Range of Motion

to get the best results out of your workouts, aren't you supposed to use your full range of motion. for example, when you bench, you bring the weight 2 inches from your chest and bring it up right before you hit lockout. there is this big guy that goes to my gym and whenever he does any exercise, his range of motion is only about 2-3 inches. for instance, when he does incline bench presses, he piles on about 5 plates on each side, but when he does his rep. . . .he only brings the bar down about 3 inches. how effective does this work compared to bringing it down for a full rep. I would ask him, but he humongous and I don't want to question his technique.

Do full range of motion, some people in the gym do shorter range of motion and pile on the weight to impress themselves.

ya, i've seen a lot of guys do that, but most of them only get in about 2 -3 reps. this guy that i'm talking about does 3 sets of 10 for each exercise. I've been observing this guy for about a week and his whole routine is like this. Piles on a shit load of weight and bangs out 10 reps. im guessing this guy must know what he's doing since he is so freakin big. i was just wondering which would be more effective. . . .full range or what this guy is doing?

Just because he is big doesn't mean he knows anything. He's trying to impress people, and it will only take it's toll on him in the long run when he has to try to use his muscles.

Train smart and don't worry about anyone else except yourself.

Thanks for the advice guys. I wasn't planning on trying this. just curious on how effective it was.

People use half reps usually in combination with full reps to tighten and strengthen muscles.Also if your over loading the weight it's probably safer.I usually do full reps but sometimes load it and do halfs or three quarters,it gives a strong pump and forces more blood into the muscle.People seem to need to modify their workouts to their body type and desired development.Personally I feel full reps are much better of course if not hyper extending the joints.I also see guys doing the reps very fast and tight for strength.Some people do the full reps very sloopy as if they are almost throwing the weights,dangerous.Finding the timing and adjusting the speed seems to work well for most.Problem with half reps is that it shortens the muscle they say,but not sure about that one.I just experiment but keep it in balance.Alot of variations out there.

This was just recently discussed. 5 plates on an incline is pretty amazing, thats 495 pounds.

This would be what you could call a 4-5 board press, litterally it is removing inches off of the range of motion to either break through a sticking plateu or to simply become stronger in that ROM (range of motion).

Towel press, board presses, box squats, blah blah all powerlifter techniques. Another thing is bands on the bars which increase tension at the end of the movement.

Whenever I hit a "sticking point" in the range of motion that prevents me from progressing, I will perform partial reps for just the range of motion for the sticking point. If you do this, always use a power rack and plan the workout carefully, and never perform partials longer than is necessary to break through the sticking point.

Thats the idea

Cool, now I know. I'll try this technique when I hit a sticking point. I haven't hit one yet because I've only been lifting for a year.