What happens to muscle tension when a muscle is overly contracted before stimulation?

When a muscle is overly contracted before stimulation, it is in a position where the actin and myosin filaments overlap excessively, leading to less effective cross-bridge formation. This structural arrangement decreases the muscle's ability to generate force effectively. In this overly contracted state, the sarcomeres are compressed, which limits the sliding motion that is essential for muscle contraction. As a result, when stimulation occurs, the muscle is unable to exert the maximum tension that would be possible if it were at a more optimal length. Consequently, this results in relatively weak tension being produced during contraction.

This phenomenon is explained by the length-tension relationship in muscle physiology, where there is an optimal length for generating maximal force, and both overly stretched and overly contracted states lead to diminished tension production.