Back in the 1800s, strongmen used a partial range of motion (ROM) exercises to impress the crowds with their feats of strength. Those old-school, strongman show-offs knew they could lift more weight, but the enthusiastic crowds didn’t know. Then partial range of motion exercises became all the rage in the ‘70s when power racks became commonplace in gyms because the racks allowed the lifter to start the bar at various heights. Ever since the disco decade, lifters have used partial ROM exercises as a method to bust through plateaus and build strength in specific ranges of motion.
Studies have shown that training sticking points in the concentric portion of the bench press may lead to greater increases in one rep strength.
WHAT ARE PARTIAL RANGE OF MOTION EXERCISES?
These are exercises in which the range of motion (ROM) is limited, and this allows you to train a specific ROM to help bust through sticking/weak points and to improve strength at the lifter’s weakest point. Once you go back to the full ROM lift hopefully you can lift more weight with better form. Some common examples of partial ROM lifts are rack pulls, box squats, and block presses.
5 PERSONAL TRAINERS SHARE THEIR FAVORITE PARTIAL ROM EXERCISES
These experts share their favorite partial ROM exercises so you can get stronger and crush your current plateaus while staying injury-free for a longer period of time.
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The Spoto Press
Allan Bacon, Ph.D., a former dental surgeon now an online personal trainer who specializes in training powerlifters and body composition clients.
Benefits: The Spoto press, named after American powerlifter Eric Spoto, is a wonderful exercise for building strength and speed in the bench press while teaching you how to maintain tension throughout the whole body. It also allows you to hammer growth into your triceps when a narrower grip is used.
Range of motion: The range of motion throughout the exercise is from one to two inches off the chest to the full lockout of the bench press.
When to incorporate them: These can be used as a standard pressing technique in your routine or any time you want to work on improving the performance of the chest to mid-range and increase growth in your triceps.
How often should you do them: The Spoto press can be incorporated as often as you want but is particularly helpful when you find you are getting stuck in the bottom of the bench press or when your triceps growth is lagging. Consider adding in 4-6 sets of 2-4 reps if your goal is strength or 5-6 reps if you are looking for more benefits for hypertrophy.
What to be cautious of when doing these: There are very few true cons to the lift, although competitive powerlifters should be cautious of the fact that this movement may leave you open to violating the “press” command if you don’t remember to pause adequately on your chest and wait for the judge’s command during competition.
Benefits: The shrimp squat is one of Nelson’s go-to unilateral lower body exercises. Like the pistol squat, it challenges both lower-body strength and balance. Unlike the pistol squat, however, it doesn’t require extreme mobility. Best of all, it’s scalable based on the individual’s range of motion.
Range of motion: To get started with the shrimp squat, constrain yourself to a partial range of motion by stacking up an aerobic step, balance pad, or some combination. Choose the height of the stack based on the range of motion you can control without plopping into the hole. As you build strength, lower the stack to increase your range of motion, gradually working to the floor — or even a deficit, where you’re standing on an elevated surface.
How often should you do shrimp squats: Shrimp squats can be included in any full-body or lower-body training session, once or twice a week. They’re a perfect accessory exercise for deadlifts and squats, especially for addressing side-to-side differences in strength, balance, and control. Given the balance demand, lifters who struggle with balance may benefit from lightly grasping a pole with their non-working hand.
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Scapular Pullups
Dr. Bo Babenko, is a physical therapist and strength coach who specializes in strengthening the mind, body, and soul.
Benefits: Accessing the many muscles around your shoulder blades makes the entire shoulder complex less likely to get injured and more likely to generate maximum forces. The scapular pullup helps us with the sequence of control through the full range of motion of the pullup.
When to incorporate them: I like to incorporate this exercise for anyone with any kind of shoulder pain to take the load off of the often overused biceps. It also works great for anyone working toward a greater library of gymnastics movements.
How often should you do them: I think these are a phenomenal way to start any “arm day” with just enough reps to “wake up this system of timing”: Three rounds of 5 reps with high intention is a great way to incorporate this move.
What to be cautious of when doing these: The primary con of this lift is the necessity to focus on the details — the straight arm hopefully makes that easier.
Benefits: A very underrated part of developing a strong press is the amount of stability you can create. The more stable your base is, the less energy you lose when pressing, which means more force goes into the press. When on a bench it’s much easier to use your lower body to create stability whereas lying on the floor attacks it from a different angle and challenges you to engage your lats and glutes to provide stability. Since you can only perform the top half of your normal press, you’re going to improve your triceps and lockout strength.
The floor press is also a great exercise for anyone experiencing shoulder pain since the range of motion stresses the shoulder joint less. This allows you to push a lot of weight with a very low risk of injury. It’s a go-to when all the benches are taken or one or both shoulders are agitated
How to determine ROM: The great part about this exercise is you don’t need to fuss around with adjusting a squat rack or piece of equipment to get it perfect. You can drop down to the floor anywhere in the gym and the floor will serve as a perfect guide on how low to go. Press all the way up and stop just as your elbows touch the ground which will create a 90-degree angle in your elbow.
When should you incorporate these: If your shoulders are not thrilled at another day of pressing start your chest workout off with this exercise and load up the weight. If your shoulders, feel-good put this as your second or third exercise in a chest workout so you start with a full range of motion exercise. It’s also a perfect exercise to start an arm workout day with. Take a narrow grip or bring the elbows in to put more load on the triceps than the chest. Plus, since it’s a compound exercise you use a much heavier load than an isolation exercise like rope pressdowns.
What to be cautious of when doing these: This press engages less of the chest muscles since those are mostly working at the bottom range of a normal press. Also, if performing this with dumbbells in both hands you may need someone to pass you the dumbbells. If you’re going solo, then a single-arm dumbbell variation is best so you can easily get into position by rolling onto your back from a side-lying position.
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The Anderson Squat
Mike T. Nelson Ph.D., metabolism fitness professional, strength coach, and educator.
Benefits: The benefits of this squat are that you do the concentric portion (standing up) portion first and you need the mobility to get into the starting position and starting strength (concentric) without any stretch-shortening effect.
Range of motion: Determine the starting pin/ROM depends on two factors: your mobility and the position you want to replicate. Classically the bar is around waist height, but you can use any height you want. The better your mobility, the lower the position to start you can use. Since you are doing the concentric portion first, you can use this to simulate saving a poor squat with more forward lean as you have to generate force from a dead stop. If you can’t create enough force for the load, it simply won’t move vs a normal squat that can crush you in the hole or punish you for a bad position.
When to incorporate the Anderson squat: These can be done as an accessory movement after full ROM squats or even mixed into your programming on any upper- or lower-body training day. When your back and mobility are weak points in your squat, or your concentric strength is well below your dynamic (with stretch-shortening) strength it’s a great time for Anderson squats.
How often should you do them: You can do them weekly for most unless you are very advanced than every other week. Paul was rumored to squat daily and used this version as a staple of his training, but you are not Paul either.
What to be cautious of when doing these: Since you are doing the concentric portion first, you will be using sub max loads which may be a con if your goal is all-out strength. The other potential con of this lift is if you are using a high amount of forwarding lean as in a failed squat and this could mess up your squat technique; but since this is primarily an accessory lift.
