Isotonic and Isometric Contractions

Isotonic and Isometric Contractions

There are two types of muscle contractions that occur when your brain signals to your body to move a muscle or to keep a muscle in a certain position. The two muscle contractions are classified as isotonic and isometric muscle contractions. Isotonic and isometric contractions are the push and pulls that guide you through each day. These contractions help you to sit up, walk, or turn the page of a book.

Isotonic contractions involve a change in your muscle’s length and an increase in the muscle’s tension. An isotonic contraction will eventually lead to the shortening of the muscle. At some point in time, everyone has held a heavy box or a bag of groceries while someone else is trying to find the keys to open the car door or front door to a house. At a certain point after holding the object, your muscles start to fail. This causes your muscles to shorten. Isotonic movements are much more vigorous and more productive in the sense of weight lifting and exercise.

Isometric contractions is a situation of where your muscle length does not change. The resistance against your muscles in an isometric contraction does not change either. An example of an isometric contraction is if you lean against a wall or something very heavy, it will not move. Therefore, you will not move, which means your muscles will not move. There can be an increase in your muscle tension. Isometric movements work the muscle fibers that don’t generally get exercise.