My Own Study Proved Me Wrong?

A full range of motion is when you go all the way up and all the way down. It's a full rep. A lengthened partial is when you do half reps, staying in the stretch.

And some studies have shown that lengthened partials might actually cause more muscle growth.

But there’s a slight problem. All those studies were done in new lifters. So, it’s hard to know if their results apply to experienced trainees.

Until now.

I went to the world’s best exercise science lab in New York to help kick off the only study that’s ever been done on range of motion in highly trained subjects.

We had each subject train one side of their body with a full range of motion and the other side with lengthened partials ONLY.

And after 8 weeks of VERY hard training, we measured which side grew more, using ultrasound: Full range of motion … or lengthened partials.

Turns out… both sides grew the same.

So what does that mean? You can get the same gains using lengthened partials as full ROM as long as you push your sets really hard.

[jaikatyal]

Apparently if you chant “lengthened partials” 3 times a row in front of the mirror the spirit of Milo wolf will appear and lengthen all your muscles until they tear. Just a myth tho idk if I believe it

[smarthousetech]

This is why I like this guy, he's always trying to find the best way to get in shape and isnhumble enough to question his own beliefs

[sanojca]

I think doing lengthened partials after reaching failure doing full rom will be the best

[MrJeremydb]

Not sure why everyone has a hardon to shit on science based lifting lately…but I still enjoy and appreciate your content! Keep fighting the good fight!

[HughMansonMD]

I said this on the original video and I'll say it again, I would really like to see this study done again with tension curves and resistence profiles kept in mind. A lengthend partial on a spider curl vs preacher curl are 2 very different things. A lengthened partial on a dumbell lateral raises vs an overhead press are 2 very different things. Etc.

If lengthened partials are being done with standard dumbel curls, you're really not hitting the bicep with very much tension in the stretch, making a lengthened partial on this excercise far less effective than a lengthened partial on say cable curls with the shoulders back where the hardest part IS the stretch. Contrary to popular belief, something like a lengthened partial on db incline curls doesn't really hit the bicep in a stretch. Is it stretched? Very. Is there tension in that stretch? Not really. So its probably not a very good canidate for doing lengthened partials on despite it being known for a big stretch.

[Anton-mxvc]

The “lengthened partial” on dumbbell rows are basically full range of motion, that’s the issue I have with this study, they could’ve also picked better exercises, like switching dumbbell curls to a curl machine with equal tension throughout the movement

[TheOktavismChannel]

I think a more helpful way to look at it is, "What is the important part of the rep?" It's clear the half of the rep where the muscle is stretched is the important part if you can get the same gains doing just that part or the full ROM. What are the ramificaitons for training? 1) Don't ever do partials on the other half, where muscle is contracted, 2) choose exercises where there is a lot of load on the muscle in the lengthened portion of the rep, 3) if you're going to "emphasize" a portion of the rep (with a pause or something like that) it should probably be the stretched portion of the rep.

[adamsrebrny]

So the study makes it clear now - leg day is killing your gains, train chest instead

[BriannaMoore-hl]

I've been waiting, a new one from you!

[ZACQHALLLE]

8weeks of hard training for a youtube short—dedication is crazy.

[spaz]

Trust me; try lengthened partials on calf raises I did one set full and one set of partials it’s fantastic

[ronborneo]

This is a game changer.. don't get why this isn't talked about more

[antoniopena]

I'm team full ROM, until I started doing lengthen partials and started to get sore all over again. I don't know what anyone else thinks but for my shoulders triceps and biceps the concentric phase of the movement zapped me of strength making me end the set earlier. I think we might be missing the point here, if you can get the same growth by basically doing half the movement then by definition isn't it better? Lengthen partials are so effective you can cut out the whole squeeze out of a bicep curl and get the same results. To me that's a cheat code, as I'm curling the weight up, the moment it starts getting easier (past 90°) I reverse back out.

[varunsodhani]

It's that guy from Wolf Coaching that conducts studies

[the_flip]

Clearly science based lifting works, Jeff alone is proof of that. There’s a wealth of literature that supports this, so why people shit on it is amusing to me.

[paparoach]

Goat for giving the answer in the short thank you

[accmdk]

I really love these videos / this channel. Thank you Jeff

[UberVilla]

gotta see RP’s take on this! really awesome stuff!

[gakpo_era]

These comments lmao, everyone is a scientist all of a sudden. Good job Jeff - watching the main vid, your methodology was sound and the results were interesting. Keep the science based lifting coming!

[ForzaOwnz]

I'm surprised you didn't have a third group of momentary failure at full rom then continue the set with partials till failure. I think that's where you may see a slight increase of growth.
Any thoughts Jeff?