Better Than Your Old Boring Workout

All right, somethin’ I’ve seen, lately, is people concerned about their fitness. You can see this through the selling of ads about gym memberships and exercise equipment. I also hear people sayin’ they don’t have the time or the money that goes into carin’ about their health. Well, you might be usin’ the wrong method- weightlifting. Ditch all that, man, and use something that works for you and not against you. You need to use isometric exercise.

Isometric training is a form of exercise in which a lot of tension keeps the muscle from moving . The muscle stays in the same position for seven to twelve seconds.

Let me tell you about my experience with weightlifting, and I am sure everybody can relate. I was just like anybody else when it came to gettin’ in shape. I lifted weights out the yin-yang. I lifted heavy, lifted light, tried bodybuilding, and tried Olympic lifting. I got bored and tired with all of them. I got hurt with these methods too. Bench presses tore up my elbows, and lunges put too much pressure on my knees. The gym was a joke. Heck! It was like a zoo. I was runnin’ around trying to find equipment that was open. I was falling around wannabe Arnold Schwarzeneggers posing for themselves in front of the mirrors. I had to wait on people, who most of the time were goofing off and wasting my time. All that stuff came down to me losing my motivation and dreading lifting weights, even using my home weights.

I didn’t let that stop me. I needed to find something better, and then I found a book called Isometric Power Revolution. From then on, I was hooked on isometrics. My first workout with iso’s was amazing. You really feel the tension and all the muscle fibers comin’ in to play, as you try to make your muscles move in seven to twelve seconds. I could really feel my muscles straining against the tension, something I could never do with weights. Man, that’s the key right there. When your muscle is under extreme tension and in a fixed position, all of the muscle fibers are used. This means you are going to build more muscle because you use more muscle, but weights cannot do that. When you’re lifting weights, your muscle is always moving. It is never under tension long enough to use all of the muscle fibers. Only a few fibers are developed, and this can lead to injuries (my elbows and knees, remember). Let’s try an isometric to show you what I mean. Put your hands together in front of your chest and push against them hard for twelve seconds. The muscles are workin’ now.

A lot of you die hard weight lifters are going to tell me that isometrics won’t work because heavier weights are not lifted every workout to make the muscle work more and grow. Listen up. You are still thinking in terms of weight lifting and not isometrics. I started to get better at figuring out the amount of tension to use, the more I practiced isometrics. I could use more tension every workout. The more tension I used meant I worked more muscle, but I was pushin’ as hard as I could every workout. This is what you have to do. You have to use more tension every time, to work the muscles. The right amount of tension will cause the muscle to ache.

Injuries, forget about ‘em! I never got hurt using isometrics. My knees and elbows were safe. Heck! They got stronger because I didn’t have to deal with the heavy load of weights tearin’ them down. Isometrics keeps your joints still, so there is no sudden jerk or twist that can mess them up.

Busy schedules are no problem. I discovered iso’s in high school. They fit perfectly into my full schedule, which didn’t allow much time to work out. Being a busy college student, I can still squeeze isometrics into my day. I just bust out a seven-second hold, whenever I have some free time. You don't have to suffer through one to two hour workouts anymore. Do you have seven or twelve seconds to work out? Come on! Since isometrics doesn’t use weights, you can do them anywhere. You can’t find that kind of freedom with weights or the gym.

No weights and gym memberships means no more wasted money comin’ from your pockets. You can save some cash.

So what do you have to lose, man? You lose nothin’! Well, you do have to give up expensive, time wasting, useless weights and gyms. That sounds like a plus to me. Try a better system, which only gives the best. Try isometrics.

By Jarad Williams