^That's fairly easy, the sliders can do a good job of that. You could also use the tone curves, but I think the sliders have some more complex algorithms behind them.
When I process a raw image with very high contrast, I usually start with the Exposure slider (that controls the mid-tones) to get the overall image brightness to the level I want (usually the shot is already pretty close to that point).
Then, if necessary, I adjust the highlights slider down to increase detail to the highlights. If that leads to gray and dull highlights, I pull the whites slider up a bit to make the highlights look natural again while retaining as much of the highlight detail as possible.
Finally I adjust the shadows, if necessary, or just the blacks (if there isn't any specific detail in the shadows that you want to bring out, it's often enough to simply adjust the blacks slider down a bit to get a nice and punchy image; I hardly ever pull the shadows slider down).
After this process is done, sometimes I go back to the exposure slider to adjust the mid-tones to the new situation, and that's that in terms of contrast and shadows/highlights. If you also use the clarity slider, or if you make changes to the colour balance in some way, that might require you to go over the exposure sliders again, if things get a bit funky.
The names of the sliders I used are based on Lightroom 4 / 5; ACR, and earlier Lightroom versions, might use different names for some of the sliders,but their basic functionality remains more or less the same. Also, it's best to make sure you like the white balance before you adjust the exposure settings, but for some reason I usually do it the other way round.