MAX CONTRACTION – THE ULTIMATE IN INTENSITY

High intensity training is really about high intensity muscular contraction; the harder that the muscle is made to work, the more severe the contraction, the greater the growth stimulation. This is what high intensity training is about, technically.

-- Mike Mentzer (1993, Muscle Media 2000 Interview # 1)

When is a muscle contracting hardest – with a maximum weight or a sub maximum weight?– with a weight heavy enough that the muscle can only manage one repetition with it – or with a weight that will allow anywhere from two to 12 repetitions? When is the contraction of a muscle most severe – when it is overloaded maximally in the position of maximum contraction or when it is subjected to sub-maximal loading and made to contract through an exaggerated or full range of motion?– with a contraction so intense that any more than one-to-six seconds of contraction is impossible, or within a set that can last up from one to two minutes in length?

Remember, intensity, to take both Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones’ definitions of the term, is defined as “the percentage of possible momentary muscular effort.” If this definition is valid, and both Mentzer and Jones concurred that it was, then where is the greatest possible momentary muscular effort present – in a set performed with the heaviest possible weight your muscles are capable of contracting against and in a position that involves the greatest number of muscle fibers (i.e., a position of maximum contraction) or in a set performed with a weight that is not the heaviest that your muscles are capable of contracting against, and that does not involve the greatest number of muscle fibers? In a contraction that is so severe that it can only last one to six seconds, or in a set that can be sustained for one to two minutes?

Since a full range of motion requires a reduction in the amount of weight that your muscles are capable of contracting against (as against the amount of resistance your muscles are capable of contracting against in the fully contracted position), then the weights are, by definition, sub-maximal, and the intensity of the contraction will, perforce, be diminished. Only Max Contraction allows for a truly maximal muscular contraction and, thus, the greatest growth stimulation.

Yes, there are plenty of high intensity training techniques one can choose from – partial reps, rest-pause, negative reps, forced reps, positive reps performed throughout a full range of motion, pre-exhaustion and max contraction. But, as Mentzer correctly pointed out, “it is not possible for two training theories to have equal merit.” But if no two training theories can have equal merit or equal validity, then it further stands to reason that no two training protocols or techniques can have equal merit. And so, with the above standard of intense muscular contraction as our touchstone, we note that only Max Contraction results in a truly “maximum contraction” of muscle tissue. Techniques such as pre-exhaustion do not; forced reps do not, positive reps performed throughout a full range of motion do not, and negative reps do not – nor partials (as both negatives and partials go out of and into – respectively – a position of maximum contraction). And this is not to impugn the effectiveness of these high intensity techniques, as they will most certainly build muscle. However, our focus here is on stimulating “maximum” gains in strength and size, not merely “some” or “more” or even “a lot” – but “maximum.”  We are left (again) with Max Contraction, which is the protocol that makes the muscle work the hardest, provides the most severe muscular contraction and, therefore, provides the greatest growth stimulation. And that, as Mike Mentzer pointed out in the quote off the top of this article, “is what high intensity training is about.”

Article copyright © 2003, John Little and Northern River Productions, Inc. Any reproduction in whole or in part without the expressed written permission of the author is strictly prohibited.