Improving Performance and Understanding Muscular Contractions

While strength training, it’s typically not what exercise you’re doing that matters all that much, but more importantly, how you’re doing it. I always tell my clients that the nature of exercising is simply: “moving your body around until you fatigue” whether it’s under resistance or bodyweight.  Regardless of the exercise choice, our muscle always work upon three physiological states of contractions. All of which should be understood and implemented into any training program in order to increase strength, motor control, and overall training quality.

How Do Muscular Contractions Occur?

There are many steps which go into the full physiological process of muscular contractions, but for the purpose of this article, brevity is key. So, this is the simplest explanation needed.

1. The brain sends an electrical impulse towards the muscle through a neural pathway
2. The electrical signal then reaches the neuromuscular junction of the muscle
3. Once the signal is received, it fuels a combination of processes to occur which ultimately results in a tensioning of the recruited muscle fibers units

This tensioning is referred to as a muscular contraction.

Why is this important?

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the “mind-muscle” connection. Well, this psychomotor connection is built through understanding. If you don’t think about or understand what you’re actually trying to perform, chances are that the quality of your movements will be poor. Inefficient movements lead to ineffective training. That includes, less strength gained, less muscle made, and more reasons to cease training altogether. We should aim to build effective motor control throughout the psychomotor learning process. Learn the function of the muscle being trained, know how it feels to stretch it and contract it, and then begin to challenge it through training.

Types of Muscular Contractions:

There are three types of muscular contractions which differ based on the changes in length of the muscle during the contraction.

Concentric Contractions – this type of contraction is typically the most understood and emphasized. When a muscle shortens, a concentric contraction occurs. This contraction acts to accelerate movements through overcoming the loads/resistance which challenge the muscle. This is also referred to as performing the “positive” portion of the lift.

Examples: pushing a door open, kicking a ball, jumping in the air

Eccentric Contractions – this type of contraction acts in opposition to the concentric type. As a muscle lengthens under tension, an eccentric contraction occurs. The eccentric contractions act to decelerate movements when the loads/resistance challenging the muscle is too difficult to work past.  This is also referred to as the “negative” portion of the lift. Eccentric contractions are often underutilized in training, but produce a higher amount of hypertrophy to the muscle over concentric contractions

Examples: walking downstairs, slowing down after a sprint, lowering a box to the floor

Isometric Contractions – this type of contraction occurs when the muscle generates tension without changing length. This is performed without excess movement and utilized a great deal of time under tension.

Examples: maintaining posture, gripping grocery bags, holding a plank

Put it to Practice!

As a general rule, perform the eccentric phase under longer time than the rapid concentric phase, but control throughout both portions. Perform isometric contractions to increase the burn and challenge stability under tension.

For explosive power training, focus upon the concentric contractions. For building muscle, both concentric and eccentric are needed, however the eccentric lowering will breakdown more tissue. For stability and rehabilitative exercises, isometric contractions are highly recommended.

Now that you understand the three types of muscular contractions, you can focus and properly develop your motor control throughout different phases of your strength training lifts. Utilizing varied tempos and cadences in each set can bring a new challenge to your workouts. For assistance in learning the fundamental movements for strength training, contact Raw Athletics to set up your first complementary session!