The following article focuses on isometric exercises
for any fitness level that you can do anywhere. If
you are a traveler, or a stay-at-home mom, these
exercises will help you get in shape and improve your
fitness without using heavy and cumbersome equipment.
Isometric exercises are a low cost easy way to
strengthen muscles and lose weight.
In 7 SECONDS
you can develop new muscle tissue. That mean in less
than 4 hours a year you can develop a whole new body
adding anything from 12 - 25 lbs of muscle on to your
frame while substantially reducing your body fat.
A statement
like that seems unrealistic. Fantastic - a figment of a
delusional comic book writer explaining how a superhero
became incredibly strong. I wouldn't blame you for
thinking that. I though the same and I'm approaching it
form the cynicism of a seasoned fitness instructor and
personal trainer.
There's just
one little, teeny-tiny problem though. It's possible.
More so that that it's a reality for thousands of people
everyday.
And no,
they're not on steroids or drugs or part of military
experiment creating super soldiers. They are everyday
people like you and me. They hold down 9-5 jobs and
don't have time for exercise between the kids and
mortgage payments.
So how are
they doing it?
The answer
is Isometrics and I'm going to explain what Isometrics
is and how you can start doing it as you read the rest
of this article. That's right. By the time you have
finished this you will have completed two exercises, the
first to trim and tone your waistline the second to tone
and firm your chest.
Ready ?
Isometric
Abs
1. Sit up
tall and straight in your chair.
2. Breathe in deep and suck in your stomach as hard as
you can.
3. Now tense your stomach hard as though bracing for a
punch - still keeping it sucked in
4. You feel that tightness, a slight quiver in the
muscles? Good, that's the start.
5. Breath out tightly making an SSSSSSSSS sound. You'll
feel your abs getting tighter.
6. As you breathe out crunch your abs really hard
rotating your pelvis upwards and your rid cage inwards.
7. Breathe all the way out
8. Relax
How did that
feel? If you did it right it should feel great. Yours
abs will be warm, worked, feel relaxed and slightly
tired. Now do it again and repeat until you've finished
this article. Your abs will be tighter, firmer and more
toned tomorrow morning then they are right now. Diligent
practice of this one exercise will tighten and tone your
stomach faster than 1,000 sit ups.
Now to give
you something entertaining to read as your tighten and
tone your stomach here's the fascinating and
scintillating science behind Isometrics.
Iso (meaning
the same) and metric (meaning distance) is a method of
tensing the muscles without moving the angle of the
joint they are connected to. The abs exercise above is
an example of this. So is pushing against an immovable
object. Try as hard as you can, tense every ounce of
muscle fibre against something that can't move, you'll
feel you've done great workout and in many ways you
have!
Back in the
old school days of physical culture, the Victorian era's
introduction to bodybuilding and strong men Isometrics
was all the rage. Skinny weak sickly kids turned to
tensing their muscles in a specific way and transformed
themselves into well toned living Greek Statues, strong
enough to press grown men over their heads with one arm.
Their feats of strength astonished the men of the time
and women marvelled at their physiques. Okay, they
couldn't leap tall buildings in a single bound, or hold
back a locomotive but they could easily walk up walls
lift horse over head and in one demonstration lift a
platform on top on which ten men were standing.
One such guy
was Maxick. Maxick, born Max Sick was a very weak child
from birth and was not supposed to live. But he fought
on and survived. A young Max once saw a strong man at
the circus and determined to be as strong as the Greek
Hero Hercules (their equivalent of Superman). So little
Max started lifting weights.
Fortunately
his parents soon put an end to this - as he was too weak
and fragile to take the strain. Still determined Max
began to experiment with his body. Tensing his various
muscles as hard as could and learning to control each
one individually. Soon Max started to get stronger, more
muscular.
One day in
his teens Max went in to a local gym, too young to join
he just watched. Then on invitation from one of the
chief physical culturists (an old school name for
bodybuilders) tried to lift a weight. Of course they
were expecting Max to fail and have a good laugh at his
expense. Max out-lifted the strong man.
People were
stunned. Max became a local celebrity in his home time,
demonstrating feats of unbelievable strength and muscle
control. He could make his muscles jump and dance with a
simple thought. And lift seemingly impossible weights.
He travelled
to England where he developed a reputation as being
incredibly strong. It was here he teamed up with fellow
strong man Saldo and developed his Isometric Training
system called Maxalding. You didn't lift weights; you
did Isometric Exercises where you tensed and relaxed
your muscles, just like your abs.
How are they
doing by the way? Pretty tired? Okay give it a rest.
Instead let's try this one for the chest.
Isometric
Hand Press
1. Stand
tall and straight
2. Hold your arms out in front of your chest
3. Make a slight bend at the elbow, creating a triangle
from the wrist to the elbows
4. Press your palms together
5. As you do so concentrate on making your chest as
tight and hard as possible.
6. After a few seconds you should feel you're chest and
arms shaking all over - this is the muscles tiring as
they work really hard - this is Isometrics.
7. Hold this Position for 30 seconds.
8. Slowly release - this is important, after intense
contraction your body needs time to unwind.
Now how does
that feel. Repeat it ten times as you scroll down.
The
Maxalding system was an early whole body Isometric
Training system. His students got stunning results, and
they weren't the only ones. Years later, a man named
Charles Atlas achieved phenomenal fame as the Worlds
Most Perfect Man while promoting an Isometric System he
called Dynamic Tension. It's still around.
However time
advances, people on the look out for new fads move on
and Isometrics was forgotten until recently. With a new
fitness and physical culture renaissance approaching
people are turning back to the old methods. And science
is discovering some amazing things.
Like it only
takes 7 Seconds to stimulate new muscle growth.
That said,
there is one small detail - it has to be incredibly
intense stimulus. Isometrics just happens to be the most
intense exercise in the world and in a little as 7
seconds you can completely exhaust your muscles. The
wonderful thing is it doesn't matter what your current
level of fitness is, because the force you generate
while doing Isometrics is in direct proportion to your
current level. You can't really go too far. Isometrics
is also incredibly safe because it does not require any
weights (except at very advance levels) making it ideal
for rehabilitation, seniors and everyone else too busy
to get to the gym.
If you've
followed the directions in this article you will have
just worked out two of the biggest muscle groups in the
body, the chest and the core muscles of abs. In future
articles I'll explain a little more about some of the
specific benefits of Isometrics and give you some more
exercises, as well as reveal how it blowtorches fat, and
strengthen your digestion system, your internal organs
and even reverse the again process. For now enjoy, the
feeling of a firm toned waist and a lean powerful chest.
Practice these two techniques every second day and
remember to breath correctly.
If you can't
wait for the next article and need to know how to get in
the best shape of your life RIGHT NOW, check out my
website - the largest online resource dedicated to
Isometric Training -
http://www.isometric-training.com/article1
Your
Isometric Expert,
Paul
J.O'Brien
