lengthening and shortening muscles

[Semidevil]

I was watching some fitness videos and bumped across a couple where they talk about 'lengthening and shortening' the muscles in order to activate more fibers in the body. An example was on tricep pull downs, to use a longer rope and pull down all the way back (past the body), as opposed to pulling just straight down in front of you.

Is this just a fancy way of saying using the full range of motion, or is there more 'technique' to it. Another example they talked about was on doing curls, to do it with the hands above over the head (using pull down machine).

If it is about range of motion, where is the beginning and stopping point? I.E, if I do bent over rows with a dumbell, is it just a matter of going all the way up until the weight touches my side?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

They're essentially saying to use a full ROM arc. Sometimes this is a fine thing and sometimes it's excessive, causing compensation at other joints. For example with the triceps pull down if you pull too far back, you're going past your elbow's full ROM and begin going into your shoulder extension ROM. While that's not usually a problem, you actively increase your muscle stiffness so much that it typically comes from your shoulder blade and puts your true shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint) in a compromised position.

 

[taq8ojh]

I believe full range of motion is always a good thing. Going a little bit (a little bit! you're not trying to become fakir, are you?) further might prove good, I don't know. What I do know is I always speechlessly stared at all the idiots who did quarter squats, 10cm bench press, biceps curls etc.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I believe full range of motion is always a good thing. Going a little bit (a little bit! you're not trying to become fakir, are you?) further might prove good, I don't know. What I do know is I always speechlessly stared at all the idiots who did quarter squats, 10cm bench press, biceps curls etc.

Technically, there's some support to doing partial ROM movements in addition to full ROM movements as you can stimulate maximum muscle hypertrophy by utilizing the range that the muscle is strongest in. That doesn't train for full body awareness, kinesthesia, or proprioception, but it can help get you stronger faster in certain cases.

 

[taq8ojh]

Possibly, yes, but unfortunately you see it done by exactly those people who should not 😀 (those 15yr boys who grind 99% cheated biceps curls with 500% the weight they're capable of lift).

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Possibly, yes, but unfortunately you see it done by exactly those people who should not 😀 (those 15yr boys who grind 99% cheated biceps curls with 500% the weight they're capable of lift).

Right, I definitely agree with this. If you're gonna utilize partial ROM stuff, it can only be a PART of the program. It's like doing rack pulls - you're still gonna deadlift, but just supplement your program with smaller ROM pulls.