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If you’ve been lifting for any length of time you have likely hard how you must lift through a full range of motion. In this video, I’m going to show you how the advice alone could be costing you some serious gains and how you need to clarify the difference between a joint’s range of motion and an exercise’s range of motion in order to understand it properly.
Performing your exercises through a full range of motion is supposed to be how you place the maximum amount of tension on the muscles that are working in that exercise. That is not true however. In some instances, the continuation of a joint’s full range of motion actually takes all of the tension off of the very muscle you are trying to work and grow.
For instance, with the triceps kickback with dumbbells on an inverted bench, how many times do you see someone lift the dumbbells at the top of the movement almost into a curl. What exactly is this part of the exercise doing for your triceps besides letting them rest while you actively contract the biceps. In order to perform this exercise correctly, the “full range of motion” is actually half of the full range of the elbow.
Think about it. The elbow is capable of flexing and extending. You can bend your elbow until your wrist touches your shoulders or you can extend it until it is straight and in line with the upper arm. Of course, you can stop at any range in the middle of that path as well. That said, just because the full range of motion of the elbow is that it doesn’t mean that a triceps kickback should emulate that.
For the kickback to be effective, you have to use just half of the range of the elbow in order to keep maximum tension on the triceps. In this case, you would stop with the dumbbell pointed towards the ground and the elbow perpendicular to the floor. Squeeze up to the top by extending your elbow fully and come back down again to the half way point. Full range here would be half the range of the elbow.
It goes beyond this however and can be said about the shoulder press with dumbbells. When the purpose of the press is hypertrophy you want to maximize the tension on the delts and not the triceps or assistance muscles of the press. So in order to accomplish this, you want to stop the dumbbells when the upper arms are parallel to the floor and press up from there. Keep your press short and you will dramatically improve the results you see in your delts while performing what is full range of motion for the exercise.
Lastly, the side lateral raise is another that you want to keep the dumbbells slightly away from your sides when you perform them. On the other hand, if you use cables instead of dumbbells you can let the arm go across your body and you still have tension on the muscles of the shoulders.
The key is understanding that full range of motion is only pertinent to an exercise and not the joint involved in the exercise. If you want to make your best gains you need to stop letting the two overlap when they are not supposed to. If you are looking for a complete training program that puts the science back in strength head to and get our ATHLEAN-X Training Systems.
For more videos on how 3 sets of 12 reps is killing your gains as well as how cardio is eating your muscle, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at
41 comments
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Why don't you do the side raises the way you have shown us in previous tutorial of yours?
1:56
2:27
I don't if I should go to gym or not.
It's complicated
At this rate waking up at 6 am is killing your gains!
I used to do this with 5 kg dumbbells in each arm, I reduced it to 2.5 kgs and did this. Burns harder
Thx, this made me realize a mistake i've made and made today
Good video. Very insightful. Bravo!
I think going to the gym is also killing my gains
Next video- trying to not kill ur gains is KILLING UR GAINS (here’re why)
I'm surprised how right this guy is all the time
Long time fan of your skills, knowledge, and entertainment. I appreciate your services!
Damn it Jeff! Damn it!
you can easily just feel if your muscle is working…..(if it has tention- yuo can feel it)
Tell the title to Tom Platz's quads.
Pro Tip : If you don't go to the gym, you won't be having any gains to kill…
Modern problems require modern solutions…
Camera man needs some tips
So ot goes back to difficulty. Click baity for those that dont understand physiological muscle tension ranges. Makes sense I guess. I was about to say that you wanted full range of motion because of the neurological aspect of exercise as well. If you shorten the range of motion too much you train to restrain your body.
This makes total sense.
You’re full of shit
3:57 not exactly you better tilt you body to the side to not skip this range when the dumbbells are close to your thighs
You're killing me, man
Actually that kickbacks isn't half range of motion it's a full range of motion with this form correct form…. Going forward is actually just wrong exercise it's like bicep curl and kickbacks at the same time😂
External rotation is killing your gains
You’re 100% wrong just like your dead lift fiasco tragedy full range of motion lengthens your muscles so they will add mass and be longer instead of thicker so you won’t look as big but you will still have more mass
You’re 100% wrong just like you’re dead lift fiasco tragedy full range of motion lengthens your muscles so they will add mass and be longer instead of thicker so you won’t look as big but you will still have more mass
Thanks dad
Calisthenics athletes 🥲
”Subscribe, if you don’t you’re going to hate yourself I promise” wat 😂
Well il be damned
He has more muscle on his one arm, than my whole body😂
Breathing is killing your gains
Ahahahahahahahahahaha .
I'm gaining some kills at this point, cheers.
multiple studies show that full range of motion leads to better muscle growth over time
AthleanX: Full range of motion KILLS your gains
Something is wrong here 🤔
Hey jeff top class advice your helping me lots on silly mistakes I broke myself training to lose weight a few years ago I lost seven stone but done my back dead lifting wrong and lots of weight slipped back on now it's slowly coming back down and my strength up and no pain thanks Jeff 💪👍🏻
jeff starting off by saying stupid things are killing your gains makes people stop watching thus not learning and thats really killing gains
Proteins is killing your gains
Short story: Keep tension on muscle while doing rep
Next part: your existence is killing your gain