Transforming locks in software loops

An improved system and computer programming product for acquisition and release of locks within a software program is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, a lock within a loop is transformed by relocating acquisition and release instructions from within the loop to positions outside the loop. This may significantly decrease unnecessarily lock acquisition and release during execution of the software program. In order to avoid contention problems which may arise from acquiring and keeping a lock on an object over a relatively long period of time, a contention test may be inserted into the loop. Such a contention test may temporarily release the lock if another thread in the software program requires access to the locked object.