I know you've seen it. People jerking bars and dumbbells, swinging weight and doing half reps.
But, is there actually any merit to this "technique"? Let me answer that question by starting with this...
Sometimes using partial range of motion is more appropriate! But, this only applies to the 10% of us who are training for a specific sport in which they use a partial range of motion. That partial rep is an advantage towards the lift.
BUT! When trying to get bigger, stronger, and more muscular you need to recruit all the muscles motor units you possibly can! A motor unit is a motor neuron and all the nerves it innervates (the nerves and the muscle fibers it "connects" with). Some parts of your muscle can only be innervated or turned on by training that specific portion of the range of motion. So, if you want to get bigger and stronger you need to recruit the most possible motor units and to do that you train in a full ROM because, it recruits all of the motor units of that muscle which promote muscular growth.
Here’s a few more reasons to train in a full range of motion:
1️. The more distance the more volume! Imagine curling a barbell but only going 1/2 the distance down. You’d have to do, for ex., 100 half reps when you could maybe do only 50 full reps for the same amount of volume.
2️. You’ll get strong and develop strength in a full ROM & not just the partial ROM you’re training with. I’d prefer all of my muscle to be strong and ready to use then just a portion of it.
3️. You don’t risk the possibility of injuring other muscles groups that need to help you life really heavy weight and only use partial ROM. Less weight will essentially give you the same results at a safer expense. You know that guy who's "all about cheat reps" with 130lbs when doing bicep curls. Well, his low back and shoulders are also getting a ton of junk volume work in if he only does cheat reps. Not to mention his shoulders and low back are also at a higher risk than if he did controlled full ROM reps with a lighter weight.
4️. Partial ROM is harder to track results with! Think of doing a lat pulldown. You lean all your weight back and jerk the weight back with 130lbs and complete 4 partial reps. But, if you want to retest your strength 5 months later with the same weight, you’ll have to know how far back you leaned how hard you jerked the weight back how far the bar went down, etc. That’s just making your training harder. Using a full range of motion, in a controlled fashion, every time you perform an exercise allows you to get stronger and allows you to test in a more accurate and safer way.
5. Stretching under tension provides growth! When performing a leg press, if you only go half way down, stop, and push right back up, you aren't getting the potential stretch at the bottom (which may help recruit more motor units, which promote growth, too) and then a contraction to move the load that provides way more volume in just one full rep than it would in multiple partial reps. That stretch under tension provides a stimulus for hypertrophy!
If the saftey part along wasn't enough I hope this final point it.
6. It will humble you right away. I always see someone doing half reps on the leg press with 14 plates but if you ask them to bring the platform as far down as possible they might not even be able to get it back up (Don't ask people to do that, they may get hurt).
We need to learn to put our ego away and lift so we can do this for a long time. Again, when training to get bigger and stronger training in a full range of motion espically for a long, long time, can be one of the best things you do for your growth!
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