The effects of insulin and prior muscle contractions, respectively, on 3-O-methylglucose (3-O-MG) transport in skeletal muscle were studied in the perfused rat hindquarter. Initial rates of entry of 3-O-MG in red gastrocnemius, soleus, and white gastrocnemius muscles as a function of perfusate 3-O-MG concentration exhibited Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Uptake by simple diffusion could not be detected. The maximum 3-O-MG transport velocity (Vmax) was increased more by maximum isometric contractions (10- to 40-fold, depending on fiber type) than by insulin (20,000 microU/ml; 3- to 20-fold) in both red and white muscles. The effects of both contractions and insulin were greater in red than in white muscles. In red but not in white muscles, maximum increases in Vmax elicited by contractions and by insulin were additive. Both insulin and contractions decreased the half-saturating substrate concentration for glucose transport (apparent Km) in all three muscles, in fast-twitch fibers from 70 to approximately 7 mM and in slow-twitch fibers from 12 to 7 mM. After contractions, reversal of contraction-induced glucose transport was monoexponential in red fibers, with a half-time of 7 and 15 min in slow- and fast-twitch fibers, respectively. In white muscle, Vmax continued to increase after contractions, reached a plateau after 10 min, and had only decreased 45% after 70 min. In contrast to the prevailing opinion, in all fiber types, reversal of contraction-induced glucose transport took place in the absence of muscle glycogen repletion.