There’s no getting around it, the best way to stimulate the muscle into adapting, and growing bigger, is to load that muscle towards failure so that it comes back stronger. Still, there’s only so many reps that one can make before it’s time to hit the shower. Or is there? A new study suggests that a new approach to your final sets could spark 43.3% greater muscle building potential. Here’s what you need to know.
There’s long been a debate over the effectiveness of performing a lift using a full or partial range of motion. While some studies maintain that the traditional all-encompassing approach is king, new data is beginning to emerge that suggests long-length partials have a serious role to play, or could even be superior.
Still, while that debate rages on, the truth is that whether you are executing a full lift, or a long-length partial — where the focus is on the first half of the rep where the muscle is stretched out — you will still add mass because with enough load, additional fibers will be recruited to rebuild the muscle stronger. B
ut, when it comes to maximizing your muscle building potential, why not use more than one range of motion? According to science, this notion could be a game changer as observed in an experiment conducted for growing the calves (gastrocnemius muscles) via smith machine calf raises.
“…combining full repetitions with subsequent partial repetitions could constitute a superior strategy to increase both the intra-set volume and the mechanical tension experienced by the gastrocnemius muscle,” found the experts. “In turn, this could plausibly increase hypertrophic adaptations experienced by the gastrocnemius muscle.” And, if it works with the calves, it could work for all other muscles too.
Try it for yourself
The principle behind the strategy is to continue to lift with the traditional full range of motion, but instead of calling it a day when you reach, or perceive yourself as reaching failure, you could throw in some partial reps for good measure. The scientists dubbed this approach the ‘Lengthened Superset.’
They found that the limbs that continued past momentary failure with subsequent sets of partial reps in the lengthened position grew more muscle. This is something that can conceivably be tried with any lift. In the specific case of calf raises, the participants continued their additional sets with dorsiflexion, meaning that they lifted their toes upwards towards the shins, rather than in the previous sets where they performed the move in the plantarflexed position, where the heel is raised off the ground and toes are planted downwards. It’s all about getting those extra reps, even if using a partial range of motion.
The recent results came from a pool of untrained male participants, and showed that these individuals maximized their muscle building potential by a further 43.3% with this method, adding additional sets as they became more comfortable with the program to continue working towards failure.
“…the primary finding of the study was that lengthened supersets were superior to training to momentary failure in inducing hypertrophy of the gastrocnemius following ten weeks of training among untrained men,” read the study. “In absolute terms, the model estimate was that (those who continued with partials) could be expected to result in an additional 0.62mm increase in muscle thickness (in the 10-week period).” Now there’s no excuse not to find one more rep!