Are Isometrics a Part of Your Strength Training Exercises?

[IronFist]

all i'm saying is, assuming equal amounts of time were spent on weightlifting or other stuff and on isometric training, 95% of the progress would come from the other stuff and 5% of the progress would come from the isometrics, hence it is an inefficient use of training time.

They have their place, but they're not really useful in a general workout for most people.

you refine tensile strength in musculature with isotonics and isometrics. this is very beneficial in tandem with lifting weight and you will find that you pull muscles less often and are less likely to develop tendonitis from lifting which does unfortunately happen.

Link to studies suggesting that people who do weightlifting and isometrics experience fewer incidences of pulled muscles and/or tendonitis than people who do weightlifting alone?

[David Jamieson]

all i'm saying is, assuming equal amounts of time were spent on weightlifting or other stuff and on isometric training, 95% of the progress would come from the other stuff and 5% of the progress would come from the isometrics, hence it is an inefficient use of training time.

They have their place, but they're not really useful in a general workout for most people.



Link to studies suggesting that people who do weightlifting and isometrics experience fewer incidences of pulled muscles and/or tendonitis than people who do weightlifting alone?

some will take you to medical journals that are pay sites, but the info is out there.

google "isotonics and how it develops tensile strength in muscles" to get started.

[Mr Punch]

all i'm saying is, assuming equal amounts of time were spent on weightlifting or other stuff and on isometric training, 95% of the progress would come from the other stuff and 5% of the progress would come from the isometrics, hence it is an inefficient use of training time.

Links to studies supporting this somewhat arbitrary-looking work-time statement?!

And I don't know for sure, but off the top of my head I would say that isometrics are beneficial for:

a) rehab
b) flexibility
c) muscular endurance AND positional specifics esp in beginners.

A) Most of the physio exercises I've been given for acute rehabbing have been isometrics... I guess for safely rebuilding stabiliser muscles and connective tissue.

B) Whether it's yoga or Pavel's/Thomas Kurz's protocols, they all make extensive use of isometrics, even if it's pushing through/relaxing a greater ROM than usual.

C) Depends on your sport, but many many sports have a 'stand before you can walk' idea of learning a basic static posture before you put them together in motion. My pro tennis coach used to have us standing on the baseline, and then he'd have us throwing the ball up and getting in a ready to hit position while letting it drop, and then he'd have doing the first active exercises by having us swinging past the ball... admittedly only in the first couple of days of training and as a very small part of the warm-up in the next few weeks, but still. I've seen people coaching golf using the starting positions and the finishing positions of a swing before too.

[Mr Punch]

BTW, I think your 'assuming equal time is spent' statement is a bit daft! Nobody' is assuming that we should spend equal time on isometrics as say, weightlifting, but some time may be reasonable.

[Mr Punch]

Just found this which is a highly inconclusive bit of study showing a correlation that seems to be outside of what they set for their own definitions in the title/abstract (!)... but it did point out something I'd not really thought of this time round, which is that in wrestling and other grappling arts, holding positional is a completely isometric action.

[IronFist]

I didn't think we were talking rehab in this thread. Isometrics may play a role in rehab; I'm not too familiar with that. As I have a habit of coming to KFM late at night when I should be in bed, I may have misread the thread.

I will admit they can be useful in stretching, too, for example how Pavel recommends it in "Relax Into Stretch."

I jumped into this thread because when I see "isometrics" mentioned on a martial arts forum, it's almost always someone saying "my sifu says weightlifting is bad cuz it makes you big and slow but isometrics are good cuz Bruce Lee did them." Which is why my #1 rule is "never take exercise advice from a martial artist."

Anyway, isometrics don't provide any external force against the muscle, much less increasing external force, and therefore you won't really generate any strength gains from doing them (other than possible some "newbie gains").

In other words, someone who does DB curls will get stronger biceps over time, but someone who does isometric curls won't really make as much progress because there was never an external load against which their muscle was contracting.

As for developing endurance, yeah, if your goal is to be able to hold a contraction for longer periods of time, then yes, isometrics can definitely help with that since that is essentially what you are doing. In fact, isometrics are probably superior to weightlifting in this case.

[Mr Punch]

You and your **** sticking to the subject of the thread...!

Fair enough.

[SteveLau]

To answer the question of the topic, yes isometrics is a part of my strength training exercises. But only a very small part. IMOH, isometrics, dynamic tension, concentric, and eccentric exercises all have their place in good strength training program. As long as we do the right volume of each, and also the total exercise volume.

P.S. I think doing isometrics will help to raise our lactic acid excretion threshold in specific of endurance training.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong