Dynamic Tension

Lower body – Quadriceps and Gluteus

Standing with your legs at shoulder width, bend your knees slightly and try to push your legs together while tensing them as hard as possible. Hold for ten and repeat five times with a 10 second rest between each set. You can also do the same thing by pushing your legs out instead of in. Do NOT do this if you are nursing a knee injury.

To work your butt, put your legs together and pretend its digital rectal exam time at the doctors. Squeeze your butt cheeks together as hard as possible to a count of ten. Repeat five times with ten seconds rest between each set.

Chest – Pectorals

Use the classic body builder pose – the crab. Arms bent, hands at waist, slightly hunched over, tense your arms together while saying “grrrrr” in your most ferocious manner. This will get you some laughs while tensing you chest muscles. Repeat five times with ten seconds rest between each set.

Don’t worry if you don’t feel much at first – you’re muscles may not be able to make strong contractions yet, but they soon will – just keep it up. You can do these exercises everyday since they are both low impact and low stress on your joints.

Stomach – Abdominals

Suck in your gut! Yep, your mom was righter than you know. By tensioning your stomach muscles you will automatically give yourself a better look. Try to get your abs to touch your spine for ten seconds – you can’t do it, but the effort will help you look thinner. Repeat five times with ten seconds rest between each set.

Note that it’s a low fat diet and cardio that will give you a six-pack, so don’t stress on your abs too much.

Vary these exercise buy moving slowly while tensioning and allow other muscles to participate which in turn gives you a better workout.

Sometimes when making a contraction you will notice other muscles contracting too. This is OK, but try to focus all your energy on the muscle group you are trying to work in the first place. Avoid holding your breath if you can.

You can make up your own exercises as well – just tense the muscle you want to work for 10 seconds and do 5 sets of 5 reps with 10 seconds of rest between each set.

Are they a complete substitute for resistance exercises like pushups and weights? No. In order to build muscle and strength, you must work against some type of resistance. But dynamic tension combined with calisthenics can give you a nice build with a very low probability of injury.

Isometrics are also not a replacement for cardio workouts even with hundreds of repetitions. You must get in three sessions of 30 to 40 minutes of cardio per week minimum to activate optimum fat burning.

But this is just another way to get in workout when time is limited or you’re away from the gym. In fact, combined with walking and calisthenics, isometric exercises can help from a complete fat burner exercise program.

Here’s a couple of interesting links:

Charles Atlas’s original site:
www.dynamictension.com

An article on how to workout without weights:
www.BodyBuilding.com

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