Joint Pain During Exercise? Try Isometrics!
It’s true - our bodies go through wear and tear. Whether we’re very active or spend a lot of time sitting still, we’re bound to experience muscle or joint pain at some point. Sometimes these pain points can flare up during exercise, and this can become quite frustrating.
The question becomes, “How can I continue to strengthen my body when this particular exercise triggers a pain point?” The answer might be isometrics!
Isometric Exercise: What is it?
Let’s start with a little background information. There are three types of muscle action: concentric, eccentric, and isometric.
Concentric action occurs when the working muscle is shortening. You can think of this as the “lifting” phase of an exercise. For example, the “pushing” part of a pushup is the concentric action. Your pectoral muscles are contracting (shortening) to overcome resistance. In other words, the force applied by the muscle is greater than the applied resistance.
Eccentric action occurs when the working muscle is lengthening. This would be the “lowering” phase of an exercise. Using our last example, the “descending” part of a pushup is the eccentric action. Your pectoral muscles are relaxing (lengthening) to release tension under resistance. The force applied by the muscle is lesser than the applied resistance.
Last but certainly not least, we have isometric muscle action. If you were to pause and hold your position at any point in your pushup, that would be your isometric action. Your pectoral muscles are neither shortening nor lengthening under resistance. The force produced by the muscle is equal to the applied resistance.
What are the Benefits?
Joint Health
Isometric exercise is great for people who are recovering from an injury or suffer from joint pain. It’s an effective way to stabilize the joint and strengthen the muscles surrounding the joint without aggravating the area.
Isometric exercise effectively forces your body to maintain proper form. During your isometric hold, your body is working to stabilize your joints and prevent unnecessary movement. Training this way improves our ability to control our posture, thus leaving us better prepared to hold a stable joint position in unstable conditions.
It also cues our tendons and ligaments to grow stronger in response to the stress applied to the connective tissue. This is an important skill for avoiding injury during more dynamic movements, like bench presses or deadlifts.
For example, the knee has many supporting structures, including tendons, ligaments, and muscles.
Muscular Size and Strength
Isometric exercises activate almost all available motor units in the working muscle. Motor units are the force behind all human movement. When your muscles put in work, your body will adapt to the motor unit demands. This is a great method for building strength and muscle because isometric exercises are so efficient at motor unit recruitment!
Isometric exercises also dramatically increase time under tension, which helps to build muscle. Studies suggest that the more a muscle is under tension, the greater chance it has for it to grow. It’s a win-win all across the board!
This is all great information to have - now we just need to apply it to our workouts!
3 Exercises You Can Try Today
Let’s go over the Wall Sit, the Isometric Pushup, and the Isometric Inverted Pullup with Hybrid Calisthenics’ very own Chrys Johnson!
Chrys is a certified personal trainer with years of experience helping people achieve their goals. You can find him on Instagram and YouTube. By the way, he is available for coaching - connect with him at nolimitfitnesspt@outlook.com.
Check out his video on these three essential isometric exercises:
Wall Sit
This exercise is similar in form to a squat. You are building strength at the 90° angle portion of the movement pattern.
Tutorial:
Stand against a sturdy wall with your feet shoulder-distance apart
Flatten your back against the wall and engage your core
Slowly slide down until your thighs are parallel to the ground and your knees are at a 90 degree angle
Tip: Press down into the floor with your heels for maximal glute engagement
Hold this position for 30 seconds, or as long as you can
Push down into the floor to return to start
Rest and repeat
Muscles worked: Quads, glutes, calves
Joints strengthened: Knees, hips
Isometric Pushup
Similarly to the Wall Sit, we are building strength at the 90° angle of the pushup movement pattern.
Tutorial:
Place your hands shoulder-distance apart on your pushup surface
Get into a plank position and engage your core
Slowly lower down until your chest nearly touches the ground
Hold this position for 30 seconds, or as long as you can
Push down into the floor to return to start
Rest and repeat
Muscles worked: Pectorals, anterior deltoids, triceps
Joints strengthened: Shoulders, elbows
Inverted Isometric Pullup
You guessed it - we’re building strength at the 90° angle of an inverted pullup pattern!
Tutorial:
Place your hands shoulder-distance apart on a railing that you trust
Lengthen your body – there should be a straight line from the top of your head to your heels (like a plank)
Slowly lower down until your reach a 90 degree angle
Hold this position for 30 seconds, or as long as you can
Pull down on the railing to return to start
Rest and repeat
Muscles worked: Lats, rear deltoids, biceps, trapezius
Joints strengthened: Shoulders, elbows
Tips for Getting Results
Here are some tips for your isometric workout:
Compete with yourself. Time yourself to see how long you can hold the exercise. Then try to beat your high score by 1 second every set, up to 90 seconds total. With enough consistency, you’re sure to see results.
Do multiple sets. Remember, we want to push our muscles to the limit. Doing multiple sets of a challenging exercise is a great way to fatigue your muscles and signal them to grow stronger in response.
Schedule your workouts every other day. This will give your muscles 24 hours of recovery time between workouts. This will allow you to maintain a solid frequency of workouts without overtraining.
Adams A. Progressive overload explained: Grow Muscle & Strength Today. National Academy of Sports Medicine. https://blog.nasm.org/progressive-overload-explained.
Siff M. What is muscle action? concentric, eccentric, and isometric. National Academy of Sports Medicine. https://blog.nasm.org/what-is-muscle-action.
