18 Isometric Exercises To Practice At Home

As you know, here at Strong Healthy Dad we are firm believers in isometrics and bodyweight exercises.

If you don't know what isometrics exercises are, then you can read our ultimate guide here.

In a nutshell, isometrics training is when you hold muscle contractions without moving any joints.

So you are essentially just holding a static position and counting seconds instead of reps.

In this article, we are going to show you 20 isometric exercises that you can do at home. You don't need any equipment, and you will get a total body workout.

We're going to start with the lower body, and then work up to the core and then upper body.

Lower Body Isometrics

Let's get started with the wall sit.

1 - Wall Sit Isometric

To do a wall sit start off with your heels, your butt, your upper back, and your head flat against the wall.
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, 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 size, as well as in the glutes.
Hold this position for as long as you can, making sure to continue breathing.
Often in isometric exercises, we forget to breathe and we hold our breath. You don't want to do that. 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.

2 - Sumo Quat Isometric

The sumo squat is exercise number two.

Stand with your feet greater than shoulder-width apart.
Toes pointed about 45 degrees outwards.
Sink down into a squat (this is going to resemble something like horse stance in martial arts.)
Dig your heels into the ground as well as the outside edges of your feet (this activates the hip abductors, the muscles on the outside of your thighs.)
Remember to continue breathing.
When you are done, if you can't stand up out of this position, you can drop your hands down to the floor, and then just come down to a kneeling position.

3 - Static Calf Raise

The static calf raise is a really simple one.

Stand up on your tippy-toes (don't place your weight on your toes but on the balls of your feet, which is the padding just below the toes)
Holding this position works the muscles of the calves.
To come out of it, you simply put your heels down on the floor.

4 - Static Lunge

The static lunge is a great leg workout.

Take a large step forward with your front leg flat on the floor
Knees 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 your 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.

This is a unilateral exercise so make sure you do the opposite leg forward as well.

5 - Hamstring Curl

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 doing a hamstring curl.

Lean on the chair about one foot in front of a wall and then curl your leg backward by bending at the knee so your heel is against the wall.
Press your heel into the wall trying to push the wall away from you (and upwards.)
Repeat with your other leg.

Core Isometrics

6 - Active Beast

The strange name is because it stems from the 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.

Come down onto all fours, palms flat on the floor (directly beneath the shoulders.)
Your toes should be bent and touching the floor (not the tops of your feet flat.)
Your hips should be directly above your knees.
Lift your 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 engages of the entire anterior core, as well as you are 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 we highly recommend it.

7 - Forearm Plank

This is a classic isometric exercise.

Come down on your elbows and forearms and then come up onto your toes by raising the hips.
Contract the abs and your entire core.
Contract the glutes and the thighs to keep your body straight.
Press down into the floor with your elbows and forearms to protract your scapula.
Your shoulder blades should be moving apart.
And here you are doing what's called the forearm plank.

This is a very popular exercise and fitness and for a good reason because it's almost working your entire body.

7 - Side Plank

Next, we're going to look at the side plank to target the obliques and hip abductors.

Lay on your side with one hand flat on the floor with the elbow and forearm resting on the floor.
Raise the other hand pointing up, away from your shoulder.
Raise the hips up off the floor.
You'll be engaging the obliques and the hip abductors on the side of the thigh.
Hold this position even though it feels awkward if you're not used to using your obliques.
You will get used to it with practice.
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 the top leg (it will activate the hip abductor more.)

7 - Glute Bridge

For the next exercise, we're going to lie on our back and perform the glute bridge.

We're going to have knees bent and feet flat on the floor.

You're going to work your posterior chain by activating your glutes and lower back.

You do this by lifting your hips off the floor (by pushing through your feet.)

There's a straight line from your chest to your knees.

Hold this position isometrically.

8 - Single Leg Glute Bridge

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, 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.

9 - Superman Hold

Lay flat on your belly with arms outstretched overhead.
Feet pointed straight behind us.
Raise your feet and hands off the floor and hold the position.
You're contracting your lower back, your mid-back, and your glutes and hamstrings.

This sort of hyperextended position, Superman holds, is a great lead up to back bridges because they strengthen all the same muscles that are needed for the hyperextension for a back bridge.

10 - Reverse Plank Hold

Sit on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you.
Scoot the hips forward.
Heels resting on the floor.
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 your fingers are pointing forward towards your feet.
When you're pressing down into the floor you are working your upper back muscles as well as stretching your chest
It's important that you open your chest and you stretch those internal rotators when you do a straight bridge.

11 - Floor Assisted L Sit

Sit in the same position: hands right next to our hips and then press down into the floor.
Lean forward and raise the hips off 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.

Upper Body Isometrics

12 - Straight Arm Plank

Come up into this prone position on your toes.
Hands should be palms down, directly below your shoulders.
Protract the scapula by pressing hard into the floor.
You're basically holding the top position of a pushup, 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.

13 - Straight Arm Plank Progression

Get into a straight arm plank and make sure your scapula is totally retracted (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.

14 - Reverse Hand Bicep Plank

Get into a prone position but your fingers are pointing back towards your knees.
Your hands are reversed on the floor.
Go ahead and come up into a plank position.
Lower down to the bottom of a pushup and hold it.
This is a biceps plank because it's really shifting focus to the biceps on the front of your arms.
It is very challenging considering that it's just a plank exercise.

15 - One Arm Plank

Get into a plank position and then you're gonna have the feet out wider than hip-width.
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.
Practice both sides.

It's a great lead up to the one-arm push-up.

15 - Wall T Hold

This will engage your upper back and rear delts.
Stand flat with your back against a wall.
Stretch your arms out away from your body and then rotate so your palms are facing forward.
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.

16 - Bent Arm Pike Hold

Come up into a pike position, 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.

17 - Hollow Body

Lay flat on your back, arms outstretched overhead, and toes pointed away from you.
Contract the abs, glutes, thighs, and raise your shoulder blades and heels off the floor into what's called the hollow body.
Holding this position, you're contracting the thighs, glutes, and abs to raise the shoulder blades and heels.
But also when you stretching the arms overhead and pointing the toes you're really making this a full-body exercise (it's a great lead up to the handstand.)

18 - Wall Plank

Put your hands down on the floor in front of a wall and put your feet up on the wall.
This is called a wall plank.
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 15 or 20 seconds, then you will want to progress by walking the feet further up the wall, until your hands reach the wall and do the 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 leads up to the handstand.

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