Physiological area: Isometric Training Effects
Rationale:
All around the world people love to train and improve their physical strength. Although, most people have a limited understanding of how their body functions on a day to day basis, so it is logical to assume people also have a limited idea on how to train their bodies. What if the common knowledge is not the most effective way to be training the body. Instead of just going in and picking up a weight for an hour and calling it a day there are several studies that look closer at different forms of training. The studies referred to show how isometric training can improve muscle strength and development.
Many things are going on within the body all the time that people don’t even think about. For example, when muscles contract so many things are going on. The muscle must pull the fibers to perform a movement this is done thanks to sarcomeres. There are also different types of muscle fiber fast twitch fiber are primarily used in anaerobic exercises. While slow twitched fibers operate during anaerobic exercises. All these factors are important to keep in mind when performing exercises.
The focus is the isometric contractions that can be performed by the body. To better understand them here is an example a plank exercise where a subject’s core muscles are being used to keep their body stable without changing length. Another example would be maintaining a weight with the elbow at a 90-degree angle with a weight that would cause difficulty for one to hold for an extended period.
Research was done on eight male subjects from ages 19 to 26 years old. Four of test subject underwent isometric training while the other four subjects became the control group which performed no training. The muscle mainly examined during this experiment was the biceps brachii.
Purpose: The study is to evaluate the effects of isometric exercises and how much more muscle is produced by the subjects.
Hypothesis: Isometric training will cause an increase in muscle strength and growth
Key Terms:
Isometric contraction- a fiber contraction that does not have a length change in muscular fibers
Anaerobic- an action without oxygen
References
McDonagh, M., Hayward, C., & Davies, C. (1983). Isometric training in human elbow flexor muscles. The effects on voluntary and electrically evoked forces. Bone & Joint Journal, 65-B(3), 355-358. Accessed February 07, 2018. Retrieved from http://bjj.boneandjoint.org.uk/content/65-B/3/355.