Isometrics can cause an inhibition of pain in a tendon that suffers from tendinopathy. If you are currently recovering from a injury and don’t want to loose strength in that area then isometrics can be a great choice as they will place the joint under little to no stress, whilst still producing a stimulus to the muscle. Isometric exercise is also great if you are just starting strength training as it carries far less risk of injury than dynamic exercises.
In physiotherapy we often use isometrics in rehabilitation because you can gain strength in a desired muscle without putting too much stress on an injured muscle or joint. So why should isometric exercises be apart of your exercise routine? What are the benefits of isometric exercises? Safe Isometric exercises do not improve your ability to move quickly or dynamically and only strengthen the muscle at the angle at which it is trained. Most sports and athletic movements are dynamic in nature, performed at maximal speed against little or no external resistance. In a plank, your abdominals, quads, shoulders and scapula muscles are all working without producing any movement.Īlthough isometric exercises can increase strength they are not the most suitable form of resistance training for dynamic actions such as running, jumping or sports. One of the most well know isometric exercises is the plank. Maximal isometric exercises are more often used for strength and conditioning and submaximal exercises are more often used in rehabilitation. Static strength training can also involve maximal muscle actions and examples here include pushing against a wall or heavy weight that you can not move no matter how hard you try.īoth submaximal and maximal isometric muscle actions can increase isometric strength and stimulate muscle growth. The force used to hold the weight still is not maximal as this would lift the weight further causing movement and a change in the muscle length and joint angle. Such as holding a weight out in front of you. Isometric exercises can be performed with submaximal muscle action. What is submaximal isometric muscle action? Examples include climbing, mountain biking and motocross (grip and upper body strength), wrestling, skiing (static strength required to stabilise the upper and lower body), and gymnastics. Some actions within a wide variety of sports require isometric or static strength. Therefore the joints involved do not move. This means that the muscle group being worked is under tension and producing a contraction but the muscle doesn’t change length. Isometric exercise refers to an exercise that uses an static muscle contraction.