Many of WHEE regular readers know that I often comment on various exercises and insist that you "pause" the exercise near the conclusion of a lift, or push, or pull and fully realize the "squeeze" that this pause offers your muscles. Today I want to focus again on this concept and possibly convince you of its role in improving strength, muscle growth, and definately future performance on an exercise.
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What is an Isometric Movement?
When you place the muscles under a "static hold" while they are under pressure, you are actually performing an isometric exercise. This can be from your own body, an immoveable structure, or as we will discuss here, it involves a weight like a dumbbell or barbell.
Almost everyone has experienced the simplest result of an isometric exercise. Stand in a doorframe and place your backside of the hands against the frame. Push outward as if trying to raise your arms away from your sides. Apply considerable force against the frame for at least 45 seconds as if you want to expand the width of the door. If you have enough muscles to tense up with the movement, you should immediately feel the lightness of the arms once you release the pressure. In some people with very low fat %'s, you almost feel the arms lift away from your sides with no effort.
The neurons of your brain have been firing away telling more and more muscle cells to join in the battle against the immoveable doorframe. First the fast twitch muscles are recruited but quickly the slow twitch muscles join in as well. No progress. Now your brain is really firing as it recruits more muscle. This is no normal dynamic movement where the actin and myosin protein chains begin to bond and trigger a pumping motion in the muscles. The movement is static or at least very resistent to movement.
Let's look at a Bench Press.
All of us at one time or another have done a bench press. A set of 8 lifts can normally be performed in 30 seconds. With lighter weights and little pausing, maybe 20 seconds. With weights that approach 80-90% of your one time max (1xmax), it may take 40-45 seconds. We all work on this pushing exercise to help strengthen our pecs and chest area. Yet, studies have shown that once the lift moves beyond the first quarter of the movement off the chest, more and more muscles are recruited from the shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Near the top of the movement there is a very small window of increased chest activity.
So we spend about two minutes doing three sets of heavy controlled bench presses. Out of this time, we actually stress the chest muscles (mainly the pecs) about 15 maybe 20 seconds. Man, that's alot of time and effort spent lifting that weight off your chest for so little time actually targeting the muscles that you want to improve. What's a person to do?
Performing negatives are actually isometric
Back about two years ago when my son and I first started workouts together, I couldn't do a pullup nor chinup (difference is the position of the hands). Not a single one. I assembled my homemade pullup bar under my deck off the back patio area. Couldn't even get my toes off the floor. I tried lat pulldowns for 2-3 months and saw a little improvement. Then I read about performing "negatives" from the upper position of a pullup. I got a bench that allowed me to grab the bar with my chin at bar level. I then clinched my hands, biceps, core, and finally the glutes. I learned that this was the only way to perform the hold once I slowly lifted my feet off the bench.
The reading I had done recommended slowly lowering yourself over 15-20 seconds with a hold at the top, down about 20-25% of the drop, and then again about 50% of the way down. The first few times, I couldn't hold the movement more than 5 seconds total. For me, this wasn't a true isometric move because I was too weak.
Your muscles moves your bones
The skeletal muscles primary function is to move your bones. All the exercises we do is guided by this simple principle. Gain strength. Increase the size of your muscles. Improve your life's longevity and its ability to continue to move those bones. The other option is rigor mortis. And for me, that's not an option.
Think for a minute about how simple life is. Read about rigor mortis and how close to exercise it really is. Either you allow the crossbridging of the actin and myosin proteins in the muscles to pump start your muscles or life ends. It's that simple.
Most exercises are performed with a full range of dynamic motion. However, we reach our peak performance and thus limit our ability to gain more strength or increase muscle size because we are weak at certain joint positions. There's those dam bones again getting in the way of progress. So the key is to discover where the joints are at its weak points and use isometic pauses at these angles to increase strength and improve performance.
Yoga is a great example
I have never been to a yoga class. I only play with it because I have such tight hip flexors and thus it really inhibits my ability to perform squats, lunges, and a few other lifts. Many positions in yoga are designed to hold positions for a few seconds and then gradually increase the time where the joints are most vulnerable. If one performs the warrior pose correctly, the knee joint along with the quads, calves, and glutes are under tremendous tension and stress. Try to hold a warrior pose for as long as you can. Maybe 15-20 seconds unless you are very fit. Even the upward dog position is stressful if the shoulders are down and back and the chest is held open while the head is back. It looks simple but it is not because the joints are at a weaker position.
Examine your exercise routine
Every exercise has positions where the joint angles are weaker. Know where they are. As I mentioned above, you can strengthen your movements by concentrating on these isometric positions while exercising. Last week, we looked at dumbbell rows with various positions. Now we need to begin breaking down all our exercises to discover where the joint/muscles interactions are at its weakest. Next time you do a row, drop back in weight one or two levels from where you normally perform the lifts. But take 3 times as long to make the movements. Pause at three or more locations in the positive and negative parts of the movement for 3-5 seconds. Do it on every lift but lower the reps to 8 or fewer. In the end, you will actually have the muscles and joints under tension for much longer than if you had done the sets traditionally.
My favorite is the bicep curl for practicing this incorporation of isometrics into your exercise. I'll take a dumbbell that is only about 70% of what I'll normally lift. But I'll make the movements very slow. About 1/2 way up and down, I'll stop the movement and hold for 5 seconds. I'll allow my arm to "pulse" up and down within about a 1-2 inch movement for another 10 seconds, and then hold tight for another 5 second count. In total, a single complete lift might take 45-50 seconds where the bicep is under constant tension. Eight is plenty, believe me.
I hope some of you have questions. I'll be around for a couple of hours and then I'll be out most of the mid-afternoon but I will return and answer any questions that you have. Thanks for reading.