Iso's

As we all know, every athlete reaches plateaus throughout his/her career. These different plateaus could be in the weight room or on the field. But unfortunately, many athletes reach plateaus because they have no idea how truly strong they are. What does this mean? It means that 99% of athletes have no clue what their maximum output is!

What I mean is most athletes attempt to give it their 100% on the field or in the weight room but have not trained their bodies to do so, so when they attempt to use their 100% it is really more like their 80%. Athletes are taught to take days off or take it easy in the weight room during the season as to prevent injury or over work. What they do not realize is that they are not only making injuries more prevalent but they are setting themselves up to be unable to perform at their 100% levels. Unless an athlete trains maximally, meaning 100% at all times, their bodies will not be used to this output over and over again.

Occasionally, this 100% will show, but it will not be repeated. This is where isometrics come into the equation. Isometrics are a type of exercise severely overlook by the athletic community due to their lack of vanity and numerical prowess. Everybody asks how much you are benching but not how long you are holding isometrics for! An isometric is a form of exercise where there is no movement. An athlete holds a position, contracting the correct muscles as hard as he/she can for an extended period of time. The benefits are drastic due to this nature of work. Lets focus first on muscle contraction. In a normal bicep curl, the weight goes up and down, so in one repetition, the bicep contracts and elongates once (up and down). Over three sets of ten repetitions, the bicep contracts thirty times. In a bicep isometric, if an athlete is contracting maximally (100%) the bicep will contract around 100 times per second! That is a drastic difference. Let's assume the three sets of bicep curls takes us about 60 seconds of work to complete. In the sets of bicep curls we would be contracting the bicep 30 times. If we do a bicep isometrics where we are holding the weight in a precise position and contracting maximally for 60 seconds, out bicep will contract around 6,000 times! Which type of exercise do you think will yield better results? The truth is you CAN train maximally all the time, so when you get out on the field, you can show your 100% over and over again.

If you would like to find out more about isometrics and how to use them, go to Iso's. Good Luck!