Understanding Different Types of Muscular Contractions: Concentric, Eccentric, and Plyometric

Exploring various contraction regimes in depth.

Here we look at the 3 most commonly used types of muscle contraction in bodybuilding training or even physical preparation.

• Concentric:

During this contraction, the muscular insertions come closer together, so to put it simply, the muscle shortens (e.g. elbow flexion during a biceps curl).

• Eccentric:

In contrast to concentric contraction, the muscle insertions move away from each other, lengthening the muscle (e.g. elbow extension during a biceps curl).

• Isometric:

During this contraction, the insertions remain fixed (e.g.: chair, plank, static holding of a load at a defined angle...).

There is a fourth type of muscular contraction, the plyometric regime, which could be defined as a mixture of these 3 regimes with the smallest possible time differential between each phase of these regimes.

Each of these regimes has its own advantages/disadvantages (which will be discussed in a later post) and is useful to implement depending on the objective. What's more, introducing these different modes of contraction into your workouts allows you to vary the stress.

Thank you for reading.