Types of Muscle Contraction

Types of muscle contraction

You know that your muscles are able to do lots of different types of functions and during their activity they go through a process we call the contraction, and there are three different types of muscle contraction I am about to reveal here to you so keep on reading and maybe you will learn something .."reader".

It all depends on the activity you are performing or on the amount of power your muscles still has. How? We’re gonna get to it.

Let’s take a biceps curl exercise for an example. We can demonstrate all of the muscle contraction types on it.

First type that we should mention is..


Concentric Type of Muscle Contraction

This type of muscle contraction is performed (if applied on our example) in the part, when you lift your hand from the dead point (that is the place where the angle of your bent elbow reaches around 100°) up to your shoulder.

During this muscle contraction process are your muscles shortened (that means that your extrafusal fibre are shrinking). The power is bigger than the counteraction of the weight you are lifting. You have strength in muscles, you rise the weight, you perform concentric type of contraction during the biceps curl exercise.. Got it?

Another type is..


Eccentric Muscle Contraction Type

We can say that it is the counter to the concentric muscle contraction type. When you move your hand the opposite way in our biceps curl example from the dead point and focus on the movement, your biceps is being contracted differently. We call this type of muscle contraction an eccentric muscle contraction type.

I really mean to focus on the movement because otherwise you would just let the weight fall down with only the power of the gravity and your muscles may not be contracted at all. And in the worse case it is going to flatten your feet :)

The big secret in lifting weights is that you must focus on the movement you are performing. To make the muscle work as much as it can so it reaches the biggest rate of contraction possible. Don't give yourself anything cheap. You gotta go hard on you!

Your muscles are lengthening and extending during this type of muscle contraction but they cannot push against the bone they are fixed to. This type of muscle contraction is usually performed when the weight is literally bigger than the power of the muscle. Like when you reached your strength limits and you are slowly dropping the dumbbell down.

The last of our chart of muscle contraction types is..


Isometric Muscle Contraction Type

If the power is being created only by the one activated muscle and joints are not moving (the resistance of the weight equals to the power of the muscle) is called the isometric muscle contraction type.

It is performed when the dumbbell is being held static or when it is too heavy to lift higher. When you are exhausted but still trying to lift the dumbbell, you are usually stuck in one position. And that is it friend. Isometric muscle contraction.

For example some of the muscles of our body are performing this kind of muscle contraction type primarily. Take postural spine muscles for instance. They are performing isometric muscle contraction to stabilize the upper body during its movement.

So that is it to the muscle contraction types lads. Hope you are little bit smarter than you were on top of this article.

Each type of muscle contraction appeals on muscles differently. So use it in your workout and see how your muscles react on each muscle contraction type.