If you’ve ever held a plank, then you’ve also done an isometric workout.
Simply simply, isometric exercise is any sort of exercise that maintains the body in one posture. The muscles are tensed but do not alter length as you keep the position.
For example, when you maintain a plank, you’re tightening the muscles in your core, legs, and upper body to keep you up while remaining in the same position.
However, isometric workouts remain contentious for their strength and muscle development advantages. This may have you thinking if they’re worth adding to your training program.
This article explains you all you need to know about isometric exercises and includes eight exercises for you to attempt.
If you’ve ever held a plank, then you’ve also done an isometric workout.
What are isometric exercises?
Isometric exercises are exercises in which your muscles are engaged, but they are not altering length.
Contrarily, in an activity like a biceps curl, where you lift and lower your hand as the elbow bends, the biceps muscle grows shorter when your hand travels closer your shoulder and longer as you straighten your arm back out.
Isometric training is a means to categorize workouts that engage muscles and produce stress without actually stretching (eccentric contraction) or shortening (concentric contraction) the muscle. In an isometric contraction, your muscle is engaged, but it’s not changing size.
This kind of training involves no movement and instead focuses on maintaining your body in a posture for a defined amount of time. It’s a static approach of exerting a demand on a targeted muscle or set of muscles without muscle or joint movement.
The sort of resistance might come from your own body weight (gravity), holding an object, or weighted workout equipment. Isometric exercises are perfect for individuals with limited gym space, persons recuperating from an injury, or anybody simply desiring a variation in their normal fitness program.
In fact, isometric exercises are routinely incorporated to rehabilitation regimens, as they may provide stress to the muscles with minimal joint and muscle movement. This allows a person to regain strength and muscle endurance in an affected region while sparing it from additional injury.
Though, since the muscle contractions in these motions are restricted, they should only serve as a supplement to a more dynamic training plan, unless your physical trainer has instructed differently.
Can you grow muscle using isometric exercises? How effective are they?
The process of developing muscle is known as muscular hypertrophy. It happens when a muscle endures mechanical and metabolic stress, which leads to improvements in muscular growth and strength. This triggers a rebuilding process to grow more muscle cells and create larger muscles.
Most studies shows that the kind of muscular contraction matters when it comes to growing muscle.
In particular, eccentric (muscle lengthening) and concentric (muscle shortening) workouts tend to trigger muscular hypertrophy most effectively, as they place more strain and stress on the muscles.
While isometric exercises certainly place tension on working muscles that can produce improvements in muscular strength, some evidence shows they’re not as effective at developing muscle growth compared with eccentric and concentric training.
This is easy to visualize if you think about workout methods. A body builder who routinely lifts and moves big weights would likely have greater muscles compared with a yoga devotee who keeps fixed postures during their yoga program.
While you might not bulk up with isometric exercises, they’re a fantastic technique to increase muscle endurance, the capacity to maintain exercise for a length of time. They can also enhance muscular strength, defined as the muscle’s ability to apply force against resistance.
Isometric exercises are also useful for creating stronger mind-body connection, helping you to engage your muscles more effectively.
What’s more, isometric exercise may be a preferable alternative for persons who seek to minimize delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), as less muscle damage occurs. Further, isometric exercise puts less load on the joints, which may be useful for people healing from injury.
Also, isometric exercises generally require little to no equipment and can be performed practically anyplace, making them easy to add to your training program.
If your aim is to gain muscle, it’s usually best to focus mostly on eccentric and concentric exercise. But, you may still use isometric exercises at the conclusion of your workout to enhance muscle endurance and build strength.
Read Also: Isometric Exercises For Full Body Strength
Best Isometric Exercises To Try
If you’re seeking to add some isometric exercises to your training program, give them a try.
1. Wall sit
Wall sits focus on building the strength in your thighs, especially your quadriceps muscles.
Equipment needed: none
Muscles worked: quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes
Stand approximately 2 feet away from a firm wall, leaning your back against it.
Bend your knees and drop your bottom down so that your knee joints create a 90-degree angle. Your body position should match the same posture you have while sitting on a chair.
Hold this posture for 15 seconds or longer. Be sure to maintain your hips and shoulders in touch with the wall and keep your knees above your ankles.
Perform 2–3 rounds.
To hold this position, you’ll feel your thighs growing tighter and more exhausted.
Experiment with moving back and forth between driving your weight down via your toes and your heels. Driving down through your heels will target your glutes, while driving down your toes will target your quads.
Just be cautious not to allow your knees go out past your toes, and when you place weight on your toes, don’t put too much pressure on the knees.
2. High plank hold
The high plank hold is a great approach to work several muscles in your body.
Equipment needed: none; yoga mat optional
Muscles worked: abdominals, quads, glutes, muscles of the arms, chest, and shoulders
Start in a kneeling pushup with your hands shoulder-distance apart.
Push your hands into the ground and straighten your knees, pushing down into the balls of your feet to elevate your body into a high plank posture. Your body should look as if you’re in the upward position of a pushup. Ensure your hands and shoulders are aligned, legs are straight, and your core is engaged.
Hold this posture 20 to 60 seconds, or as long as you can maintain perfect form. Repeat two more times.
3. Side plank
The side plank is fantastic for working your obliques, located on the sides of your stomach.
Equipment needed: none; yoga mat optional
Muscles worked: obliques, spinal stabilizers, quads, glutes, serratus anterior, shoulder stabilizers, hip abductors
Lie on your left side with your legs straight, maintaining your hips, knees, and feet stacked. Bend your left elbow and rest your forearm on the ground under your shoulder.
Push your left forearm into the ground to elevate your body and hips off the ground. Keep your core firm and ensure you’re forming a straight line from head to heel.
Lift your right arm straight into the air, or keep it by your side.
Hold this posture for 10 or more seconds. Then, exchange sides.
If you’d want a tougher challenge, attempt the side plank on with the bottom arm straight.
Read Also: What Exercises Are Good For Summer Heat?
4. Low squat
Technically, you may make most workouts isometric exercises simply maintaining your body stationary during the the contraction. Here’s what we mean, using the squat as an example.
Equipment needed: none
Muscles worked: quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings
Stand with your feet slightly more than hip-width apart. Your toes may be pointed slightly out, if it’s more comfortable, with your hands on your hips or held straight out in front of you.
Slowly lift your hips back into a sitting posture while bending your knees. Avoid thrusting your knees forward.
Continue to lower yourself until your butt is little below knee level. If you can’t go further, lower yourself until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Keep your feet grounded with heels low, and your spine long without curving forward.
Hold this posture for 10–30 seconds. Then, return to the starting location.
Perform 3–5 rounds.
5. Overhead hold
Overhead holds strain the muscle endurance of your shoulder girdle.
Equipment needed: low to medium weight necessary (Start with a 5 to 10-pound plate, dumbbell, or kettlebell, or even just two cans of soup. Increase the weight as needed.)
Muscles worked: upper trapezius, shoulder girdle muscles, triceps, core
Extend your arms over your head and hold the weight stable. Be careful to engage your core.
Make careful to maintain your arms completely extended and in line with your shoulders. Bending your arms will work separate muscles (your biceps and triceps).
Hold the weight over your head for 20–30 second periods. However, stop before this if you’re afraid you may drop the weight.
Perform 2–3 rounds.
Increase the difficulty by standing on one leg while holding the weight.
Gianna Eleanor
If you’ve ever held a plank, then you’ve also done an isometric workout.
Simply simply, isometric exercise is any sort of exercise that maintains the body in one posture. The muscles are tensed but do not alter length as you keep the position.
For example, when you maintain a plank, you’re tightening the muscles in your core, legs, and upper body to keep you up while remaining in the same position.
However, isometric workouts remain contentious for their strength and muscle development advantages. This may have you thinking if they’re worth adding to your training program.
This article explains you all you need to know about isometric exercises and includes eight exercises for you to attempt.
If you’ve ever held a plank, then you’ve also done an isometric workout.
What are isometric exercises?
Isometric exercises are exercises in which your muscles are engaged, but they are not altering length.
Contrarily, in an activity like a biceps curl, where you lift and lower your hand as the elbow bends, the biceps muscle grows shorter when your hand travels closer your shoulder and longer as you straighten your arm back out.
Isometric training is a means to categorize workouts that engage muscles and produce stress without actually stretching (eccentric contraction) or shortening (concentric contraction) the muscle. In an isometric contraction, your muscle is engaged, but it’s not changing size.
This kind of training involves no movement and instead focuses on maintaining your body in a posture for a defined amount of time. It’s a static approach of exerting a demand on a targeted muscle or set of muscles without muscle or joint movement.
The sort of resistance might come from your own body weight (gravity), holding an object, or weighted workout equipment. Isometric exercises are perfect for individuals with limited gym space, persons recuperating from an injury, or anybody simply desiring a variation in their normal fitness program.
In fact, isometric exercises are routinely incorporated to rehabilitation regimens, as they may provide stress to the muscles with minimal joint and muscle movement. This allows a person to regain strength and muscle endurance in an affected region while sparing it from additional injury.
Though, since the muscle contractions in these motions are restricted, they should only serve as a supplement to a more dynamic training plan, unless your physical trainer has instructed differently.
Can you grow muscle using isometric exercises? How effective are they?
The process of developing muscle is known as muscular hypertrophy. It happens when a muscle endures mechanical and metabolic stress, which leads to improvements in muscular growth and strength. This triggers a rebuilding process to grow more muscle cells and create larger muscles.
Most studies shows that the kind of muscular contraction matters when it comes to growing muscle.
In particular, eccentric (muscle lengthening) and concentric (muscle shortening) workouts tend to trigger muscular hypertrophy most effectively, as they place more strain and stress on the muscles.
While isometric exercises certainly place tension on working muscles that can produce improvements in muscular strength, some evidence shows they’re not as effective at developing muscle growth compared with eccentric and concentric training.
This is easy to visualize if you think about workout methods. A body builder who routinely lifts and moves big weights would likely have greater muscles compared with a yoga devotee who keeps fixed postures during their yoga program.
While you might not bulk up with isometric exercises, they’re a fantastic technique to increase muscle endurance, the capacity to maintain exercise for a length of time. They can also enhance muscular strength, defined as the muscle’s ability to apply force against resistance.
Isometric exercises are also useful for creating stronger mind-body connection, helping you to engage your muscles more effectively.
What’s more, isometric exercise may be a preferable alternative for persons who seek to minimize delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), as less muscle damage occurs. Further, isometric exercise puts less load on the joints, which may be useful for people healing from injury.
Also, isometric exercises generally require little to no equipment and can be performed practically anyplace, making them easy to add to your training program.
If your aim is to gain muscle, it’s usually best to focus mostly on eccentric and concentric exercise. But, you may still use isometric exercises at the conclusion of your workout to enhance muscle endurance and build strength.
Read Also: Isometric Exercises For Full Body Strength
Best Isometric Exercises To Try
If you’re seeking to add some isometric exercises to your training program, give them a try.
1. Wall sit
Wall sits focus on building the strength in your thighs, especially your quadriceps muscles.
Equipment needed: none
Muscles worked: quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes
Stand approximately 2 feet away from a firm wall, leaning your back against it.
Bend your knees and drop your bottom down so that your knee joints create a 90-degree angle. Your body position should match the same posture you have while sitting on a chair.
Hold this posture for 15 seconds or longer. Be sure to maintain your hips and shoulders in touch with the wall and keep your knees above your ankles.
Perform 2–3 rounds.
To hold this position, you’ll feel your thighs growing tighter and more exhausted.
Experiment with moving back and forth between driving your weight down via your toes and your heels. Driving down through your heels will target your glutes, while driving down your toes will target your quads.
Just be cautious not to allow your knees go out past your toes, and when you place weight on your toes, don’t put too much pressure on the knees.
2. High plank hold
The high plank hold is a great approach to work several muscles in your body.
Equipment needed: none; yoga mat optional
Muscles worked: abdominals, quads, glutes, muscles of the arms, chest, and shoulders
Start in a kneeling pushup with your hands shoulder-distance apart.
Push your hands into the ground and straighten your knees, pushing down into the balls of your feet to elevate your body into a high plank posture. Your body should look as if you’re in the upward position of a pushup. Ensure your hands and shoulders are aligned, legs are straight, and your core is engaged.
Hold this posture 20 to 60 seconds, or as long as you can maintain perfect form. Repeat two more times.
3. Side plank
The side plank is fantastic for working your obliques, located on the sides of your stomach.
Equipment needed: none; yoga mat optional
Muscles worked: obliques, spinal stabilizers, quads, glutes, serratus anterior, shoulder stabilizers, hip abductors
Lie on your left side with your legs straight, maintaining your hips, knees, and feet stacked. Bend your left elbow and rest your forearm on the ground under your shoulder.
Push your left forearm into the ground to elevate your body and hips off the ground. Keep your core firm and ensure you’re forming a straight line from head to heel.
Lift your right arm straight into the air, or keep it by your side.
Hold this posture for 10 or more seconds. Then, exchange sides.
If you’d want a tougher challenge, attempt the side plank on with the bottom arm straight.
Read Also: What Exercises Are Good For Summer Heat?
4. Low squat
Technically, you may make most workouts isometric exercises simply maintaining your body stationary during the the contraction. Here’s what we mean, using the squat as an example.
Equipment needed: none
Muscles worked: quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings
Stand with your feet slightly more than hip-width apart. Your toes may be pointed slightly out, if it’s more comfortable, with your hands on your hips or held straight out in front of you.
Slowly lift your hips back into a sitting posture while bending your knees. Avoid thrusting your knees forward.
Continue to lower yourself until your butt is little below knee level. If you can’t go further, lower yourself until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Keep your feet grounded with heels low, and your spine long without curving forward.
Hold this posture for 10–30 seconds. Then, return to the starting location.
Perform 3–5 rounds.
5. Overhead hold
Overhead holds strain the muscle endurance of your shoulder girdle.
Equipment needed: low to medium weight necessary (Start with a 5 to 10-pound plate, dumbbell, or kettlebell, or even just two cans of soup. Increase the weight as needed.)
Muscles worked: upper trapezius, shoulder girdle muscles, triceps, core
Extend your arms over your head and hold the weight stable. Be careful to engage your core.
Make careful to maintain your arms completely extended and in line with your shoulders. Bending your arms will work separate muscles (your biceps and triceps).
Hold the weight over your head for 20–30 second periods. However, stop before this if you’re afraid you may drop the weight.
Perform 2–3 rounds.
Increase the difficulty by standing on one leg while holding the weight.