Isometrics: When and How Much?

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retired_Gavin

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I've been trying to find information on isometrics, but I haven't been able to come up with much. I've read about people who used isometrics, like Bruce Lee and this strong man who was a prisoner of war and built enough strength with isometrics that he was able to bend the bars of his cell and escape; and I've found information on different isometric excersizes, but that's pretty much it. I still have a lot of questions about them.

What I really want to know is WHEN to do isometrics. Can I do them the same day I weight train (for instance, if I do bicep curls on Monday, can I do isometrics for my biceps the same day?) If so, should I do them before, or after using weights/calisthenics?

Is it true that after 10 seconds, isometrics are no longer effective? Or does holding it longer have more benefits?

Do isometrics require the same 2 day rest period as weights/calisthenics? If so, how can I incoperate them into a routine that uses weights? Or should I be exclusive; either weights, or isometrics?

Do isometrics actually trigger muscle growth, or do they just fill the muscles with fluid to make them harder and more toned and strong without bulking them up?

I'd appreciate your help guys. :) I'm still new at all this, and I'm trying to piece together some kind of routine that I can start on, this way I'm not doing this "hapharzardly". ;)
 
Why are you wanting to do them?

Isometrics are mostly neurological in effect. They're good for boosting strength, but only tend to boost strength from +/- 15 degrees of the joint position in which they're done.

Most of the research done on them was done in the magical 6 second window, so there's not a lot of work done showing them to be effective for hypertrophy and other such endurance-type stuff.

That said, there's some anecdotal evidence suggesting that with heavy enough loads they'll act like a sort of eccentric, activating a whole bunch of stretch-activated chemical signals that could benefit growth.

But this is all contingent on your goals. You don't just start throwing things into a routine just for the hell of it.
 
My goal is to add muscle to my biceps, calves, and forearms. I was thinking about the relation between muscle size and actual strength and I realized that bigger does not always mean stronger or more stamina. So, I was playing with the idea of putting on the muscle mass while at the same time conditioning it to be really strong.
 
Gavin said:
My goal is to add muscle to my biceps, calves, and forearms. I was thinking about the relation between muscle size and actual strength and I realized that bigger does not always mean stronger or more stamina. So, I was playing with the idea of putting on the muscle mass while at the same time conditioning it to be really strong.
Click to expand...

For any given person, a bigger muscle is a stronger one. This doesn't mean that you can't be stronger than your friend with bigger arms; what this does mean is that if you gain an inch on your arms, they'll be stronger than when they were an inch smaller.

Isometrics are good as accessory work. However, I'm not sure I see the utility of throwing them in for size gains. They won't offer anything that basic progressive overload in with 5-10 reps won't do.
 
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