Transcription
How's it going, my gymless friends? I got another no equipment video for you here.
All right, so I've been doing a lot of isometric exercises. And for those of you who don't know what isometrics are, that's when you hold muscle contractions without moving any joints. So you're essentially just holding a static position and counting seconds instead of reps. In this video, I'm going to show you 20 isometric exercises that are approachable for just about anyone. They require no equipment and collectively, they work the entire body.
All right, so we're going to start with lower body and then work up to core and then upper body. All right, let's get started with the wall sit. In order to do a wall sit, start off with your heels, your butt, your upper back, and your head flat against the wall. And then step your feet out one big step away from the wall. Make sure your toes are pointed about 45 degrees outward and are roughly shoulder-width apart. Then slide down the wall like I just did until your thighs are about parallel to the floor. At this point, you're just going to hold the position and you should feel a nice muscle contraction in the quadriceps on the front or top of the thighs, as well as in the glutes. Hold this position for as long as you can, making sure to continue breathing. All right, that's important. A lot of times in isometric exercises, we forget to breathe, we hold our breath. You don't want to do that. On all the exercises I show you in this video, make sure you continue breathing. If you can't stand up at the end, what you can do is lean forward, and that will decrease the resistance, and then you can stand up out of the squat.
The sumo squat is exercise number two. And in order to do this isometrically, you want to stand with your feet greater than shoulder width apart, toes pointed about 45 degrees outwards. And then you're gonna just sink down into a squat. And this is going to resemble something like horse stance in martial arts. What I like to do here is dig my heels into the ground, as well as the outside edges of my feet. And what that does is it really activates the hip abductors, the muscles on the outside of your thighs. Remember to continue breathing. And if you don't save enough gas in the tank to simply stand up out of this position, like I'm doing right here, that's the ideal way to get out of it. What you can do instead, if you can't stand up because your muscles are too exhausted, is you can drop your hands down to the floor and then just come down to a kneeling position.
And the third exercise is the static calf raise. This is a really simple one. You just stand up on your tippy toes, but honestly, it's not putting the weight on your toes. You're actually putting the weight on the balls of your feet, which is the padding just below the toes. Holding this position contracts the muscles of the calves. And to come out of it, you simply put your heels down on the floor.
Exercise number four is a static lunge. Take a large step forward with your front leg flat on the floor. Knee should be bent to about 90 degrees, and your rear leg is up on the ball of the foot or the toes. Notice that the knee of my front leg does not surpass the toes of the front leg. That's important so you don't put unnecessary strain on the knee joint. And of course, this is a unilateral exercise, so make sure you do the opposite leg forward as well.
For the next exercise, we're going to need a sturdy object like a chair that we can lean on, and we're going to target the hamstrings here doing a hamstring curl. So lean on the chair about one foot in front of a wall, and then curl your leg backwards by bending at the knee so your heel is against the wall. I'm performing a hamstring curl here by pressing my heel into the wall like I'm trying to push the wall away from me, but also like I'm trying to push it upwards. After holding that for the max amount of time, make sure you switch legs and do the other leg as well, because like others, this is a unilateral exercise.
And this next one has kind of a strange name. It's called active beast, and that's because it stems from animal flow. So a lot of the moves and positions are named after animals or animal-related things. Regardless, this is an extremely powerful yet simple isometric exercise. So I want you to try this position. Notice that I'm on my toes. All right, I don't have the tops of my feet flat on the floor, and I'm also kneeling here. What we're going to do is come down onto all fours in this position. Palms flat on the floor directly beneath the shoulders. Your hips should be directly above your knees. And what you want to do here, if you watch carefully, I'm about to lift my knees just off the floor, maybe one inch or so, not very far. It only takes a little bit. And what this does is it requires activation of the entire anterior core, as well as you're going to have to push hard into the floor to protract your scapula. This exercise is great for building strength and stability in the prone position, so I highly recommend it.
Next, we're going to look at an oldie but a goodie. All right, this is a classic isometric exercise. Come down onto your elbows and forearms, and then come up onto your toes by raising the hips. Contract the abs, actually the entire core, the glutes, and the thighs to keep your body straight. Press down into the floor with your elbows and forearms to protract your scapula. That means your shoulder blades should be moving apart. And here you are doing what's called the forearm plank. This is a very popular exercise in fitness, and for a good reason, because it's almost working your entire body.
Next, we're going to look at the side plank to target the obliques and hip abductors. So we're going to have one hand on our top thigh here as we lay on our side, as well as the other hand flat on the floor with the elbow and forearm resting on the floor too. Then raise the hips up off the floor. This is going to come from the obliques and the hip abductors on the side of the thigh. Holding this position at first might feel a bit awkward if you're not used to using your obliques, but you will get used to it with practice. It took me a while to adjust to it. Make sure to work both sides, of course, because this is unilateral. And also, if you want to make it more challenging, you can raise that top leg like this, and that will activate the hip abductor more.
For the next exercise, we're gonna lie on our back. We're gonna have knees bent and feet flat on the floor. And what we're going to do from this position is we're going to work our posterior chain by activating our glutes and lower back. And when we do that, we're going to lift our hips off the floor like this. Notice that there's a straight line from my chest to my knees. This is important. You want to create that straight line as you hold this position isometrically. While the glute bridge is a regression that can be used by complete beginners, this next exercise is a progression. If you raise one foot off the floor and then put it up in the air like this and perform the same exercise as before, you're doing a single leg glute bridge. And what this does is it increases the resistance for the side of the body with the foot still flat on the floor, of course. Because you're performing this exercise one side at a time, make sure you work both sides evenly.
And for exercise number 10, we're going to lie prone on the floor. This means flat on our belly with arms outstretched overhead, feet pointed straight behind us. And what you want to do is raise your feet and hands off the floor just like this and hold the position. We're going to notice is that you're contracting your lower back, your mid mid-back, and your glutes and hamstrings in this sort of hyper-extended position to raise the hands and feet off the floor. Superman holds are a great lead-up to back bridges because they strengthen all the same muscles that are needed for the hyper extension for a back bridge.
For exercise number 11, we're going to sit on the floor with our legs extended out in front of us. And what you're going to do is you're going to scoot the hips forward like this, heels resting on the floor, and then raise the hips by contracting your posterior chain, specifically the lower back and the glutes. You'll also notice that to hold this position, you have to press hard into the floor, and my fingers are pointing forward towards my feet. Okay, that's important. When you're pressing down into the floor like this behind you, it's working your upper back muscles, as well as stretching your chest because it's important that you open your chest and you stretch those internal rotators when you do a straight bridge.
For exercise number 12, we want to be sitting in the same position, hands right next to our hips, and then press down into the floor as we lean forward and raise the hips off the floor. This is the floor assisted L-sit, meaning that our heels are resting on the floor and assisting us to make the exercise easier. If you want to make this exercise harder as you progress, some progressions are to do a tucked L-sit where your feet are off the floor as well, but tucked in towards your body, and also to extend into the full floor L-sit.
Exercise 13 is the straight arm plank. So come up into this prone position on your toes and hands. Hands should be palms down directly below your shoulders, and protract the scapula by pressing hard into the floor. You're basically holding the top position of a push-up, but this is really underrated in terms of building the protracting muscles for your scapula, which would be the subclavius and the pec minor, especially in the upper chest.
Number 14 is a progression of the straight arm plank. So get into a straight arm plank and make sure your scapula are totally protracted, meaning your shoulder blades are far apart because you're pushing into the floor. Now, from this position, you want to press with your toes to lean forward, and what this is doing is it's shifting the weight towards your shoulders, so your shoulders have to work harder to support it, as well as your wrists. This is really great for building strength in the wrists. Some people would call this a planche lean when you're working towards the planche. This is definitely a great exercise to work on, but this is also beneficial for anyone, even those who aren't working towards a planche.
And for number 15, you're going to get into a position that's prone, but your fingers are pointing back towards your knees. All right, so notice that my hands are reversed on the floor, and then go ahead and come up into a plank position, but then lower down to the bottom of a push-up and hold it. This is a biceps plank because it's really shifting focus to the biceps on the front of your arms. And what I really like about this is that it is very challenging considering that it's just a plank exercise. So give this a shot. I highly recommend it, even for those who are more advanced in watching this video.
For number 16, you're going to get into a plank position, but then you're going to hop the feet out wider than hip width, and then bring the hands narrower than shoulder width. From here, you're going to bring one arm up so your hand is behind your back into what's called a single arm plank. You'll notice that when you do this, you have to shift your weight to the side where your arm is on the ground, and that will challenge your core quite a bit. So it's a good core exercise, but also builds a lot of straight arm strength and is a great lead-up to the one arm push-up.
For exercise 17, we're going to work our upper back and rear delts. And to do this, you need to be standing flat with your back against a wall. From here, what you're going to do, and this is why it's called wall T holds, is you're going to raise your arms up to the side in the shape of a letter T. Stretch your arms out away from your body, and then rotate so your palms are facing forward. Now, what you want to do is the muscle contraction. Use your elbows and forearms to press back against the wall behind you like you're trying to push the wall away from your back. You should feel a contraction in your rear deltoids, trapezius, and rhomboids as you do this.
For exercise 18, we are back on the floor. Come up into a pike position like this, but instead of doing a standard pike press, you're going to just bend at the elbows so your head is near the floor and then hold that position. This is a bent arm pike, great for building strength in the triceps, anterior delts, and really the entire shoulder girdle and upper back.
For exercise 19, you're going to lay flat on your back, arms outstretched overhead, toes pointed away from you. And what you're going to do here is contract the abs, glutes, and thighs to raise your shoulder blades and heels off the floor into what's called the hollow body. Holding this position, like I mentioned, you're contracting the thighs, glutes, and abs to raise the shoulder blades and heels, but also when you're outstretching the arms overhead and pointing the toes, you're really making this a full body exercise, and it's a great lead-up to the handstand. Highly recommended. This is a fantastic exercise that anyone can try.
And number 20 is a bit of a stretch when saying anyone can do it, but go ahead and try this. Put your hands down on the floor in front of a wall, and put your feet up on the wall. Now, I'm going to pause here. This is called a wall plank, and you should work on this if the position feels difficult. But if the wall plank isn't too hard and you can hold this position for, say, I don't know, 15, 20 seconds, then you will want to progress by walking the feet further up the wall until your hands reach the wall. And what this is called is a chest to wall handstand. Make sure to press hard into the floor to elevate the scapula and contract the abs, glutes, and thighs to engage that posterior pelvic tilt. This is a great full body exercise and lead-up to the handstand.
All right, and don't forget that if this video was helpful to you in any way, please help me out in return by hitting that like button right beneath the video. And don't forget to subscribe to my channel, Minus the Gym, if you're new and just stumbled on this video because I'm all about keeping fit with bodyweight fitness. All right, and with that said, I will see you in the next video.