Full Range Of Motion

This has to be one of the most common mistakes people make when working out that keeps them from developing bigger fuller muscles



Do you use full range of motion?


Full range of motion (ROM) is something that most people don’t use when they should, and do use when they shouldn't.

When you are trying to fully shape your muscles working through a full ROM is necessary because it allows you to hit all the muscle fibers involved from all the possible angles.

This increase in volume helps develop bigger, fuller muscles. This is why power lifters look nothing like bodybuilders.

When doing heavy, mass building exercises (multi joint) make sure you do a long ROM but don’t be concerned with locking out your elbows, knees, or squeezing or holding the contraction.

If you were doing the bench press and used a full ROM you would be working your pectoral muscles to lift the weight. When you lock out at the top of the rep you use your triceps, and deltoids. This will cause your triceps to fatigue earlier and take away from your chest training.

Now there is a big difference between not locking out at the top of a rep and doing a sloppy rep (poor form), which is something a lot of people do.

Poor form is when you bounce, or swing the weight. You simply are not in control of the weight. This is usually due to trying to move more weight than you can handle properly.

I see so many people do their whole work out consisting of poor form; this is an absolute waste of time unless you just want to circulate your blood and get limited results.

A partial rep is when you do only a partial ROM; you either perform the set from start to mid range, from mid range to top contraction, or never going to bottom or top of range staying mid range.

There are only a few times when you should every do partial reps, one is at the end of your set when you can’t lift anymore doing proper form and you need to break through a plateau.

The other is doing 21’s to help shock you muscles and break out of a training rut. 21’s are a more advanced method of training that challenges the working muscle group in three different ranges of motion within a single set.
This used to be only for biceps, but it can be applied for all different body parts.

Instead of doing a full ROM you do 21 continuous reps consisting of 7 partial reps in the lower half of ROM, 7 partial reps in the top half of ROM, and finish off with 7 full ROM reps to burn the muscle you are working.

Since you are doing a higher volume of reps you will need to use a slightly lighter weight to complete the set. But you can achieve a tremendous burn, and pump when attempting this routine.

This is something you only want to do every once in a while since you are going to be putting tremendous stress on your muscles. And if you trying this for the first time only do this at the end of a normal set, unless you don’t care if you can move the body part you just worked out the next few days.

When doing single joint exercises isolation exercises like bicep curls, leg extensions, triceps use a full ROM. It is very important to use a full stretch at the bottom and a full contraction at the top where you are squeezing the muscle.

Again this is where most people fall into poor form simply because they are trying to use more weight than they can handle for correct form.

Without correct form you only have motion!

Want To Know More? See- The Mind Body Connection