Sunday, April 13, 2008

ISOMETRIC TRAINING

HELLO EVERYONE!

Hope you are ready to get started! Build strength, energize your body, get in shape and tone your body in less than two minutes a day and without weights. How you ask? Read on! "Iso" means equal or the same and "metric" means length. Isometrics in this reading pertains to muscle, involves tensing muscles against other muscles or against an immovable object while the length of the muscle remains unchanged. Perhaps isometric training can best be defined as "sustained contraction" of a muscle over a certain period of time where the length of the muscle remains unchanged. Because of the number of new training products and techniques in the market today, the use of isometrics is overlooked. For any of us to gain an appreciation for the benefits of isometric training, we must understand the basic principles of muscular contraction. Skeletal muscles consist of three major fiber types.
1) Slow twitch fibers...for strength and endurance of a muscle.
2) Intermediate twitch fibers...possess qualities of both slow and fast twitch fibers.
3) Fast twitch fibers...responsible for the speed of muscular contraction.
All of these fiber types are arranged into groups known as "motor units."
With isometric exercise, a muscle opposes some form of resistance and is contracted to a certain length and held for a certain period of time..usually 10 to 15 seconds.There are no repetitions required as in weight training. Usually resistance training involves weights, etc. With isometric training we use the stretch exercise band. OK, but how does it work? When you stretch a rubber band and then release one end, the band contracts back to you with great speed. NOW WHEN YOU TAKE A LARGE RUBBER BAND THE ELASTIC PROPERTIES THAT EXIST WITHIN THE RUBBER BAND ARE BEING "DOWNLOADED" OR "TRANSFERRED" DIRECTLY INTO THE MUSCLE THAT IS OPPOSING IT. SO YOU ARE TRAINING YOUR MUSCLES TO RESPOND EXACTLY LIKE THE RUBBER BAND. MUSCLES CONTRACT WITH GREAT SPEED WHEN STRETCHED...THE REASON...MUSCLES ARE ELASTIC IN NATURE AS WELL. So next week have your stretch (resistance) band ready for the isometrics exercises.

Reference: www.secondwindfitnessfilm.com
e mail...sprint444@hotmail.com

Have a great life everyone...Jimmy O

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