Page:Tensing Exercises.djvu/12

6 have done all you can (?), just do a little more, give an extra squeeze, impulse or contraction before relaxing.

Full contraction of a muscle is absolutely necessary to produce the best results; i. e., the greatest possible shortening of which a muscle is susceptible. To illustrate. If a twelve-inch muscle is contracted to the full—say seven inches—then fresh blood, necessary to its nutrition is caused to flow through all its smallest vessels; but this is not the case if the muscle is contracted to only eight inches. The contraction must be the fullest possible, whatever may be the shape of the muscle.