dead-lift for as long as you can is one of the examples.
Soon, I will be posting some of my workout routines and some of them will be Isometrics. I hope you guys will really enjoy these types of workouts and results as much as I did.
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