A common misunderstanding is that when a muscle contract and a force is generated it shortens. However, as muscles produce force when they are activated, the muscle will respond differently depending on how the force developed by the muscle and the load placed on it interact with each other. This can result in muscle shortening, staying at a constant length or lengthening (Faulkner, 2003).

Resistance training to improve muscular strength is widely used by a variety of populations for many purposes including, performance enhancement, preventing or recovering from injury, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle (Roig et al., 2008).  A muscle can be trained either statically or dynamically and there are 3 different types of contractions that exist. When a muscle is trained statically meaning with no movement, the active muscle is held at a fixed length, an isometric contraction (Roig et al., 2008). On the other hand, when a muscle is trained dynamically meaning with movement, we can have either a shortening of the muscle fibers which is known as a concentric contraction or lengthening of the muscle fibres known as an eccentric contraction. (Roig et al., 2008). Each of these forms of contractions have a place during rehabilitation depending on the type of injury and the stage of recovery the individual is in.

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