Exercise is great for improving heart health. But the thought of hitting the gym or going for a jog might put some people off from doing it. And, if you have a heart condition already, such dynamic exercises may not be safe to do .
The good news is, you don't necessarily need to do a vigorous workout to see heart benefits. You can even improve your heart health by holding still and trying really hard not to move. Isometric training , as this is called, is becoming increasingly popular as a way of reducing blood pressure and hypertension, and improving strength and muscle stability .
Normally, to build strength and force, our muscles need to change length throughout a movement. Squats and bicep curls are good examples of exercises that cause the muscle to change length throughout the movement. But isometric training involves simply contracting your muscles, which generates force without needing to move your joints.
The harder a muscle is contracted, the more forceful it becomes (and the more forceful a muscle is, the more powerfully we can perform a movement). If you add weight to an isometric exercise, it causes the muscle to contract even harder. A wall sit and a plank are examples of isometric contractions.
Isometric exercises are associated with a high degree of "neural recruitment" , because of the need to maintain the contraction. This means these exercises are good at engaging specialized neurons in our brain and spinal cord, which play an important role in all the move.