Isotonic Exercises for Hands

You don’t have to be a fine-tuned athlete to know the importance of strength. Whether you’re swinging for the bleachers or planting a new garden, muscular strength and endurance can make the task easier. Improving your strength can be done by performing a variety of isotonic exercises. To be complete, your workout routine should include isotonic exercises not only for your major muscles groups, but also your hands. A strong grip is vital to many daily activities and a sign of your overall health.

  1. About Isotonic Exercises

    • In simple terms, an isotonic exercise involves the repetitive contraction and extension of your muscles as you rhythmically move your joints through a range of motion. Usually, a light to moderate amount of resistance is used. Isotonic exercises include two types of muscle contractions, concentric and eccentric. Concentric contractions are when your muscles shorten while they move upward against the resistance and against gravity. Eccentric contractions are just the opposite and take place when your muscles lengthen to control a movement and manage the resistance in the direction of gravity.

    Benefits

    • Through controlled movements, isotonic exercises can help strengthen, tone and define your muscles as well as improve your joint range of motion. An effective exercise regimen can improve your overall strength and prepare your muscles for any number of day-to-day activities. To help improve performance, athletes customize their strength training with specific isotonic exercises designed to target certain muscle groups. You don't need a gym membership or a lot of expensive equipment, you can perform them at home with little equipment or space. Training aids such as resistance bands, dumbbells or kettlebells can be used.

    Sample Isotonic Hand Exercises

    • A simple, yet effective hand exercise is to squeeze an object that offers resistance, such as a small rubber ball, a dead tennis ball or hand grippers. When using a ball, cradle it in your palm, spread your fingers and wrap them around the sides of the ball. Squeeze the ball as hard as you can, pause for a count of three, relax and repeat. Perform 10 squeezes with each hand. To exercise with a hand gripper, hold it so the straighter of the two handles is resting in the middle of your palm or slightly toward the base of your fingers. Pull the handles together with your other hand and wrap your fingers around the handle. Squeeze the gripper shut, slowly release the squeeze and repeat. Repeat as many times as you can in 10 seconds, and then repeat with your other hand to complete one repetition.

    Frequency

    • As long as you don’t experience any joint soreness or pain, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends daily ball-squeezing exercises to strengthen your grip. When doing hand-gripper exercises, perform three to five reps per set. Perform up to five sets with a one-minute rest between sets. Hand-gripper exercises can be done as many as three times per week, suggests Melody Schoenfeld, certified fitness trainer.

    Tips and Considerations

    • Perform a five-minute light jog or brisk walk to get your blood flowing to your muscles. To further prepare your hand and forearm muscles for the hand exercises, spend one minute repeatedly clenching your hands and then opening your hands as wide and as quickly as you can. If you are a beginner, haven't exercised in several months or have other health concerns, consult your doctor before engaging in a fitness training program.