Isometric Exercise

Isometric exercise is a form of exercise in which the length of the muscle and the angle of the joint do not change. Tension, or stress, is produced by a static contraction — with extremely limited, if any, range of motion. As time under tension increases, and the mind/muscle connection grows stronger, more and more muscle fibers are recruited, from slow to fast twitch.

• “‘According to the Mayo Clinic, clinical studies have shown that isometric exercises help lower blood pressure levels. In a study published in the journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that isometric exercise training produces similar or better results than aerobic exercise to reduce blood pressure. The authors of the study recommend further research into the cardiovascular benefits of isometric exercise and the optimal number of times per week it should be conducted.”’ From a blog posted by Amino Science.

Generally, isometric exercise is safe, effective, and as demanding as you want to make it. In other words, you can continue the holds, or contractions, for varying amounts of time (generally from 3 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes, dependent upon the exercise), with varying degrees of pressure, or stress.

*In recent studies done at Niigata University of Health and Welfare in Niigata, Japan, a group of 39 sedentary college students were instructed to flex their biceps as hard as they could for a total of 3 — yes, that’s correct — three seconds a day, five days per week for one month. After 20 of these 3-second exercise sessions, the group increased the strength of their biceps by as much as 12 percent.