Range of Motion...

[wolf78]

Ok fellas, this is kind of a rant mixed with a serious question...

Every now and again we come across a post where a well-informed lifter is ranting about how sick to his/her stomach he/she becomes (and rightfully so) when witnessing someone doing bench, squats, leg press, etc. with a 2 inch range of motion. (The classic is loading up the leg press with 10-12 plates on each side and going down about 2-3 inches... like I saw a guy doing yesterday WITH A FREAKING TRAINER!! Another guy I see at the gym uses a 2 inch range of motion on every damn exercise he does... he's not big but not a 110 pound stick... kind of a run of the mill lifter.)

This all leads me to question if there is actually a "half-ass" system out there (for lack of a better term) that adocates using an extremely abbreviated range of motion during lifting? If so, what does this accomplish?

Maybe I am just too old school and believe in doing the exercise completely as intended? (It's just agrivating to see a guy put 405 on the bar for squats--given he uses a 1-2 inch range of motion, when you know he couldn't even pound-out 6 reps of 1/2 to 3/4 that amount--going down at least parallel). :wallbash:

 

[ronb]

My opinion and one i was taught a long time ago is to use a full range of motion. Since nothing is written in stone i won't say never do less than full range but for the most part i see more chance of injury using too heavy a weight and jerking it in some half assed motion. We all see people, mostly guys, doing things that make no sense. Let them injure a tendon then they will use lighter weight in full range keeping the weight under control. i used to see a guy load a bar up with about i would say 500 lbs, have a weight belt on and go to shrug the weight for one rep barely getting it off the pins and dropping the bar as loud as possible. it was amazing how that one rep shrug filled out the lats. that one still has me confused....

 

[liftsiron]

You need to use full range of motion for the majority of movements if you want maximum development. But there are times that 1/4 or 1/2 range of motion can be effectively used.