Do you favor a full or partial range of motion in your training? This is a topic I've been wanting to cover for a while as there is quite a lot of misinformation coming from both "sides". I hope you guys enjoy the video and I hope you had a nice Christmas and New Years! Also, check out the description box for my free Comeback Program if you're looking to get back into the swing of normal training and I decided to put all my training programs on sale (20-30% off) for this first two weeks of the new year. Check out jeffnippard.com to see if anything is a good fit for you and your goals. Peace!
One muscle group in which a full ROM does wonders are the lats. Check out my vid on the topic if anyone is curious. I'll be making vids about other exercises too, and i appreciate any discussion, advice, or input.
Jeff I do partial reps, but I just verbally *tell* my muscles that I did more weight + the amount of reps I did, and they know to grow more. It's just science.
The amount of work that went into this video is MIND-BLOWING. Seriously - awesome research, great succinct presentation, and amazing edits to make it understandable. As always - thanks so much for sharing, Jeff! 🙌🏼💪🏼👊🏼
Fitness aside, you have a gift for disseminating complex evidence-based science to the world. I have an MD and currently doing a general surgery residency, and all I could think about watching your video is how desperately the surgery world needs someone like you to consolidate and translate what all the data really tells us on how to practice.
Lol “or... supplementation”. I think the Pros use partials because at their “enhanced” volume and weight they are safer/easier on their joints which are beat to death. I know I have an injured shoulder and I can bench with no pain if I stop about half inch before lockout, but locking out will cause pain for days.
misalignment of joints and lack of correct distribution of weight and power onto bones is irrellevant in reg. to drugs or not, drugs may even improve that, as you can get high on being on drugs like roids allso, and allso rec. drugs, cause it intensifies awareness and attention via dopamine up and so make you more aware to sense body right, if your focusing on this vs. ignoring this. this is allso often the problem with using music for training, it takes away focus on alignment and thinking about what your dooing, like robert m. pirsig write about in zen and the art of motorcyclemaintainance... and a body is much like a mc .
@Fatty Tee they’re* you’re* but yeah I agree partials are sick on the pump. I find band work partials, especially on the tris, absolutely blow up my arms.
@Fatty Tee yeah I actually use them for the same thing since I work out at home and only have free weights. They substitute a cable machine pretty well
What sort of ridiculous position is that! You need to choose a side and demean all others! Oh, he's Canadian? Never mind, carry on being a sensible and decent human being :)
Your content is consistently amazing. I've stopped following a handful of RU-vid fitness folks over time because their content fell off, usually because they tried to produce too much. You're not afraid to take some extra time between videos until you have one that really needs to be made. For that I salute you.
i bet over a lifetime of lifting both probably get injured as often with basically negligible difference in muscle mass. and i know most would take that bet.
As a general rule: you should strive for full range of motion on compound movements and experiment with partials for isolation/single joint exercises, this includes free weights and machines. I switched to partials for all of my tricep cable work and my gains were INFINITELY BETTER. Its all about learning your own anatomy and objectively evaluating your training to see what works best for your physiology.
I try and do a full range of motion for most exercises biceps for me is the exception, if I extended be my elbows all the way during curls my left bicep completely disconnects and I feel it almost all in my forearm instead of my bicep.
Personally, I'm a big fan of mixing in some "1.5 rep" work into my sets. For the lateral shoulder raise, for example, you would raise the weight up to the top of the movement, then lower it halfway, then back up, and then all the way down.
I do full ROM, it feels better growth. At the end of training I'll try doing partial to get that little bit more out but I don't last long because I've exhausted myself. Good vid Jeff.
I found this too. A year ago, I stopped squatting heavy, dropped the weight, and focused on getting my squat as deep as possible. My legs exploded doing sets of 20 with 225, instead of squatting 315 to parallel. Any time I can get more gains from lifting LESS, I will. Im not trying to wear my body out, Im trying to build muscle.
Hi Jeff, as someone who has a BS in exercise science and multiple certifications, I really appreciate your consistency in presenting the research instead of your personal experience. I actively watch some of your videos for ideas for different movements I can implement that are different from what I already know. please keep up the great work!
Thanks for addressing that Skullcrusher study and putting it into context (other RoM studies, isolation vs compound, cable/machine vs free weight.) I like the approach of looking for the nuggets of truth in every side of the conversation, especially because we tend to disregard "common sense" or bro-science immediately instead of trying to see why they think what they do. Nice video!
Yeah I wouldn't call it a sin either. Especially in more advanced moves. Like doing a partial HSPU and gradually increasing the ROM is a very solid way to break through plateaus, since you can accumulate more volume. Same with OAC - for example if your deadhand to half part of the OAC is weaker I see nothing wrong with doing partials in order to accumulate volume. Same can be said for weighted pullups/dips but I would use it only as an accessory there, to strengthen some weakness.
Dont misunderstand me guys I do not share the opinion, when doing partials you definitely increase volume as you do not have any breaks and reach hypertrophy faster. I just mean thats what is generally said 😄
calisthenics is more focused on achieving a skill rather than a physique, so achieving full range of motion is part of the goal. for example if someone wants to be able to do a muscle up, they want to be able to do a full muscle up with good form. that's the goal. naturally they're going to use full range of motion once they achieve that goal. that said, there's nothing wrong with partials.
I would like to offer additional explanation for the limitations of these studies and why they showed mixed results comparing the partial and full ROM sets. Going through full ROM of an exercise doesn't necessarily mean full ROM of a joint or traveling from the maximum lengthened to the maximum shorted position of the muscle. For example, a typical rowing exercise only involves the shoulder moving from 0 to 90 degrees of shoulder flexion. Considering the shoulder can travel around 180 degrees into flexion, the full ROM of the exercise is already missing around half the available shoulder ROM and potential change in length of the posterior deltoid/ latissimus dorsi. If you picture length tension's bell shaped curve, the full ROM of the row goes from one tail end of the curve to the peak of the curve. www.aprioriathletics.com/acurvelt.gif I would argue that instead of doing a "full ROM" normal row from 0-90 degrees of shoulder flexion, doing a "partial ROM" high row from 45 to 135 degrees would give the same 90 degree arc of motion and encompass the much higher tension levels of the length tension curve. To improve the usefulness of studies like these, a few things need to be done. 1. Don't try comparing exercises that already have a very limited joint ROM to begin with, because the comparison isn't really "full ROM vs partial ROM," it essentially becomes "partial ROM vs VERY partial ROM." 2. After an exercise with decent joint ROM has been selected, the comparison should use the middle half of the ROM instead of the beginning or end half. This would likely put the partial ROM into the high tension sections, instead of one of the two tail ends on the length tension curve in which the muscle is overly shortened or lengthened to begin with. For example, the middle half of the squat instead of the top half that was used in the study cited in the video. There are still many limitations and once you try accounting for the issues that arise when polyarticular muscles are involved, it can get really confusing. However, this would at least be a good start so we can get meaningful data going forward. Hope this is helpful, and if anyone has questions or something to add/critique, just let me know.
Regarding argument 1 on partial versus full range of motion and muscle tension, the excursion of the bar is not directly related to muscle tension. The most important external factor is the moment arm of the resistance. If one performed a partial squat at the top range with the bar moving 12 inches, the bar would have short moment arms to the joints, and the moment arms would approach zero at the top of the lift. Of course, one could compensate to some degree by increasing load. If a lifter worked the squat through a partial range at the bottom with bar movement of 12 inches, the moment arms would remain relatively long and there would be no unloading between reps. Similarly, one can perform a maximal isometric contraction with zero motion and significantly increase muscle tension. Still a great, informative video. Jeff's content is consistently high quality.
Great video! as always. Can you do a video on training anatomy (ie hypertrophy, therapy, rehab, prehab, corrective, etc) vs training skills (ie sport specific, practical/"functional", movement specific, endurance, strength, explosiveness, etc)? Assuming many athletes want to be as specific as possible, it seems that the importance of addressing weaknesses/limiting factors requires a different approach (obviously depending on the individual and their goals). Long time fan, btw, thank you!
Awesome videos. I got a personal trainer right on my phone. Haven’t lifted weights in over 10 years since football in high school. You forget a lot of things. Watched many of your videos to learn proper form on lifts and learn new exercises as well. Been going steady for a little over a month now with just free weights in my basement. Thanks for all your hard work putting these videos together! 👍🏻💪🏻
It’s wild to think that there’s people that think limiting the range of motion with a higher load means that you’re getting more out of it. Your bro squat is the perfect example. If you can do partial reps in a way that increases TUT with a reasonable stimulus on the muscle more power to you but most of the time I feel like it’s just people ego lifting with incomplete form.
I use partials frequently to work past failure. Great video. I wish you spent some time discussing any theories around how partials may be safer when trying to avoid injury on a specific lift you have had troubles with in the past. I just feel like they can be a solid tool for building strength in an area you either previously injured or are working through an injury on. Related: I wonder if this is why a lot of pros use partials... constant tension seems to reduce risk of muscle tears.
I've been using a partial range of motion for my preacher curls lately because it does keep my biceps under constant stress and my biceps are extremely stubborn with growth. I also like to do this with my dumbbell pressing because towards the top of the press you get the least amount of tension so I've found there isn't much of a reason to go all the way up anyway, and to make up for it I do banded push ups which gives me more tension when I'm at the fully extended position and evens it out. I never thought to add extra reps at the end of a set in a more limited range of motion the way you showed here, if only I hadn't already finished working out today or I would try that out. I'm excited to incorporate that into some of my exercises next time I work my upper body.
Yes im a big fan of bro jeff. It would be a short series on what not to do in the gym. Gotta admit science jeff was freakin hilarious in this vid. Every time he looks into the camera i was lmao
Seeing as the programs are all on sale, I bought his Fundamentals Hypertrophy program a week ago and I've already started seeing results. My inner chest blew up and my lats are definitely tighter already and that's just after one week. I definitely recommend this program to people who are newer to the gym. Happy new years.
I really like the video and always love a good discussion about such topics:) But I also would've liked if you discussed the risks of injuries in extreme joint positions. I think that full ROM can definitely increase the risk of getting injured if joint stability is not 100% there(I don't think a lot of people know about their joint stability if they hadn't been previously injured). So I would differentiate ideal ROM from full ROM because ideal is just really different from person to person.
Great video, Jeff. I'm 1 year into lifting and naturally found myself restricting my ROM on stuff like alternating dumbbell curls so that my inactive arm was still under a little tension. Same with things like skull crushers. It just feels more productive to increase TUT by any means on upper body isolation movements and focus on full ROM on compound and lower body stuff. Keep up the good work and congratulations on the new home base in Ontario
Nice video, I have been researching this topic and adopted partial reps because of the constant tension argument, then switched back to full ROM because it is much safer since you have to deal with lighter weights, which is safer for the joints, I guess you highlighted this point in some of your videos
In the powerlifting world, this can also be looked at with accommodating resistance. Granted, that is generally with strength and not hypertrophy, but overall effectiveness. It is highly utilized by equipped lifters, which makes sense since the suit helps them at the bottom of the lift. However, in the raw lifting world, it comes into question whether or not accommodating resistance (use of partial ROM with bands/chains) provides any extra benefit. From a weakness standpoint, it can certainly target the last big of the lift and if failing at lockout on bench is a common problem, then after fixing any form edits, it may be beneficial. We have also seen something like 1/4 squats to get more volume at the bottom range of motion. These are also compound movements, so partial ROM targets different muscles where as partial ROM of a single joint movement is the same muscle. Partial ROM in strength training for compound movements is something to consider and look in to!
Most of those pros do warn-ups using full range of motion. Their warm-ups are heavy workouts in themselves. The partials are then used for the portion of the exercise where the muscle is the strongest.
Great to have a new video from you, Jeff! When you gave the lateral raise example, I was hoping you would address the top of the movement too, which we see folks like Dr. Mike taking alllll the way to full overhead arm extension!
When you're juiced up to your eyeballs, of course half reps are going to work, no natural body builder is using partials unless its like the last set of a "finisher" or mechanical drop set just to get a pump at the end of the session
I did a training block with “constant tension” squats a few blocks ago to try it out, didn’t have any benefit really. I had to use much less weight and it was mostly cardio that caused me to have to end the set. For reference this was during a hypertrophy block and I train for powerlifting so I’m focused on increasing my 1rm. Seeing as how I had to use so much less weight that could be one reason I didn’t get much out of it.
I did some high-rep, constant tension leg-presses with short rest between sets. I don't usually make a whole lot of noise in the gym but, during those sets, I sounded like I was giving birth.
@@dard4642 it was more cardiovascularly taxing to me without as much of a stimulus for the muscle since I had to stop closer to cardio failure than muscular failure lol even if you have to stop at the top to breathe though if you get more reps in then it’s still more total time under tension so it honestly is less optimal than being able to rest a bit at the top. The only exception I can think of is for a metabolite accumulation set or something but even then I’d assume myo reps would be more useful
@@Jmack7861 right on. my pain was just pure muscle burn. Like, if there had been a fire in the gym at the end of my set, there would have been no hustle in my evacuation. I would have been limping out on noodle-y legs, using every piece of equipment I passed as a crutch. 😂
Great video! I appreciate that non black and white advice. Jeff Cavalier goes by pretty much the same line of thought. Using partial ROM as an occasional training tool but for the most part using full ROM.
I have a severely injured right elbow (replaced radial head). That means I can’t straighten or completely bend that arm. My tricep basically shrunk away to nothing. Only a few months ago I realised that I could still activate the tricep with literally like 10 degrees of motion. That arm used to be so noticeably smaller than my left arm but now they are almost the same size and I almost can’t believe the size of that tricep compared to what it was. Because of this I’ve adopted more of this training to protect my arm and am probably looking my best.
I think you've missed an important point on the discussion, that is comparing lenghtened partials vs shortened partials vs full ROM, not only shortened partials vs full ROM. In all of your examples of partials you mentioned cutting the most stretched part of the exercise, but there's a growing body of evidence that the stretched part is the most important part of the movement in terms of hypertrophy. This could favor a partial ROM that comes from the most stretched part to half-way through. The only exercise that you've mentioned where the partials were done on the stretched part was the skull crusher, which was the one that showed greater results. There could be a case for partial squats that, instead of only dropping a bit, you go all the way down but don't go all the way up in every rep, go from ass to grass up to maybe a quarter-squat, for example. Flow High Performance and House of Hypertrophy have good videos on this concept, I think it's worth looking into.
I think in one of recent videos he adressed this briefly. Lengthend partials should be benefitial, if you can get them. The point of partials in the shortened position is that you're usually stronger in that shortened position so with higher weight, you may not be able to do lengthend partials. Though i'd lean to doing lengthend partials due to the higher growth potential in the strechted position - if you can do them. Also regarding this video not adressing this: keep in mind that this is an older video and the evidence for the benefit of being in the lengthend state for longer is more recent. As for your example on partial squats: the lower portion of the lift is much harder. If you fail it's most likely in the first third of the concentric so there is no point to this kind of partials. If you get out of the hole, the rest of the squat is quite easy. On the other hand tricep extensions, chest flys, leg extensions and leg curls and a few others should be great for employing lengthend partials. For squats, bench press and preacher curls i don't see myself doing more lengthend partials then full rom reps, so why do them?
A couple points for why IFBB pros use partials. 1. all of the IFBB pros I have seen implement a bro split(1 major muscle group and 1-2 minor muscle groups per training session) with 3+ exercises for each and lots of volume/weight. In this situation it would be better to implement 3+ very different exercises focusing on stretch or contraction at different points in the movement which partials do very well. If you’re doing an upper body or push workout with only 1-2 exercises for chest, it makes a lot more sense to prioritize full range of motion movements and get full benefits from these lifts. 2. Lifter flexibility and existing injuries. I remember a video with C.T. Fletcher in which he said “I just can’t straighten my f*****n’ arms”. I believe with the amount of training required to get that big and simply physically being that big will severely reduce range of motion... and tbh these guys earned the right to do partials on every lift. 3. These guys are so close to their genetic potential, they genuinely need to put large amounts of weight on the bar to see growth. 99% of lifters will see similar growth and reduce injury risk if they stay in 80% of 1rm range and focus on volume(with a high RPE). With that said, there are some movements that I feel so much better with partials. Dumbbell Lateral raises on an incline bench, overhead tricep extensions, or the last couple bicep curls before I can’t do anymore. You should definitely experiment with them, especially if you’ve already done a full ROM movement for that muscle group.
Hey Jeff, huge fan 👋.Could you make a video on exercising for 45-90 min vs 2-3 hours.This is a topic that is not discussed a lot by other experts and I think a lot of us would like to know your view on it.Thanks a lot.
@@dynaspinner64 dozens of studies have shown full ROM is not better for hypertrophy, full stop. Lengthened partials produce more hypertrophy for less fatigue. Do I use full ROM? Yes because I have to; combat sports is my hobby and I need to be strong in all parts of a movement. But doing lengthened partials for my biceps and calves finally made them grow.
Full range of motion can be applied for the movement or the muscle itsef. The full range applied on the movement involves two places per rep when the muscle gets to rest. Which isn’t ideal for time under tension principle. Ifbb pros use partial because they want to train only one muscle group specifically with intensity. BUT it’s not a partial because it’s actually full on the worked muscle. (Flex and stretch as Arnold says) Doing most work to the muscle under the least time possible. This method also dodges the cortisol release created by overtraining. So It does more tissue damage to that muscle. More damage, more stimulus with proper nutrition, recovery results in better gainzzz. Hardest thing to leave the ego at home and not chasing the weight. That’s strength adaptation which isn’t gonna build muscle also increases the chance of injury. Control over the weight is everything. The first rep and the last should look like almost the same and the given muscle should be engaged through the set.
Very nice explanation as usual Jeff. Partial range of motion is something I've had problems with on the curls recently as I developed an issue/pain with my elbow joint. Starting incorporating full range curls and elbow joints got better. I should also add I used wrist forearm twist too. I was going to say that there is a potential for muscle imbalance but it's more of a joint movement problem. Full range of mention is better for overall joint health. With that being said as you stated both strategies should be used to optimize muscle stimulation at least with some movements i.e. delt raises and skull crushers for instance.
Then you reduce the weight, or the reps. The squat is a good example of this. Doing a partial squat actually put more strain on the knee joint than a full parallel (not ATG) one does.
I would say that both ranges have their place in a program. I would recommend going to near failure with full reps then to work with partials to add more intensity / muscle damage at the end of a set.
Jeff I love your channel because you are genuine and scientific. Would love to see you collaborate with Pavel Tsatsouline and Fabio Zonin on their training modality. Fabio competed in natural bodybuilding so I think it would be a great video to see what you think of the science behind their training philosophy. Cheers!
Very informative video as usual Jeff. Regarding partials, I've seen elite powerlifters like Cailer Woolam and Mark Bell also use them for a "sticky" spot or a weakpoint as well (lockouts etc), but i'd venture a guess that, as you've mentioned, this is more relevant to the advanced and elite levels for well rounded development. I guess at that point it's for extreme specificity rather than trying to maximize general hypertrophy or strength through a wide range of motion.
