Full Range of Motion Weight Training
If you ever thought that training with partial range would somehow be better than a full-range movement you were wrong. Sports science has now studied this and they did it in a very controlled way that used half of the 60 volunteers doing partial movements of 50% of a squat and a bench-press.
The other group did full range moving the squat to 90% of the knee joint for squats and 90% of the elbow joint for bench-press. All movements were strictly monitored to ensure compliance. The results were as expected showing that more size and more strength was gained by training with full range of motion.
As we might anticipate the partial range group were lifting 10% to 25% more weight than the full range group so the argument for doing mid-range training was put forward. The sports scientists in control of the study said that the heavier weight used when training partial range did not develop strength or muscle size over the 12-week study.
After examining the results of the study the sports scientists published an article explaining that although less weight was used when doing full range of motion, the muscles registered a higher load being lifted with greater results. This proves to us that partial movements, not using full range, will not get the increased muscle strength and size that full range will.
If you are still not convinced to do full range when training, then you really should consider the importance of injury prevention. Training with a partial rep will always put more stress on the connective tissue and the antagonistic muscles supporting the movement.
The efficiency of the movement when doing full range will always use a lot more calories. A lot more energy being used means that your heart rate in higher and the chances of getting the after-burn (EPOC) after a high intensity workout is a lot more probable.
The bottom line is that when we use full range of motion when lifting weight, we will immediately be able to increase our overall muscular strength and muscle size. Training technique or form used to lift a weight is vitally important to get results consistently.
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