For Bigger, Better Results Use Full Range Of Motion Training

This full range of motion promotion happens to be one of the most popular, yet very faulty and dangerous myths out there. Almost every body building program, magazine or book hypes it up. They promote it by stating that, in order to achieve your maximal growth, you have to take each movement to the fully stretched position and finish in the full peak contraction. They claim that if you do not do this, you will never get the bulk you want.

Refraining from getting too technical or scientific, I want to explore this concept by trying to apply it to some real life scenarios to see if this even makes sense.

Starting at the bottom, let's begin with the calves. You will notice that a lot of overweight people have huge calves. They can walk around all day with a lot of weight on their calves but I promise you that they are not using a full stretch or contraction technique. The simplest explanation is because they are keeping their huge calves simply because of the weight, force and gravity.

If you look at a lot of the gymnasts who compete in the Olympics you will see that they have what seems to be fully calf development and you chalk it up to all the time they spend in the gym and on their toes.

However, even though they might have their calves in the full contracted position most of the time, I can assure you they are not using the full stretched position every time. Along the same lines, when you look at a female gymnast you will also notice that these girls with very little testosterone levels, have calves and thighs bigger than the average male or even a lot of the guys who spend hours upon hours a month on the leg press. But in their training, you will never really see them achieve a full squat position. In fact, in their training you will see very little if any at all, of the full range of motion done on their thighs, yet, they have massive legs.

So let's take the power lifter. Most of them all have humongous legs and to achieve that they are including the parallel squat in their sets. A parallel squat is not a full range of motion movement. Also, most of them have huge traps due to the deadweight lift. There is absolutely zero range of motion for your traps on a deadlift. There is contraction, but they do not actively move from a full stretch to a full peak position of contraction at any time.

So how do all these experts keep claiming that the value of the full range of motion in all of your training while also listing the deadlift as one of the top exercises in any muscle-building program?

Simply, not only is this myth completely false, but also can be very dangerous advice. For example, we will use your pecs. To get a full range of motion on your pecs this would mean that you would have to take your arms completely behind your back to start the exercise and then cross them all the way across your body to the front. Not only is this very impractical and nearly impossible, it could and would destroy your shoulders.

There are also some lifters out that that really go for the deep stretch on the dumbbell press and let their elbows go way past the bench and then other lifters who drop down to the deepest stretch possible on the dip bar because they have been led to believe that this extreme technique in using the loaded pre-stretch is needed to get maximum muscle growth. The reality of this theory is that more than likely, they will be seeing an orthopedic surgeon way before they even get mistaken for Arnold.

There are numerous exercises out there that have partial range of motion that are far more effective, safer and make sense than there are full range of motion movements.

It is my hope that you are more aware of how ridiculous this recommendation is on full range of motion and be more aware of not buying into all the nonsense. When it comes to your body, health and workout, the best advice is to not go into it blindly, and if it doesn't make sense to you and no one can explain it to where it does make sense to you, don't do it.

Article Source: http://www.articlepantry.com

Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either www.BodybuildingToday.com or www.SteroidsToday.com

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