Isometric Training - Benefits, How to Incorporate, When to Use
The most important muscle in your body is one that can be trained with very little equipment, in a relatively small space, and with just 15-20 minutes of your day.
What is that muscle?
Your heart.
Isometric training is a great method for strengthening your heart, improving your blood pressure, and lowering your resting heart rate while building strength.
For many, an unmedicated alternative to helping your heart is potentially life-changing.
In this article, we will cover:
→ the benefits of isometric training,
→ how to apply isometrics to your workouts
→ where to start
This article covers some advanced concepts, so I have included an index of terms to help!
You can find that list at the very end of this article for your reference.
HYPERTROPHIC v ISOMETRIC TRAINING
Many people think of hypertrophic workouts when they think of exercise in the gym.
Hypertrophic exercises are mass builders. This is the repetitive use of the muscles in a full range of motion to move weight, resulting in muscle growth.
However, strength is another important reason for training, and many strength benefits are found in isometric training.
Isometric, or static training, involves holding a position and recruiting the muscles to maintain it.
Isometric work has also been found to reduce blood pressure and is a beneficial way to train if you are trying to work around an injury.
Isometric training is unique in the way it allows you to set your limit.
Many variations of isometric training exist, all with increasing difficulty, including:
→ body weight isometrics
→ belted isometrics
→ banded isometrics
You can easily customize the exercises and even incorporate isometric training into your hypertrophic workouts.
BLOOD PRESSURE BENEFITS
Isometrics can be beneficial beyond just building strength.
With isometric exercises, your muscles learn to hold your body weight AND reduce your blood pressure.
Studies have shown that isometric training is more effective than HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for reducing and managing blood pressure.
According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine:
“38 studies were analyzed of IET (isometric exercise training) and HIIT training styles, and while both modes are effective, IET is the superior exercise mode in managing resting blood pressure.”
A separate study from Mayo Clinic Proceedings found similar results:
“Isometric resistance training lowers SBP (systolic blood pressure), DBP (diastolic blood pressure), and average arterial pressure. The magnitude of the effect is larger than that reported in dynamic aerobic or resistance training. Our data suggest that this form of training has the potential to produce significant and clinically meaningful blood pressure reductions.”
If you have been struggling with blood pressure and are looking for a non-medicated way to treat it, isometrics have been proven in multiple clinical studies to have positive effects.
OTHER BENEFITS OF ISOMETRIC TRAINING
Beyond blood pressure-related effects, there are many other important elements of isometrics.
Managing Your Point of Failure
The "point of failure" is where your muscles reach a point that they physically cannot hold the weight or perform another repetition.
One benefit of isometric training is the ability to safely push to your point of failure and work on maintaining your form.
When training to fail with weight, you risk severely injuring yourself. For example, when training your squat to failure, you must train not only your body but also your mind how to mentally push to the point of nothing left.
When you do that with hundreds of pounds on a bar and your form slips, you could injure yourself, even with spotters.
This is where isometrics come in.
Using an isometric hold, you can effectively learn how to mentally work to failure before ever getting under a barbell.
Building Confidence
You can also push your form in a new exercise to the point of being confident before lifting any weight.
Start by setting up the exercise as an isometric hold.
As you progress with your strength under an isometric hold, you also gain confidence to start adding weight or doing additional reps.
More Reward with Hypertrophy
Have you ever been told to pause at the bottom of a lift, such as a squat or a row?
When you are at the point of maximum tension and hold it, you're using isometric strength.
This will help the sticking points of a lift become easier with practice.
Your lift is only as strong as its’ weakest link. With isometric holds, you can make that weak link stronger.
Work Through Injuries
You can still work muscles through isometrics if you are injured and cannot move a joint.
Unlike hypertrophy, which relies on a range of motion, isometrics don’t work the joints as much.
This type of training does allow you to train the muscles around the joint, which can keep you in shape as your injury heals, or even help speed up the healing process.
NOTE: Please consult with your physician or at least an experienced personal trainer before using isometrics during an injury recovery to ensure the long-term health of the joint or injured area.
ISOMETRIC EXERCISE SETUP
Now that we’ve established some physical benefits, what are isometrics, and how can you apply them?
As stated before, an isometric exercise is the act of holding a static position.
TYPES OF ISOMETRICS
There are two kinds of isometric workouts you can do;
→ yielding
→ overcoming
Yielding Isometrics
Yielding isometrics hold a position against something that is trying to push or pull you out of it.
These are typically done using an exercise band or with body weight.
Benefits:
Builds endurance by making muscles hold a position for a longer time.
Improves stability and control in specific positions.
Mimics real-life situations where you need to hold still under pressure (like carrying something heavy).
Example: Wall Sit
Imagine you're sitting in an invisible chair against a wall.
You bend your knees, press your back flat against the wall, and stay still like a statue.
You don't move, but your legs feel like they're working hard to hold you up!
Overcoming Isometrics
Overcoming isometric exercises involve pushing into an unyielding force and can be done with your body weight or a strap.
Benefits:
Builds explosive strength by training your muscles to fire as hard as they can.
Activates more muscle fibers because your body thinks it needs to move something really heavy.
Can help break through strength plateaus (when you're stuck lifting the same amount of weight).
--
Example: Pushing against a wall
Stand in front of a wall, place your hands on it
Try to push as hard as you can, like you're trying to move the wall
Even though the wall doesn't move, your arms and shoulders are working hard.
--
Both options serve different purposes, and it is important to use them both.
You can hold the same position, but based on your equipment, it can change from yielding to overcoming.
ISOMETRIC TIMING
There are also two different kinds of timing for isometrics:
→ ramping
→ maintaining
Ramping - increasing the effort as the timer goes off.
Maintaining - setting a timer and holding a single position for that amount of time.
Your form should look the same at the beginning and end of both of these.
--
Customizing these exercises results in a whole new way to train without getting bored or stagnant in your strength.
ISOMETRIC EXAMPLES
Say you wanted to work your chest in an isometric hold.
There are many different variations, all serving different purposes.
Start in an upright seated position, with a strap or exercise band looped around your back, holding an end in each hand.
The strap/band should be seated in your armpits, around your lats.
Set a ramping timer (e.g., 30-20-10 seconds) and push into the strap/band (with 50%, 80%, then 100% effort).
You can also try starting at the bottom of a pushup (chest off the floor) and holding it for a certain amount of time (start with 30, 60, or 90 seconds).
NOTE: If you can’t hold the bottom of the hold for that long, begin on your knees or come to the top of a plank hold as you reach failure.
The same principles can be applied to work the bottom of a squat, deadlift, and other compound lifts.
THE WRAP-UP
Isometric training is often overlooked as part of many people’s day-to-day training.
While strength is as good a reason as any to work out, blood pressure and resting heart rate are reasons and issues that go beyond strength.
For many people, an unmedicated alternative to helping your heart is a potentially life-changing thing.
You can do an entire body workout with just a strap, band, or your body weight, making isometrics incredibly convenient.
So, if you ever get bored with the same old, boring process of reps and sets, don’t be afraid to grab a band or a strap or even just get set without any equipment and try to hold a position!
You’ll be surprised at how difficult such a simple workout is- and how easy your other lifts begin to get!
YOUR ISOMETRIC TRAINING
As a personal trainer at Mesa Fitness, I'm dedicated to helping you develop a personalized program that includes beneficial training styles to your body and your goals.
Ready to transform your training? Contact Shilo Wilson at Mesa Fitness for:
Functional & isometric training
Hypertrophy training
Endurance
Kettlebell & Mace exercises
LIST OF TERMS:
Isometric/Static - Tension without movement of muscle.
Hypertrophic - Strength training resulting in muscle growth.
HIIT - stands for High-Intensity Interval Training.
IET - stands for Isometric Exercise Training.
Yielding Isometrics - Holding a position against something trying to push or pull you out of it.
Overcoming Isometrics - Pushing into a solid force.
Ramping - Increase effort as timers go off.
Maintaining - Maintain effort throughout the timer.
Range of Motion - Moving the muscles and joints through a full movement.
Sticking Point - A point in a lift where you often get stuck or cannot finish the rep. Often found in the three major lifts (squat, bench, deadlift).
References
Carlson, Debra J et al. “Isometric exercise training for blood pressure management: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Mayo Clinic proceedings vol. 89,3 (2014): 327-34. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.10.030
Edwards J, De Caux A, Donaldson J, et al. “Isometric exercise versus high-intensity interval training for the management of blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine (2022); 56:506-514