Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Isometrics the forgotten training aid

Isometrics are a forgotten form of exercise that most people have no idea about. They were developed in the 1940's that is the reason most people have no idea about isometrics. They came out around the same time as anabolic steroids were gaining popularity. Anyway enough about the history of the training form. Have you ever had a cramp in a certain spot and then the muscle in that spot was sore for days? That is because that muscle exerted maximum effort until it locked up and hurt like crazy. Well isometrics works on a similar principle. You exert as much force as possible in a static motion for a given amount of time and then repeat. Bruce Lee was famous for doing isometric squats with a bar logged to the ground. It provides maximum muscle overload but no range of motion. So in other words you push or pull against something as hard as you can for a few seconds and repeat a few times. You can do this exercise in any given position such as squats or bench ect. There have been studies which show isometrics to increase tendon strength in joints and also increasing the one rep maximum in weight training. What I suggest is to add some form of isometric exercise to your existing routine somewhere and reap the benefits. Good luck and happy training don't get cramped.

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