Santa Maria Athletic Club

By Wina Sturgeon 

The next time you do a resistance workout, stop and clench the muscle before you finish the lift. Do it for every lift. For example, with a biceps curl, clench the biceps when your arm is curled up near the shoulder. With a bench press, clench your pecs when the bar is at the top position. Clench your thighs when you hit bottom in a squat. Clenching will work wonders for your strength.

Clenching offers fantastic benefits; the best being that it strengthens the tendon, the tissue at the ends of each muscle that attaches the muscle to the bone. This of course increases the strength of the joint. In fact, when you clench a muscle, you’ll actually feel it in the tendon.

Regular resistance exercise in which a weight is moved through a complete range of motion is called isotonic exercise. Because the weight (or band, cord or other form of resistance) is moved fairly quickly, some muscle fibers can get away with shirking the work. Naturally, these fibers become weaker, causing a strength imbalance. But an isometric exercise actually recruits these weak muscle fibers; it’s impossible for them to avoid contracting when the rest of the muscle contracts.

Those who are familiar with yoga or Pilates will already know about isometric movements, because they are frequently used in these kinds of workouts. But many athletes training for pure strength and quickness often miss a chance to incorporate nonmoving, or static, muscle contractions in their routines.

Another benefit of isometrics is that it requires no equipment and can be done anywhere, at any time. It also goes far beyond just clenching a muscle. You can also increase your isometric strength by pushing against an immovable object like a wall with your hand, which works your arm and chest. You can push your foot against the floor to work your calf, quadriceps and hamstring. You can push down with your hands on the arms of a chair and work your upper back. You can be sitting at a desk in an office, doing a brief isometric workout, without anyone even knowing. But don’t try it in a meeting, your face will always give the game away. After all, it IS a workout.

But the biggest benefit will come if you contract a muscle while it’s in the middle of a resistance movement. Do it at the part of the lift where direction changes — from up to down, from down to up, from forward to back — and then do it again at the finish of the lift. For example, when doing a lat pulldown, you’ll work the tendons at both ends of the lats if you clench your back with the resistance in the up position and also with the resistance pulled down.

When doing an isometric clench, make it quick. Muster all your force to contract the muscle, then release it. Isometric moves can raise the blood pressure, causing you to feel faint. To help prevent this, breathe normally during isometric exercise. Never take a deep breath and hold it while you strain to contract a muscle; this can force blood into your heart, increasing the risk of a stroke.

Because isometric moves use all your force, you don’t want to do your clench at every workout — the muscles need time to recover. Pick one day a week, or two at the maximum, to use a static contraction with every isotonic exercise.

The increase in your strength will be subtle at first, but you’ll soon feel it. You’ll be amazed at how much of a difference a little clench will make in your overall athletic ability.