The Importance of Range of Motion

This week I have learned a very valuable lesson in the gym that I would like to share with all of you. The importance of Range Of Motion (ROM).

I've been in my bulk phase for about a month and a half now and always made sure my weight has been going up. Although I am getting stronger and the weight is going up, I can tell I have been pushing it too much because my range of motion during the exercises has drastically decreased. I've been trying to add more weight each time than I should, resulting in shorter reps, which in turn, works less muscle. Now I will share with you what range of motion is and all the benefits of it that I learned and experienced this week!

What is ROM?:

Range of motion is the distance a lever travels while attached to a fixed point. In physiology, range of motion is the distance your limbs move in the joints. Full range of motion during a workout exercise means you are fully contracting the muscles and fully detracting or stretching the muscles. A good example of full range of motion on flat bench press means that you start with the arms straight, but not locked, lowering the bar down until it almost touches or does touch your chest, and then pushing it up until your arms are straight again.

Shoulder Range of Motion

Fig. 1 Range of Motion in Your Joints. Robin Severy-Pfauntz, 2012 at www.aspenclub.com.

Why you should use full range of motion:

Using full range of motions has many benefits to take advantage of.

The first advantage is you are more efficient with building muscle! You're using precious time at the gym, so why only work half of the muscle when you can work the entire muscle? Full range of motion brings the muscle from fully stretched to completely contracted which breaks down the entire length of the muscle. Using half your range of motion will only break down half of the muscle. What a waste!

Another benefit is you are actively stretching your muscle while working them. You are putting a lot of time into building your muscles, so why make yourself stiff and inflexible when you can use full range of motion and stay flexible? Extending the muscles through full range of motion is keeping them stretched and the new muscle is evenly distributed instead of lumped up in spots creating masses of tight muscle.

When even those benefits aren't enough, there's more! Only working with half range of motion not only builds small lumps of tight muscles that are inflexible and uneven, but it also looks bad! Stretching out the muscles through full range of motions builds every part of the muscle giving you a more natural and lean strong look instead of awkward looking lumpy biceps.

The last benefit I will talk about (there's still many more) is that you will be stronger! Even if you don't care about building muscle or your looks and you just want to be strong, range of motion does make you stronger! Most of the strength exercises like dead lifts and squats require full range of motion for you to get the bar where you want it. If you only workout with half the range of motion, you will be stronger in certain points in the repetition of the strength exercise instead of equal, making you forced to use lower weight because of the weak points you could have worked before with full range of motion.

My challenge to YOU!:

Drop some plates. Take some weight off. A lot of weight. Even build your way up to max from absolutely zero weight. Make sure you are using full range of motion. You will notice a huge difference. In the end, you will end up with less weight than you could lift before, but you will be getting one hell of a better workout. You will feel the difficulty increase instantly. Just remember this is a good thing!

When doing flat bench press, touch the bar to your chest. If you're doing leg press, kiss your knees. During squats, butt below the knees. Bicep curls, arm fully extended, stretching the bicep, and then make the weights touch your shoulders.

Best of luck to everyone! I know I will be taking a huge advantage of these benefits by dropping some of my weight and getting a better workout with full range of motion.

Blog question:

Was there a time when you found a way to make your workout harder, in turn making it more beneficial? If so, what was the change you made?