Isometric Exercises For Rock Hard Abs

The Truth: Crunches, sit-ups, ab rollers; it’s enough to make you want to sit down, roll over and throw it all away. The good news is that you can get a great set of rock hard abs that feel as good as they look without any of that jazz. Use isometric exercises, they promise to save you time, hassle and heartache on the way to a strong and super-sexy midsection.

The Tale: Autumn 1995

I’ve just moved school and gone from da ‘hood to the ‘burbs. It’s just like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, only so far it hasn’t been quite so funny, I feel like a fish out of water. (Eventually I’m gonna realize that moving schools had a massively postive impact on the direction of my life. But it’s 1995; “eventually” hasn’t happened yet………)

I’m in science class and one of the old guard is testing me out as the new kid to see how I react. He’s winding me up. If I sit here and take it then my whole future in this place will be just like this. So what do I do?

I tell him I’ll see him after class. Now I’m not one for fighting but this won’t take long………….. 3 jabs to his stomach and we’re done. This boy really should have worked on his six pack- he could have used a set of rock hard abs!

What are isometric exercises?

Isometric exercises are described by Wikipedia as

“a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction (compared to concentric or eccentric contractions, called dynamic/isotonic movements). Isometrics are done in static positions, rather than being dynamic through a range of motion.”

There is more

“The joint and muscle are either worked against an immovable force (overcoming isometric) or are held in a static position while opposed by resistance (yielding isometric).

An example of this in the context of the bench press would be that a yielding isometric would be holding the bar at a given place even though it could be pressed higher, and an overcoming would be pressing the bar up into the safety guards of a squat cage that prevent pushing the bar any higher.”

Why use isometric exercises for your abs?

Aside from taking a punch or looking great at the beach? Well there are some very good reasons.

One thing that isometric exercise does is remove the traditional focus on “banging out” repetitions; you learn to use time as your tool of resistance to sculpt your body, and it takes less time, not more.

You can also use isometrics to mimic one of the core functions of your midsection; stabilisation of your torso in space. This type of exercise is not just great for strengthening, tightening and toning your abs, but reduces the risk of injury to your whole core too so you’ll be less likely to feel a twinge in your back when your doing the shopping.

Here is an isometric exercises for abs in action

The plank is a great exercise for the core and it strengthens your abs from every angle. I have a lot of respect for this exercise, but not a lot of time, good thing being I don’t need a lot of time because it’s so effective.

The abs in this pic were achieved using the plank.  I was around about 4 minutes twice a week (which is nothing compared to the girl in the video, wow!) and I started working it about a month before this pic. Results can be quick when you know the right method.

Of course you can do the side plank too, but basically that’s all you need to know when it comes to isometric exercises for rock hard abs. Short and sweet, works just fine.

To the good life

Michael

(PS- I started doing the plank after reading Rusty Moore over at FitnessBlackBook so big shout out to him . You might want to check out his abs blueprint, it’s a free download.)