What are isometrics exercises? Simply put, they are a form of training which require no movement at all. When performing an isometric contraction, the joint angle and muscle length do not change. Isometric comes from the Greek (no surprise there) word iso, meaning "the same", and metric, meaning "length". Despite the fact that there is no actual movement, tremendous force is applied which can result in large gains in muscular size and strength. Isometrics Exercises have been a part of training methods such as Yoga and the Martial Arts for thousands of years.
Isometric training works on the principle known as the "Synapse Effect". This principle refers to the fact that the human body is always striving to use the minimal amount of energy to get anything done. So, if you are weight lifting, your body is constantly trying to use the absolute minimum of muscle fibers to move that weight. When you perform an exercise like the bench press, there is actually only a split second in which every muscle fiber in your arms is being used. This is why it's necessary to perform multiple sets and reps of an exercise when weight lifting.
With isometrics exercises, however, this is not the case. By holding a static contraction you are forcing all of the muscle fibers for that particular exercise to come into play. This is not easy, and requires tremendous concentration. One noted expert on isometric training noted that the whole point of this exercise is to "Get to the last rep first". This is as good a summation of isometric exercises as I've read.
To illustrate how effective this form of exercise can be, I want to tell you about the Springfield Frog Study of 1920. Here was the situation. At the end of World War 1 the medical community had a problem. There were thousands upon thousands of wounded soldiers that needed medical attention. However, there were simply not enough medical personal or equipment to go around. There was a real concern that with so many soldiers infirm that they may lose the use of their limbs from lack of movement. How long could a limb remain motionless before irreversible atrophy took over?
In an attempt to answer this question, the researchers gathered a number of frogs to test this atrophy worry. They took one of the frog's legs and completely immobilized it, while they left the other one free. They left the frogs for two weeks, during which they completely expected the tethered and immobilized leg to wither, whereas the freely moving leg to be fine. That's not quite what happened though ...
Much to the researcher's amazement, however, the tethered leg did not wither. To their astonishment, the frog's leg that were immobilized became much larger and stronger than its freely moving counterpart. So much so, in fact, that when released, the frogs actually jumped lopsided! The researchers didn't realize it, but they had discovered the power of isometrics exercises and contraction. During the experiment, the frogs were constantly trying to move their immobilized leg. They were using every muscle fiber to do so, giving it a tremendous workout. The freely moving leg didn't have to do this, so not much changed.
Isometric Exercises are not as popular today as they were in the past, although they are still a fantastic form of exercise. I suspect one of the reasons for this is that although they look easy to do, they are NOT easy to perform. To perform an isometric contraction properly requires complete concentration and maximum effort. Still, for those who put in the effort, the gains can be enormous. If you are looking for a change in your workout, you might want to give isometrics exercises a try.
David Nordmark runs the health and fitness website animal-kingdom-workouts.com/index.html animal-kingdom-workouts.com For more information on animal-kingdom-workouts.com/isometrics-exercises.html isometrics exercises visit his website.
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