#DO ISOMETRIC EXERCISES FREE#

If you feel muscle weakness or have had the experience of getting injured when you start to work out, and/or you get easily injured when working out, isometrics can help prevent injury. If you are just beginning a workout program, coming off an injury, or canвЂ™t make it to the gym where weights or weight machines are available, doing isometrics will provide some progress in your training. In my chiropractic practice, I like using isometric exercises for improving posture and developing initial strength.

#DO ISOMETRIC EXERCISES FREE#

Lifting a heavy object or free weight (dumbbell), or holding the weight stack in a machine at a certain level or height, will cause an isometric contraction. When you press the palms of your hands together in front of your body, you will feel the muscle tension in the chest. Just lean against a wall with both hands, push against the wall and you will cause an isometric contraction in the arms and torso. Your own body-weight acts as the resistance. Holding a yoga pose is a good example of a static вЂњhold itвЂќ position. You can make the sensation of the contraction effort really hard, hard, or a little hard. Isometrics produce muscle contractions, but you are not moving an arm or a leg or the trunk while performing isometrics. Isometric contractions help improve body awareness, posture, movement and strength. The length of the вЂњholdвЂќ plays a very important role in strengthening. The fun thing about isometrics is that you can hold the contraction for only 5-6 seconds or you may hold it for 30 seconds, a minute, 2 minutes, etc. You change from one muscle contraction type to the other, but the вЂњholdвЂќ portion of the exercise is an isometric contraction. If you are familiar with doing biceps curls with a dumbbell, each time you hold the weight at the top or the bottom of the movement, you are performing an isometric contraction. If you play sports or do any movement that involves changing directions, that in-between change-of-direction time, no matter how brief, requires an isometric contraction.

You are probably more familiar with isometric exercises than you think. Has your workout program been in a downward spiral lately? Have you been doing less and less physical activity? Are the once pain-free activities now causing increased pain? If so, you might want to resume your workouts with isometric exercise.

Do isometric exercises