Isometric exercises are contractions of a certain muscle or muscle group. Your muscle doesn't change length and the joint doesn't move during isometrics. An example of an isometric exercise is to use your body weight or hold a weight in a semi-contracted state without any movement. Your muscles have different responses to isometric exercises and also benefit from these responses. However, if you have high blood pressure or heart problems, MayoClinic.com recommends avoiding isometric exercises because of the increase in blood pressure due to increase in muscle tension.
Strength Gains
Isometric exercises place stress solely on your muscle fibers. During a maximal isometric exercise, you can recruit nearly all your muscle fibers, which doesn't happen during the usual up and down exercises -- standard bicep curls or chest presses -- in which the weight moves in a concentric and eccentric motion. The more muscle you recruit, the more damage occurs, which causes gains in muscular strength. According to Bodybuilding.com, strength gains of 14 to 40 percent happened during a 10-week training period using isometric training.
Time Under Tension
The longer your muscles are under tension, the more hypertrophy -- increase in the size of muscle cells -- occurs. Isometrics allow you to prolong the time under tension. During most exercises, the time under tension is rather minimal. For example, when you perform a chest press, your pectorals are only under tension during the time you press off your chest to halfway up. With isometric exercises, you can isolate a specific area of movement for a given time as a result; you prolong the amount of time the muscle is under tension increasing hypertrophy.
Rehabilitation
If you experience an injury to a tendon, isometric exercises can be the safest and most beneficial since movements can aggravate your muscles during full range of motion exercises. Many physical therapists recommend isometric exercises to regain strength during and after an injury. For example, according to MayoClinic.com, if you injure your rotator cuff, your doctor may recommend isometric exercises involving the muscle groups that help stabilize the shoulder to maintain shoulder strength during recovery.
Sample Exercises
During isometric exercises, you place tension on your muscles using your own body weight or added weight. Some examples of body-weight isometric exercises are plank bridges, side bridges, isometric pushups and isometric squats using a wall. An example of an isometric exercise using weight is isometric shoulder raises. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a light dumbbell in your hand raised directly out to your side parallel to the floor. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds until your arm begins to drop.
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