What is an isometric exercise?
An isometric exercise is a type of exercise that produces muscle contraction without change in muscle length. Isometric training includes exercises where the muscles aren’t lengthening or shortening.
The benefits of isometric exercises
Isometric exercises are a crucial part of many rehabilitation exercises. They are very beneficial in rehabilitation treatments as they provide a person the ability to rebuild strength and muscular endurance in an injured area without further damaging it.
Isometric training is also an essential part of various sports requiring static strength like climbing, swimming, skiing, mountain biking and motocross, wrestling, gymnastics and more. Improved isometric strength results in an improved sport performance. Forearm, shoulder, core, hip, knee and ankle stabilization, are all cases of using contraction of the muscle thus need to be worked on and improved by performing isometric exercises.
Why is hand grip strength important?
Exercises that strengthen muscles in the wrists, forearms, and hands are often neglected, but actually it’s the hand strength that influences how you throw a ball, climb mountains, hang in fitness exercises, lift weights, or play tennis.
Besides improvement in sport performance, hand grip strength is also known to be linked to cardiovascular health. Good hand grip strength improves the quality of everyday activities like carrying grocery bags, opening a jar, changing tires, working around the house etc.
What are the top 3 isometric exercises that improve your hand grip strength?
-
Isometric Wrist Extension
The purpose of this exercise is to improve your hand grip strength by strengthening your wrist, also to reduce pain due to wrist injury or tennis elbow injury. This exercise is easy to perform and you only need a table or bench to rest your forearm, and a weight. Your wrist should be hanging off the edge of the table or the bench, while holding the weight in a straight position with your thumb placed on top of the weight not underneath. Try to stay in this position for 30 seconds and repeat this for 3 times.
-
Thumb isometric
Strengthening the thumb strength is crucial, as the thumb is half of our hand strength. This exercise doesn’t require any equipment. Place your elbow on a table and make the letter C with your fingers. Apply a pressure with your other hand on the thumb while pressing it towards you while trying to resist that pressure. Release, then place a pressure on your thumb while maintaining the C shape with your fingers. Repeat this procedure a couple of times.
-
Finger hooks
This exercise involves the strengthening of the forearm flexors as they are very important in improving the hand grip strength. For this exercise no equipment is needed. First thing to do is to bring your fingers into a hook fist, then slowly release them and repeat the movements very slowly to feel the strengthening in the forearm muscles. Then clasp the hands together, pull while trying to resist out than relax. Repeat this movement for a couple of times.
How to track the effectiveness of your exercises?
No exercise is fully complete until you measure and track its effectiveness. Above we listed only 3 of the isometric exercises that you should try out to improve your hand grip strength. However, no matter which exercises you do, you must keep track of whether those exercises are effective and contribute to improving your hand grip strength.
Digital hand dynamometer is the most simple, at the same time very reliable tool you should have nearby to track your progress and work on to improve it. The Handexer is very easy to use by anyone. With a wide range from 4LB (2KG) to 265LB (120KG) and an adjustable hand grip, it provides you with an easy solution to measuring the effectiveness of your isometric training.
Start your hand grip isometric exercises today, and test your progress with a digital hand dynamometer!
