The road to building an indestructible body starts here!
By David Liira, Kin on Medium
Searching for a fast track to amazing mobility, strength, and muscular endurance? Look no further than long-hold isometric exercises. Instead of taking the regular rep-based approach, this is all about putting your body in challenging positions and using your mobility and strength to hang on for minutes at a time. As we rarely do this type of work outside of core exercises, applying this to other parts of the body is both productive and humbling.
Not only will this training philosophy improve your strength endurance, but it’ll impact virtually every corner of functional living as you notice everything from your posture to lower body strength improving. The best part? It only takes minutes per day to reap all of these fantastic benefits! You don’t a gym or any fancy equipment, just a determination to show up day in and day out to put your body in the right positions to thrive.
Your true colors get revealed when you challenge an isometric exercise. Are you willing to put in the work to master your strength endurance for a pain-free life?
Building a Deeper Level of Strength & Endurance
Before we get into the three movements below, please remember that starting a new exercise routine always comes with a level of risk. If you have any injuries or chronic conditions that may put you in danger during physical activity, please talk to a trusted health provider before getting started.
The beauty of this short routine is that you can implement it into any aspect of your day. Whether you’re looking to get mobilized first thing in the morning or you need a new warm-up routine, this can be a fantastic use of your time in almost any scenario. The most important thing is to be consistent with it over weeks and months, so find a time that works for you and stick with it!
Now without further ado, let’s dive into the three positions that you should take seriously to enhance virtually every aspect of your physical health.
1) Deep Squat
Image from cbphysicaltherapy.com
Rationale: One of the easiest ways to work on hip and thoracic spine mobility is to develop your deep squat. This position will also help to improve ankle mobility, an area that many people overlook entirely. If you want to enhance your lower body health, this should be near the top of your priority list!
Application: 2 x 2–4 minute hold
Cues: Set yourself up in a neutral standing position with the feet just wider than shoulder-width and the toes pointed slightly out. Next, drop down to your maximum depth for a squat while keeping the heels on the floor. If this is too challenging, try doing it with TRX handles or any other grip that’s in front of you. If this position feels too easy for you, add a spinal extension component by holding a dowel overhead to further develop your t-spine mobility.
2) Dead Hang
Image from gracebrownfitness.com
Rationale: This position demands ultimate grip strength, one of the most consistent indicators of a long health span across all populations. It’s also one of the most effective isometric positions to strengthen the upper body as a whole while developing better rib cage control/breathing patterns. Finally, it’s a subtle, yet killer core workout that will creep up on you!
Application: 2 x 30s–2 minute hold
Cues: Find a stable bar and grip onto it, keeping the elbows straight and the body in a neutral line. Play around with the grip here and consider switching up the position of your hands every once in a while (hands facing away, towards, eagle grip, wide grip, etc…). As you hold, ensure you keep your breathing under control and stay relaxed throughout the neck and shoulders.
If this is too challenging, consider using a long resistance band to support some of your weight. On the other hand, if this feels too easy for you, try adding a weight belt to increase the resistance you’re fighting against.
3) Bear Plank
Image from tonal.com
Rationale: The bear plank is an accessible whole-body exercise that is relevant to virtually everyone due to its emphasis on the core, quads, knees, and lower back. As you fatigue, it’ll keep you accountable to good hip and shoulder girdle control. If I had to pick just one plank to teach clients, this would probably be it!
Application: 2 x 1–3 minute hold
Cues: Start on your hands and knees and then simply lift your knees off the floor so that just your hands and toes are making contact. Just like with the movements above, take deep breaths and focus on endurance. If you want to regress this exercise, do bouts of 5–10s holds and work your way up. If you’re looking for a progression, try completing bear plank kickbacks or bear plank shoulder taps!
Image from Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels
In Closing,
Want to get stronger without putting hours of work in? It’s time to challenge your endurance by using isometric exercise as a key tool instead of an afterthought. It’s the very recipe for an enhanced level of strength that can not only improve your mobility, coordination, and endurance but also bulletproof your body from injuries that plague so many. Are you willing to put the work in to build a more robust, capable body?
You got this.
-DavidLiira.Kin
