Does flexing have any effect on the muscles?

Question

positively and negatively?

Answer 1

Believe it or not, there are benefits to flexing other than giving you an ego boost.

Flexing and holding a pose is known as "isotension" and it can improve muscle definition as well as possibly increase muscle size. It also can allow you to develop a better "feel" for your muscles and how they work, which can translate into better form and more effective workouts at the gym.

When you perform isotension, you are basically maintaining your muscle at peak contraction for an extended period of time. This is not much different from what you do at the gym when performing, say, a bicep curl with a dumbbell. The difference in this case is you are contracting the muscle without the additional resistance.

You probably won't gain much additional muscle mass through isotension, but it can help bring out muscle striation, separation, vascularity and definition over time.