Most of us started out believing that “full range of motion” was a requirement to adequately stimulate muscle growth. This is absolute BS! They were talking “joint movement”. Full range of motion for the joint is NOT a requirement for muscle stimulation. Now if you are talking “flexibility”…then YES…. but we are not. Muscles either contract or relax. There are specific ranges of motion and specific points within a particular exercise that elicit more muscle fibers for the muscle you are trying to develop. This is where you should spend most of your training. Notice I said “most of your training”. Of course if you are a powerlifter or Olympic lifter…you must do the required “lifts”. And notice I am talking about ultimate muscle growth and stimulation not conditioning. ‘Those that think about what they do will appreciate what I have just written. Those that just follow the “herd” will be up in arms against what I have written. LOL….
I will give you a specific example: when using the bench press to develop your pecs…just do the bottom portion of the movement ( the bottom 1/4 of the full movement puts the most stress on the pectorals and the front delts). Also doing isolation movements such as lateral raises can be much improved as to the muscle stimulation they provide by just doing the bottom portion of the move using heavier weights, only moving the dumbells 1/4 to half of the regular lateral raise exercise. There is much , much more ….but I hopefully have given you enough information to make you want to experiment and get better results.
Strength Training and Conditioning 