Exercise for Healthspan: Isometric

🤸‍♀️When you are existing for healthy lifespan (healthspan) how important is it to include isometric exercise?

There is no single source of advice about exercising for healthspan, distinct from exercising for a given sport.

Yet one can, with a lot of time and enthusiasm, look at the connections between:

1. Exercise modalities e.g., power-training

2. Exercise outcomes e.g., physical power

3. Relationship between the outcome & some important health markers e.g., all-cause mortality

Applying this method, incorporating a very modest volume of isometric exercise into your exercise programme has a really strong argument in its favour.

Isometric exercise means contracting a muscle without changing the muscle length or joint angle i.e., you are pushing, or pulling, against a non-moving object.

Isometric exercise has a uniquely strong relationship with reducing blood pressure. Regular use can result in a very clinically significant 5-10 mmHg reduction, and for both the high number (systolic) and low number (diastolic)

The mechanisms of action include improved vascular function & increased nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels.

👨‍🔬 If one is not already using isometric exercise, great news is that this is one of the safest, simplest forms of exercise to begin, since it is almost no-impact, and is very joint friendly.

Exercise Options: Wall Sits, Hollow Body, Side Planks (pictured)

Also Yoga Warrior poses, or static lunges.

Any exercise, including in the gym, where you can hold the contraction at the mid-point can serve the same purpose. For example, using a pulldown machine, you pull-down to the mid-point, and then just hold, rather than completing the range of motion.

You will need to use a lot less weight than you can move dynamically.

Frequency & Volume: Just 1-2 sets performed within bigger workouts, 2-3x a week is sufficient to gain the benefits.

Intensiveness: 5-8 out of 10, this exercise starts out easy, and becomes very uncomfortable as you approach the point of not being able to hold the position.

For further reading, sharing just one human RCT specifically investigating use of isometric exercise to reduce blood pressure.

One year of isometric exercise training for blood pressure management in men: a prospective randomized controlled study

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35969194/

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