Muscular-Fitness

One very effective way to build muscle mass is with iso tension. Iso tension has been used for decades by bodybuilders especially, to build muscle mass while they are performing their regular workout routines. When I first began bodybuilding back in the 1980’s I remember some of the older and more experienced bodybuilders performing these weird sets where they stopped still during a repetition and tried not to move while fighting against the resistance of the weights. I was curious to find out what they were doing and hopefully find another way to build more muscle mass on my own physique.

What these bodybuilders were doing years ago in my gym was weight training with iso tension. It is a technique used by Arnold and by bodybuilders many years before him. The word iso comes from isolate and iso tension is when you isolate and place tension on a particular muscle. It is not hard to do, in fact it is very simple and when you do it you will see immediately that it really burns the muscle you are isolating and it feels like it is working immediately.

To give you a basic example of how to build muscle mass with iso tension lets look at the movement of a standing barbell curl. When you perform a regular repetition you begin by standing upright, holding the barbell in your hands with your arms straight and then curling the bar upwards till the bar ends up just in front of your chin. You then lower the bar back to the starting position and then perform another rep. Using iso tension to perform a barbell curl you raise the bar only half way to the middle point so that your forearms are parallel to the floor and just hold the bar in that same spot. The iso tension is basically a static rep. The longer you hold the bar at the middle point without moving the greater the resistance becomes as you begin to weaken under the stress of the weight. Iso tension is that simple.

Anybody who has tried iso tension before knows what I am talking about and knows how intense the burning sensation becomes in the muscle as you remain in the static position. How long you hold the bar for without moving is up to you. Iso tension is a great way to build muscle mass and can be used for almost every muscle group by holding the weight in the middle of the repetition for as long as you can until your muscles fail.

Iso tension is an effective way to train to the failure point and completely exhaust your muscles. I have been successful building muscle mass with iso tension for years. I don’t do individual sets of iso tension reps, what I do is, at the end of a regular set I hold the weight for one or two iso tension reps until my muscles fail and this increases the pump in my muscles till they feel like they will burst. I use iso tension with arm training, leg training by holding the weight at the mid point when using the leg press, shoulder training holding the weights again at the mid point and at the top of the movement when performing dumbbell side laterals and most other body parts as well.

I only use iso tension for just a couple of reps towards the end of my workouts to completely fatigue the muscle I am training. I suppose you could use it more often but I don’t like to over use the technique and let my body get accustomed to it. Using iso tension to build muscle mass is just another of the many weapons we have at our disposal to become better trainers and bigger bodybuilders.