Isometric Exercises: What's Good For Your Muscles

Isometric exercises are based on certain fitness principles for building up strong muscles. When you do isometric exercises, you stimulate your muscles while opposing them to a fixed object, or you keep the muscles tensed in a certain position for some time. The joints, as well, will remained fixed on the duration of the exercise.


Isometric exercises are very good as fitness procedure, but they are not to be performed just by anyone. People with high levels of blood pressure must not perform them as these exercises cause the blood pressure to rise very high, on a short duration of time. This event must not trouble those that do not have high blood pressure, as the pressure gets back to normal when the muscle is no longer tense.


There are things that you need to be careful about when you perform isometric exercises, such as the time for each exercise and the angle of the joints during performance. Any isometric exercise must last, in time, as much as any other exercise that involves a number of repetitions would. Strength training will require about three to five seconds for each exercise. But, if the body weight is used for resistance, you will need to hold the muscles tense for more than ten seconds. Now, about the angle of the joint. Depending on the purpose of the exercise, you can modify the angle of the joint from ten to thirty degrees. You must repeat the exercise for each angle if you want to gain maximum results. But, keep in mind that this could take you a lot of time.


Here are some isometric exercises that you can, too, try, if you want to strengthen your muscles.


For the abdominal muscles, the plank exercise is the best. You start by staying flat on the floor, and then you begin to raise the body until you are on your toes and forearms. The key of this exercise is to keep your back flat and the muscles in your abdomen tense. The position must be held for 10-30 seconds, and then repeated for two or three times.


Shoulder raises are good for your shoulders. For this exercise, the starting position is upright with the feet positioned at shoulder width and the knees a little bent. With a dumbbell in each hand, you begin to raise the weight towards each side till shoulder length. At that point, the arm must be parallel with the floor. Hold the position for 10-30 seconds, and then repeat a couple of times.


Isometric squats are for quadriceps. With the back against a wall, keep the feet slightly apart. You must slide down the wall up to the point when the thighs are parallel to the ground. Your kneed must not be further from the wall then your toes. Keep that position for 10-30 seconds and repeat.


You can improve your calves with isometric calf raises. Next to a wall, you stay on one foot, but, be careful to not rest on the wall. From this position, rise up on the toes and stay there for 10-30 seconds. Repeat for each leg a few times.

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