a friend of mine recommended a discussion of this topic. Range-of-motion, or ROM, means taking a joint through its full, unimpeded range. Muscles only get stronger through the range of motion in which they are trained, with roughly a 20% overlap.
For example, if I am doing a biceps curl and go from the down position and raise my arm 90 degrees, ultimately I will see significant strength gains between 90 and 110 degrees of flexion, but I won't gain considerable strength in the remaining ~90 degrees of motion.
Often I see people new to the gym doing squats with a full range of motion which is excellent. However, in an effort to gain strength above and beyond their body's strength adaptations, I will see these same individuals vastly increasing weight, but with severely decreased range of motion. In one case I saw a person performing a bench press with over 300 lbs of weight, but only going down a few inches. If I had asked him to perform a full ROM bench press I can guarantee he would not have been able to do it.
Additionally, think about scenarios involving injury. Usually injuries occur outside of a comfortable range of motion, when the involved joints are compromised. If we were to take all of our joints through full ROM training, we would spend a lot less time outside of our trained ROM!
-Additional benefits to ROM training:
-promotes a balance of strength/flexibility
-challenges stabilizing muscles
a note of caution: do not perform full ROM if it results in pain, especially of the joint.
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