[Music] welcome to the house of hypertrophy what would you say is the most effective way to perform your exercises for maximum muscle growth many people train with a full range of motion where with any given exercise they move through the largest distance they can but is this actually optimal or essential it is possible to use a partial at Short muscle lengths where you move through the half where the muscle is at a shorter length or a partial at long lengths where you move through the half where the muscle is at a longer length are these
any better well the scientific literature tends to find that partials at Short lengths aren't as effective as a full range of motion or partials at long lengths and when comparing a four range motion to partials at long lengths we fascinatingly have three studies suggesting partials at long lengths built more overall muscle however these studies were done on untrained individuals I'm thrilled to say we finally have the first study in trained individuals comparing a full range of motion to partials at long lengths let's dive straight in 25 trained individuals with an average of 4.9 years of
experience were recruited here are some real life photos of some of the subjects they trained these exercises twice per week for 8 weeks one side of their body trained with a full range of motion on all exercises while the other side of their body trained with a partial at long lengths on all exercises I've mentioned this in previous videos but the design design of having one side of the body trained in one way and the other side of the body trained in another way is fantastic as it means the same subjects were in both conditions
thus differences in genetics nutrition and outside lifestyle factors are much less likely to confound the results after all the left side of your body hopefully doesn't sleep more or eat more protein than the other side both sides train to momentary failure with the defined range of motion muscle thickness of both the elbow flexes and triceps was measured at 40 5 and 55% of the humoral bone length it was ultimately found growth at all regions was similar between both types of training thus partials at long lengths weren't any better than a full range motion but it
wasn't any worse which I believe is still a very impressive finding it was once thought that using a full range of motion to achieve both the stretch and Peak contraction was essential but these findings demonstrate partials at long lengths might be an appropriate alternative it seems that the peak squeeze achieved by a full range emotion may not deliver additional gains having said this there are some crucial things we need to keep in mind but before detailing that I feel something is worth mentioning as the authors allude to these results are great as you have the
flexibility to train according to your preference if you follow the house of hypertrophy for a while you'll know that there are many different training Styles and Roads to a great physique is pretty hard to do something that will seriously hurt your gains these results yet again remind us that we shouldn't forget about the basics training hard enough with enough volume and consistency are foundational as mentioned there are still some crucial things to keep in mind firstly science is an ongoing process as the spirit of scientific accuracy will tell you the results are specific to all
the variables used such as the exercises and the techniques used one study isn't enough to definitively prove anything so this isn't the final word on long length partial secondly Remember That Elbow flexor and triceps thickness was measured at 45 and 55% regions but what about other muscles like the chest and lats we also know muscles do not necessarily grow identically across their regions and if you've seen our previous video you may be aware that partials at long lengths can be highly effective for growing the distal regions of a muscle that is the region of a
muscle further away from its origin for example this paper in untrained individuals compared preacher Coes with a partial at Short to Long lengths growth at the 50% region was actually similar between both while growth at the 70% region was much better with the partials at long lengths similarly this paper on untrained individuals involves comparing leg extensions with a partial at long lengths to a full range of motion vastest lateralis growth tended to be similar at the 40 to 50% regions but fairly better for the partials at long lengths at the 70% region growth of the
rectus sorus tended to be better for the partials at long lengths across all regions but the differences were large at the 70% region accordingly we can't be certain distal region growth of the elbow flexors and triceps was identical between both hopefully future studies Can Shed more light onto this thirdly the latest study used multiple exercises but we can't rule out the possibility that long length partials work better with some exercises and not others one possibility is that lengthened partials are most effective with exercises that are hardest at the shortest more contracted position for example both
carf raisers and leg extensions tend to be hardest at the top shorten position two studies on these exercises although conducted on untrained individuals found that long length partials produced more overall growth than a full range of motion a few exercises in this latest study on trained individuals are hardest around the mid position which might mean long length partials aren't any better than a full range of motion hopefully future studies examine this idea [Music] more remember these results are specific to a range of motion with an exercise I don't believe we can extrapolate these results to
comparing different exercises for example we've seen that changing joint positions to train certain muscles at longer lengths builds more muscle such as how in untrained individuals seated leg holes build more muscle than L leg holes overhead extensions built more muscle muscle than push Downs leaning back leg extensions buil more muscle than normal leg extensions and incline curls built more muscle than preos some might be tempted to take the results of this latest study and say that training at longer muscle lengths in all cases isn't going to build more muscle in experienced lifters however remember in
this latest study both ranges of motions reach the same maximum muscle length the only difference was the long length partials didn't attain shorter lengths conversely with these exercise comparisons we're comparing reaching longer muscle lengths to Shorter lengths which is different and may still be better for building muscle in trained individuals indeed although this isn't direct muscle hypertrophy we've seen that in bodybuilders leaning back on the leg extension resulted in greater overall rexus Morse activity than normal leg extensions however there may be a threshold of the length needed to maximize hypertrophy that is even longer isn't
always better I say this as lying down on the leg extension which stretches the rectus forus even more although still producing better activity than normal leg extensions wasn't any more effective than the leaning back leg extensions also there's a study coming soon that seems to have found when tension was highest at the start of the curl cable curls with the shoulder neutral were similarly effective to having the shoulder extended we'll be sure to update you at the house of hypertrophy with any new studies that may shape and refine our thoughts but here are our current
recommendations don't forget the basics training hard with enough volume and consistency are indispensable it's still recommended to select exercises that train muscles at longer lengths over shorter lengths and we have and are working on guides that go into detail on how you may do this with each muscle as for range of motion the latest data suggest you have flexibility with both long length partials and full range of motion as options on the table feel free to experiment around in a establish what best suits you if you're searching for further guidance about training the highquality alpha
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