Poliquin - Healthy. Lean. Strong.

Training Articles

Powerful Results with Partial Training

Overcoming Plateaus with Partial-Range Movements

In 1961 Strength and Health magazine ran an article by its publisher, Bob Hoffman, entitled “Revealing the New Power System,” which discussed a revolutionary training method that was supposedly responsible for the remarkable improvement of several weightlifters at his York Barbell Club. This method, called functional isometrics, involved performing static contractions at specific points within a lifter’s range of motion in key strength training exercises such as squats, power cleans and overhead presses (1). In truth, much of the success of the York Barbell Club was later attributed to the use of anabolic steroids. The result of this controversy is that strength athletes have become skeptical of the value of isometrics, and for that matter any exercises performed through a partial range of motion – which is a shame.

If you are interested in achieving the highest levels of strength development, I strongly encourage you to incorporate partial movements in your current training programs. Powerlifting coach extraordinaire Louie Simmons has achieved great success by integrating this type of training at his Westside Barbell Club, and many successful Olympic lifters have used partial reps in their training. Further, elite bodybuilders also have made use of partial movements to boost muscle growth, such as Mr. Olympia Frank Zane, who performed quarter deadlifts to develop his erector spinae muscles.

Tremendous amounts of weight can be handled in the lockout position of pressing and squatting exercises, but the resistance needed to perform full-range exercises is not sufficient to overload these strong points in the strength curve. For this very reason Arthur Jones used shell-shaped pulleys to increase the resistance in his Nautilus machines, but you can accomplish the same – and better – results by using partial-range training. Although blocks of various heights can be used to perform partial-range training, the tool of choice is the power rack.

For most individuals, the power rack is simply a large squat rack that has safety pins that will catch the weight if an athlete misses. Unfortunately, the result of dropping any significant weight on the safety pins usually bends the barbell, so this approach is probably best referred to as “death control,” as replacing bent barbells is expensive. But the power rack has many more uses, one being that it enables you to work at specific parts of the range of motion of an exercise. Here are five advantages to partial-range training:
 
1. It allows you to use greater loads than you can when performing full-range movements. This means you can select specific parts of the range of motion of an exercise where you are the strongest, and use weights that will appropriately overload that range. For example, if you always train with full squats, you will not be overloading maximally the top range of the movement (i.e., quarter squat). In his text Science and Practice of Strength Training, Soviet sport scientist Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky says that to become more sport specific to the demands of their sports, elite volleyball players should perform 60 percent of their squats in a partial range of motion, compared to only 20 percent for elite ski jumpers. For beginners, he did not recommend any semi-squats for either of these groups.

2. It allows you to work on sticking points in a lift. The sticking point is the weakest point of a lift, such as the bottom position of a bench press or the lockout of a deadlift. Because the amount of weight you can lift is often limited by how much can be used though the sticking point, partial-range-of-motion training is one of the best approaches to work this area. For example, if you are weak in the start position in curls, you can perform on a Scott Bench where the resting surface for your triceps is set at 45 to 60 degrees, and only do the first 45 degrees of range of motion with an extremely heavy load. Make certain that the movements are done slowly over that limited range to bring about maximal intramuscular tension, and avoid bouncing or choppy movements, as this can injure your tendons.
 
3. It disinhibits the nervous system. Extremely heavy partials on top of the range, also known as lockouts, will help the lifter overcome the inhibition of feeling a great load on the spine or at arms’ length. Powerlifters use it on squats and bench presses for that purpose in peaking for a competition, because after performing partials the weights will feel lighter when you remove the barbell from the supports to prepare to lift.

Physique and strength athlete Chuck Sipes, a former Mr. America, popularized this approach in the sixties; he used to call them heavy supports. After completing his bench press routine, he would support at arms’ length an extremely heavy load for 5 seconds. When he was able to complete 4 sets of 10 seconds with that weight, he would further increase it. He claimed this method built “tendon strength,” but the truth is that these heavy supports help heighten the shutdown threshold of the Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO), which is a tension/stretch receptor located in the tendon of a muscle. The GTO inhibitory effect can be seen when two people of uneven strength levels arm-wrestle. The weaker person – when losing – will look as though he or she suddenly quits as their wrist is suddenly slammed to the table. What is really happening is that the GTO perceives a rapid rate of stretch during the eccentric contraction, and yells to the brain, “Better shut down the contraction, or my biceps tendon is going to roll up under my tonsils!” and as such sends a rapid message to inhibit the contraction in order to prevent a muscle tear.

I prefer to raise that threshold by interspersing 8 seconds of heavy isometric holds (i.e., heavy supports) between regular sets. Using percentages for initial guidance in weight selection, my approach of making use of the “heavy supports” in your bench press routine may look like this:

    Set 1: Bench Press 5 RM @ 85 percent of max

    Set 2: Heavy Supports of 8 seconds @ 120 percent of max; basically it is 1/16th of the range. You just unrack the weight and hold it with your elbows just short of lockout. The weight should be heavy enough so that your upper extremities shake as though they are suffering from a severe Parkinson’s attack.

    Set 3: Bench Press 5 RM @ 85 percent of max

    Set 4: Heavy Supports 8 seconds @ 125 percent of max

    Set 5: Bench Press 5 RM @ 85 percent of max

    Set 6: Heavy Supports 8 seconds @ 130 percent of max

Make sure that you train in a power rack for this routine, and set the safety support bars 2-3 inches below your lockout position to prevent any free instant plastic surgery! Don’t be surprised if the weights you can use for heavy supports increases dramatically, so don’t be shy about using even greater percentages for the heavy supports than the ones suggested. If you use heavy supports, I would not be surprised if your best bench press performance goes up 20-25 pounds in only four workouts.

4. It helps peak an athlete in season. Partial-range training can be used in season for athletes just before major competitions, as it does not exhaust the athlete as would full-range exercises. And to be able to use heavy weights prior to a major competition provides a psychological advantage, as athletes will believe they are still strong, as opposed to doing several sets with 50 percent of their max. After all, why train your body to be weak?

5. It can be used in rehabilitation. Partial-range-of-motion training can be used with rehab, as Carl Miller has done extensively at his gym in New Mexico (Miller works primarily with older clients). Rather than avoiding strength training exercises with an injured client, he will find a range of motion the client can perform, and gradually he will increase the range as pain allows. For example, if a full-range bench press causes pain, Carl might limit the motion to the top portion of the exercise until the injury is healed. This has a positive psychological effect too, as the injured athlete can use heavier weights.

Some Words of Caution
However, the drawbacks of using exclusively partial movements are to be considered. For example, statistical analysis of performance in the quarter squat, full squat and vertical jump in Canadian Olympic Team members revealed that the correlation between the standing vertical jump is highest with the full squat (r=0,92) than the quarter squat (r=0,42). In other words, you can better predict an athlete’s performance in the vertical jump by knowing their full squat than by knowing their best quarter squat. My colleagues at the Australian Institute of Sport have found very similar results in basketball and rugby players. That shoots down the misconception reinforced by high jumpers who say, “We don’t need to full squat; we don’t go down that far in our preloading to jump.” I would further suggest that muscles trained over only a short distance disrupt the joint integrity; therefore, at high velocities, as in a vertical jump, there may be more wasted movement.

According to Andrew Fry, a lecturer and researcher in exercise science at the University of Memphis, quarter squats may at the long-term level destroy proprioceptive input, plus may bring about decreases in flexibility, as the muscles will strengthen over only a short range. Further, the work of Weiss et all demonstrated that individuals training with deep squats appear to elicit the best improvements in performance of both shallow and deep squats, and in fact they improved the shallow squat more than the shallow-squat training group (2). Further, empirical data suggest that people who use exclusively partial movements are more prone to musculoskeletal injuries, so be careful to always include full-range movements when embarking on a program that uses partial-range training.

Although partial-range-of-motion training is not commonly used by most individuals who strength train, the fact is it can be used as a valuable adjunct to your regular training to increase strength and muscle mass, improve athletic performance and even help you overcome injuries. Unlike the scam that Hoffman tried to pull off with functional isometrics, partial-range training is the real deal.


REFERENCES
1. Hoffman, B. Revealing the new power system, Strength and Health. 1961 Nov; 29: 30-31.

2. Weiss L, Fry A, Wood L, Relyea G, and Melton C. Comparative effects of deep versus shallow squat and leg press training on vertical jumping ability and related factors. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2000;14:241-247.