Would you take option A or option B?

A: $1000 high risk investment with a 5% return.
B: $1000 low risk investment with a 10% return.

B, no brainer right? Well in the gym folks opt for option A all the time. They use more weight (higher risk) and partial range of motion (lower return) as opposed to using less weight (lower risk) and full range of motion (higher return).

I have to say men are typically more often guilty of shortening range of motion in order to either use more weight or ‘complete’ more reps. I put complete surrounded by bunny ears because there’s nothing complete about half-repping exercises.

A classic example is the pull-up (above) because folks often don’t want to believe that they can’t do one proper full range of motion repetition so they shorten the rep. The same goes for the push-up…

A proper pushup means you touch your chest to the floor at the bottom and extend up until your elbows are fully locked out at the top.

Now there are certain ‘parts’ of every exercise that are much easier than other parts, for example with the pushup the very bottom (when your chest is touching the floor) is the most difficult portion of the exercise so folks cut that part out and stop 3-4 inches from the bottom and go back up because it’s easier.

There are also plenty of cases where folks simply don’t know how to execute an exercise and therefore they perform it wrong. In this instance in order to yield the best results you’ll want to learn how to execute movements properly so if this is you, I have TONS of video examples on my YouTube page HERE.

Take Home…

If we circle back to the investment/return example above just ask yourself, WHO are you training for? Are you exercising your ego or your muscles?

Also just remember, no one gives a f*ck how much you bench, squat or how many push-ups or pull-ups you can do…especially if they’re partial range of motion so maximize your results in the gym and go with full ROM!