Range of motion and Overtraining

K

kbaum

New Member
When I first start doing lat pulldowns in an HST cycle, I lower the bar till it touches my chest. The weight is light enough that I can do that pretty easily. Towards the end of my cycle, I reach a point where I can no longer do this. I figure that's not so bad--only a small part of the range of motion is being lost.

There are many exercises like this: as the weight gets higher and higher, you can't quite complete a maximum range of motion. What I'm wondering about is the possibility of overtraining due to this fact. For example, if you can't quite complete the full range of motion, that doesn't stop you from *trying* to complete it. As you struggle to get that last 5-10 percent of the range of motion, you're essentially pulling/pushing on a weight that won't budge, which is (as I understand it) hard on the CNS.

It's easy to say "always complete 100 percent of the range of motion", but in many cases, I'm not clear that you get an enormous hypertrophic benefit from that last 5-10 percent of the motion. (Once you start sacrificing 30 percent, yes, you're losing a lot.)

Is this a legitimate problem, and if so how do people here deal with it?

Thanks.
 
I would suggest that you use the same amount of effort as the weights get heavy. The final couple inches of a lat pull down are not that important unless you are strength training and want to ensure that you are capable of pulling the bar to the chest. If you are jsut training for size, trainign in the more stretched range of motion is probably more effective hypertrophy-wise than training in the fully contracted range.

From a kinesiology perspective, it is important to understand that the main reason the bar gets harder to pull as you move closer to the chest is that the lats progressively become unable to contribute to the pull because of their anatomical position. IN other words, in the stretched position the lats are doing most of the work. As you get close to the chest, the smaller rear delts take the brunt of the load. So, it gets harder to move the bar.
 
I know I am digging deep here resurrecting an old ass thread but there are just too many old topics on this board with good information for me to hesitate and I don't wanna start a whole bunch of new threads.

What is worse, taking tension off the muscle with each rep or training in a partial not so stretched ROM?

The reason I ask is because of side lateral raises, the bottom of the movement trains mostly the supraspinatus and there is no tension on the lateral delt, I am experimenting now with just using 45-90degree ROM rather than 0-90 degree.
 
Don't over-think this. At the end of the day, however you lift, be consistent each session. That way, as long as the loads are increasing over the course of a cycle (and cycle-on-cycle), you will know that you are adding more mechanical strain to the tissue over time. As a rider to this, towards the end of the cycle it might make sense to use a little body English to lift a heavy load and then to lower under control as a kind of assisted negative. This will depend on the exercise: push press is a good example - use a little hip drive to get the bar up and then lower under control.
 
MaFi0s0 said:
What is worse, taking tension off the muscle with each rep or training in a partial not so stretched ROM?

The reason I ask is because of side lateral raises, the bottom of the movement trains mostly the supraspinatus and there is no tension on the lateral delt, I am experimenting now with just using 45-90degree ROM rather than 0-90 degree.
Click to expand...

Well, it is difficult to isolate the delts without involving the rotator cuff. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Another approach is the start the movement in the extended position with your arms raised. Then lower one at a time alternating left and right reps. This maintains tension on the delt. Of course you won't be using a lot of weight but your delts will be no worse off without it during the higher rep sets.
 
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