Should every resistance-training exercise use the largest possible range of motion?

Understanding the question

Use a range you can control that suits the exercise and your goal, rather than forcing the largest movement your joints can possibly reach. Training through a substantial, repeatable range is a useful default for many exercises, while partial ranges can serve specific strength or hypertrophy purposes. Research does not support treating all partial repetitions as equivalent: where the muscle is loaded within the range matters. Comparisons also depend on the muscle, exercise and participant population. Keep movement standards consistent when tracking progress. A heavier load achieved only by shortening the range is a changed task, not automatically an improvement in the original one.

What a useful investigation needs to consider

Comfortable range differs across people and exercises. Persistent joint pain, catching or instability is not a normal requirement for productive lifting. Do not use a flexibility target as a reason to force a loaded position you cannot control.

Findings about training at longer muscle lengths are promising but specific. They do not justify claims that one technique is optimal for every muscle or that all people should immediately adopt unfamiliar, heavily loaded end-range exercises.

Read the detailed explanation

The companion article explores range of motion in resistance training in more depth, with topic-specific explanations and source material.