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Full Range of Motion

Nik Antunovich
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Nik Antunovich Member

Nik Antunovich

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Hey All!

Currently I'm focusing on my legs as I've bust my AC joint by colliding with someone going at a good pace.

Squats have always been a favourite and I can handle these as the barbell runs along the top of my back. I won't be doing anything that requires use of the front part of my shoulder; no DB lunges though I could barbel lunge.

I was just thinking this morning how I always use a full range of motion when performing leg exercises; especially with leg pressing (on machine), leg extensions and lying curls.

With lying curls I always try to bring the ankle pad right to the top of my leg so it touches my butt. I notice many others don't do this; is there any advantage to what I or they are doing? Also with leg extensions; everyone should be squeezing at the top but how far do you set the machine to return? I usually let it go all out, yep I watch my knees. By doing this I find I lift less weight but it's not about the weight all the time is it; good form is always my aim.

Thoughts on should I or shouldn't I be using the maximum possible range of motion?

Also, any good ides for workouts while my shoulder is out of gear? Currently I'm just squatting, leg curling and calf raising; sometimes I finish off with light leg presses or squats. It's fast and covers every muscle group. I was reading some guys are doing quad/calf days and ham/calf days. Don't know about doing this, how much do you want to stress you legs anyway? I find heaps of strength in good recovery and can't see the point in splitting quads and hams.

Cheers!

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Growth Veteran member

Growth

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Sounds to me like your doing everything right. Full range of motion is always the way to go. I think the reason you see so many people only going half way etc is because a) its easier or b) they are trying to lift to heavy.

Sucks your shoulder is out of action, you cant do a hell of a lot without involving shoulders...IMO just keep pounding the legs as you are, also make sure your doing core stuff, ab workouts etc. You may be able to get away with doing some good mornings with a barbell.

but yeah, sounds to me like you've got it down pat :D

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Beef Senior member

Beef

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EMC- keep the trash talk for the playground.

Nik- i would definitely go for the full motion. as Growth rightly pointed out, most people fail to do a full motion because the weights are too heavy. it really annoys me when I see people doing half-ass technique, but it's their loss not yours :D

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roadie Member

roadie

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its my observation, (after being shown this by a trainer) that as you approach the very top end of the ROM on the curl machine its hard to keep hips down....so the work transfers away from hammies and onto other parts around the hips.

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Nik Antunovich Member

Nik Antunovich

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Nik why would you post this up before asking gymsta through PM, his valuable advise could save you hours of searching.

I guess I could have. Maybe not as valuable as your advise has been to date...

its my observation, (after being shown this by a trainer) that as you approach the very top end of the ROM on the curl machine its hard to keep hips down....so the work transfers away from hammies and onto other parts around the hips.

With the curls I hear what you are saying. Regardless, I can lift much heavier without going full range of motion so to me this suggests that the weight is to heavy and should be reduced.

The biggest difference for me is on the leg ext machine. I always set it to return to maximum, much more than others; I am weak as hell at the start of the lift and then find much power. I guess it's just like squatting below parallel so can't be a bad thing if executed properly.

This guy was at the gym the other day, young guy, not that big, was squatting massive but he wasn't even dropping to parallel. I felt like a teenage girl next to him going deep with lighter weights but oh well.... He was in bare feet, which is often good for squats than trainers, so he was doing something good. What sort foot wear you guys/gals using?

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ThePman Senior member

ThePman

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Couple things:

* There's a time and a place for partial-ROM lifting, to overload specific parts of a movement or to work around an injury. I've used a lot of 2 and 3-board presses and floor presses to work around my bum shoulders, for example. But there's a difference between doing that with intent and in the context of a program designed for it, as opposed to, well, what everybody in the gym does.

There's partials, and then there's just crappy form. Most people you see in the gym have no idea that this distinction even exists. High squats up on your toes and benches with an invisible 3-board are how they think you're supposed to lift, because they don't know better and some trainer probably told them that was how to do it.

* On the isolation stuff, like your leg curl example, I don't think this matters nearly so much. In my case, if I'm doing a leg curl at all it's to supplement other hip/hamstring work I've already done, and I rely on the big stuff for my training effect. That means the only point, to me, is to pump the muscle up and get some blood into it and so on, so having a full ROM isn't as important.

Form and ROM are important on big compound lifts, since strength across the full range is part of the technique. It doesn't matter nearly as much on machine assistance exercises, because you can create the training effect (exposure to tension-time overload, in technical wording) without the ROM.

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EMC Senior member

EMC

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Nik why would you post this up before asking gymsta through PM, his valuable advise could save you hours of searching.

I guess I could have. Maybe not as valuable as your advise has been to date...

sigh @ stupid thread. i agree with roadie, why would you want use your joints to their maximum flexibility or lift with negative levers? you wouldnt go down to the ground and round your back when your doing goodmornings or SLDL...or do lundges right to the ground. why would you want to kick yourself in the butt doing hamcurls or flex the knee joint at the top of a leg extension? the only reason ppl think theres a greater contraction is because theres less resistance when the joint is locked.

if you can control everything you are able to you shouldnt get injuries unless the weight used is too heavy. control meaning technique, muscle balances, mental focus, stretching, hydratation and everything else invovled with moving weight. getting injury as a result of using a load that is too heavy is inevitable, unless your a coward. this doesnt mean that lifting heavy is unsafe, this is why you have to control what you CAN control.

i suggest instead of worrying about creating an muscle imbalance in your legs vs your back that you worry about finding out what you done wrong and how to avoid doing it again, or a related injury as a result of your damaged shoulder. ppl often think theres a simple answer or explanation but there never is.

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Nik Antunovich Member

Nik Antunovich

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EMC, sorry for the stupid thread but I guess stupid is as stupid does; why would you post? I'm not worried about muscle imbalance, I'm sure I've done nothing wrong (unless you something I don't) and I've never had issues lifting heavy. Good form has been one of the main points of this thread form the beginning; the questions were related to good form and full ROM not bad form. No, I don't round my back when performing good mornings. I do not want to use my joints to maximum flexibility; I am more concerned with good form and what full ROM is with leg curls and ext. But I'm damned if I know why I'm defending myself. :doh:

Pman; I understand partial ROM but have never found them necessary for my goals; I might need to take note now with this dodgy shoulder. Also I haven't used a leg extension machine for at least 2-3 weeks. I find after squatting heavy there is no need to go out and trash my quads again. At the moment I squat, leg curl, usually do something for my calves and then, depending on the day, might finish with squatting one set with a light weight and 10-12 reps. As you'll probably know I am fairly limited to what I can do with the dodgy AC joint.

Jigga; Chucks sound cheap and good, might give them a crack.

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EMC Senior member

EMC

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i understand your trying to work around your shoulder and i definately can imagine how much of challenge that would be. however for someone that gives the impression that he is very knowledgable, asking if you should put your body in a compromised position with weaker leverage is an obvious answer.

if your going to be using primarly machines theres going to be constant tension so you dont wanna over stretch aka "FULL ROM" or lock the knees out unless its light and that sort of stimulation would be better for joint mobility/maintenance/conditioning rather than strength/size development. so if you want to benefit from machine work and overload the muscles safely you gotta lift with a more restricted ROM.

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