North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
A number of recent studies have demonstrated doing partial range of motion reps at long muscle length generate a strong adaptive response, not just strength but hypertrophy as well. Keep in mind this is very different from partial reps done at short muscle length, which have been demonstrated to deliver inferior (generally) results compared to full ROM.
I don't pretend to be an expert, just dumping out my thoughts on where this fits in the bigger picture, some ways of making use of the principle, maybe spark an intelligent conversation. I feel that this is proven to be more than just something to tinker with and is a foundational principle at work. I may be off in left field...Some of my terminology may be incorrect, but from a layman's perspective and how to make use of this in a casual or recreational resistance program, it should be close enough. The following is by no means an exhaustive review of usage.
Training at long muscle length is a common theme in a lot of physio research and targeted training.
Eccentric (over) loading at long muscle length is associated with greater hypertrophy in general and in particular at the insertion end of the muscle, and also for increasing muscle fascicle length. The latter has the effect of doing more work for the same amount of neural input and firing time for a given motor unit - power. This is a tremendous tool for hypertrophy and strength but is brutal for recovery and burnout, esp if done with heavy loads. It is difficult to manipulate if training solo.
Oscillatory reps - the insertion of a short movement followed by a rapid drop and either a full ROM extension or another pulse rep. These should not be done with anything much heavier than a 70% load. Example - squat. Lower to the hole and drive up about 6-9 inches, allow to drop free-fall and arrest the fall with a rapid effort and back up. You don't want to bounce. The abbreviated 'myo rep' can be run individually or in clusters of two or three. This has the effect of briefly overloading the lengthened muscle eccentrically, as well as increasing training time spent under high tension. It also teaches the body to cycle motor units off very rapidly, in addition to cycling them on rapidly, which has major implications applied to dynamic movement. Caveat - for performance specific response, these are sometimes used toward the top of the range or anywhere between. Used at the end range, much heavier loads can be used.
Extreme Isometrics a la Jay Schroeder. Lunge, pushup, hang and a few others. This involves assuming a posture that stretches a primary muscle group under force. Example lunge. Assume a very deep lunge posture, rear foot trailing on ball of foot, knee just off the floor. Lead leg thigh parallel to the floor, hands at sides, on hips etc, posture upright. Pull the body down into the lunge, the antagonist muscles now at very long length, active enough to maintain posture. As they fatigue they are forced slightly longer under high activation resistance. Holds as long as 5 minutes are used, a minute or two of this is excruciating. This is not generally used as a sole muscle training strategy but used in combination with speed drops, plyo, as a precursor to sport specific fieldwork and as a recovery mechanism for high volume training.
Overcoming isometrics at long muscle length. Typically set up using barbell or dumbell/cable analogs from the starting or lowest point in the ROM. This approach is also demonstrated to increase hypertrophy overall, more at the insertion end of the muscle, and improve dynamic strength through the entire ROM. Is possible to apply a rapid jolt into the hold rather than a gradual ramp up. In practice, this increases force production relative to a slower ramp up, not only on the initial exertion but for a brief following period if the effort is sustained. The tendon tightens as a unified sheet from one end of the muscle body (and through it) to the other. This suggests the follow on hold may have elements more in common with an eccentric exertion, than the iso-concentric of the slower ramp up.
My experience with these is limited to the isometric jolts, oscillatory reps, and some forced eccentric reps.
My experience with overload eccentrics is limited and never as an isolated approach. Forced reps with an assist on the concentric, and heavy loads used with a push press or jerk to augment the concentric.
There is also the practice of holding a yielding isometric in the stretched position - example - dumbell bench press, pause at the lowest point in the ROM at some point in the set (typically the end) and hold for a few seconds while applying tension, but not enough force to move the load.
Isometric jolts have the effect of increasing hypertrophy, increasing power output. The holds might not be long enough (5 seconds) to increase tendon stiffness as much as the ramp up holds, IDK. They greatly increase the response to use of isometrics, generally increase movement speed as well.
Oscillatory reps have a reputation for increasing strength far beyond what the working loads might trigger if used with traditional lifting strategies. My experience with these is limited and always combined with other approaches, so I cannot speak to isolated response. They seem to generate a healthy pump and allow longer working time under load. As an example using a 20 rep traditional load with alternating (one to one) oscillating to full ROM reps, I might get 14. So the partial is not as taxing as a full rep, but added to a full rep it increases stress by about 1/3. The use of multiple partials between full ROM rapidly drives that factor higher.
Rapid eccentric. Many people use a much slower cadence on the eccentric in the belief it triggers more stress on the muscle and therefore more response. Research has demonstrated this is not true. A much stronger adaptive response is triggered by using faster rep speed, both eccentric AND concentric. Intent to move the load rapidly, even if actual movement speed is reduced due to loading, produces a more robust response. Rapid eccentric increases the force on the muscle at the bottom of the ROM (muscle length long), even if much of the travel from top to bottom is resisted for a much shorter duration.
Eccentrics are known for causing the most physical damage to the muscle, which is a good way to draw satellite cells into the muscle, creating more myonuclei, theoretically allowing for greater increase in muscle mass. Concentric based training is characterized by reduced metabolic stress and muscle breakdown.
A caveat - I cannot get solid info reg upper body pulling exercises (ascending vs descending). Due to dynamics of leverage and complexity of movement around the shoulder blade, I suspect one is better served doing these with the muscle somewhat shortened. Anyone with info re this would be appreciated. There are conflicting dynamics between long length and highest tension range that ascending lifts do not share. I suspect the specific point in the range determines which muscles are most involved (lat, rear delt, scap, trap) and regardless you want to train at long length for whatever muscle you are targeting. Unlike pecs for example, it is probable that best practices are to vary the point-to-point in the ROM
I don't pretend to be an expert, just dumping out my thoughts on where this fits in the bigger picture, some ways of making use of the principle, maybe spark an intelligent conversation. I feel that this is proven to be more than just something to tinker with and is a foundational principle at work. I may be off in left field...Some of my terminology may be incorrect, but from a layman's perspective and how to make use of this in a casual or recreational resistance program, it should be close enough. The following is by no means an exhaustive review of usage.
Training at long muscle length is a common theme in a lot of physio research and targeted training.
Eccentric (over) loading at long muscle length is associated with greater hypertrophy in general and in particular at the insertion end of the muscle, and also for increasing muscle fascicle length. The latter has the effect of doing more work for the same amount of neural input and firing time for a given motor unit - power. This is a tremendous tool for hypertrophy and strength but is brutal for recovery and burnout, esp if done with heavy loads. It is difficult to manipulate if training solo.
Oscillatory reps - the insertion of a short movement followed by a rapid drop and either a full ROM extension or another pulse rep. These should not be done with anything much heavier than a 70% load. Example - squat. Lower to the hole and drive up about 6-9 inches, allow to drop free-fall and arrest the fall with a rapid effort and back up. You don't want to bounce. The abbreviated 'myo rep' can be run individually or in clusters of two or three. This has the effect of briefly overloading the lengthened muscle eccentrically, as well as increasing training time spent under high tension. It also teaches the body to cycle motor units off very rapidly, in addition to cycling them on rapidly, which has major implications applied to dynamic movement. Caveat - for performance specific response, these are sometimes used toward the top of the range or anywhere between. Used at the end range, much heavier loads can be used.
Extreme Isometrics a la Jay Schroeder. Lunge, pushup, hang and a few others. This involves assuming a posture that stretches a primary muscle group under force. Example lunge. Assume a very deep lunge posture, rear foot trailing on ball of foot, knee just off the floor. Lead leg thigh parallel to the floor, hands at sides, on hips etc, posture upright. Pull the body down into the lunge, the antagonist muscles now at very long length, active enough to maintain posture. As they fatigue they are forced slightly longer under high activation resistance. Holds as long as 5 minutes are used, a minute or two of this is excruciating. This is not generally used as a sole muscle training strategy but used in combination with speed drops, plyo, as a precursor to sport specific fieldwork and as a recovery mechanism for high volume training.
Overcoming isometrics at long muscle length. Typically set up using barbell or dumbell/cable analogs from the starting or lowest point in the ROM. This approach is also demonstrated to increase hypertrophy overall, more at the insertion end of the muscle, and improve dynamic strength through the entire ROM. Is possible to apply a rapid jolt into the hold rather than a gradual ramp up. In practice, this increases force production relative to a slower ramp up, not only on the initial exertion but for a brief following period if the effort is sustained. The tendon tightens as a unified sheet from one end of the muscle body (and through it) to the other. This suggests the follow on hold may have elements more in common with an eccentric exertion, than the iso-concentric of the slower ramp up.
My experience with these is limited to the isometric jolts, oscillatory reps, and some forced eccentric reps.
My experience with overload eccentrics is limited and never as an isolated approach. Forced reps with an assist on the concentric, and heavy loads used with a push press or jerk to augment the concentric.
There is also the practice of holding a yielding isometric in the stretched position - example - dumbell bench press, pause at the lowest point in the ROM at some point in the set (typically the end) and hold for a few seconds while applying tension, but not enough force to move the load.
Isometric jolts have the effect of increasing hypertrophy, increasing power output. The holds might not be long enough (5 seconds) to increase tendon stiffness as much as the ramp up holds, IDK. They greatly increase the response to use of isometrics, generally increase movement speed as well.
Oscillatory reps have a reputation for increasing strength far beyond what the working loads might trigger if used with traditional lifting strategies. My experience with these is limited and always combined with other approaches, so I cannot speak to isolated response. They seem to generate a healthy pump and allow longer working time under load. As an example using a 20 rep traditional load with alternating (one to one) oscillating to full ROM reps, I might get 14. So the partial is not as taxing as a full rep, but added to a full rep it increases stress by about 1/3. The use of multiple partials between full ROM rapidly drives that factor higher.
Rapid eccentric. Many people use a much slower cadence on the eccentric in the belief it triggers more stress on the muscle and therefore more response. Research has demonstrated this is not true. A much stronger adaptive response is triggered by using faster rep speed, both eccentric AND concentric. Intent to move the load rapidly, even if actual movement speed is reduced due to loading, produces a more robust response. Rapid eccentric increases the force on the muscle at the bottom of the ROM (muscle length long), even if much of the travel from top to bottom is resisted for a much shorter duration.
Eccentrics are known for causing the most physical damage to the muscle, which is a good way to draw satellite cells into the muscle, creating more myonuclei, theoretically allowing for greater increase in muscle mass. Concentric based training is characterized by reduced metabolic stress and muscle breakdown.
A caveat - I cannot get solid info reg upper body pulling exercises (ascending vs descending). Due to dynamics of leverage and complexity of movement around the shoulder blade, I suspect one is better served doing these with the muscle somewhat shortened. Anyone with info re this would be appreciated. There are conflicting dynamics between long length and highest tension range that ascending lifts do not share. I suspect the specific point in the range determines which muscles are most involved (lat, rear delt, scap, trap) and regardless you want to train at long length for whatever muscle you are targeting. Unlike pecs for example, it is probable that best practices are to vary the point-to-point in the ROM
Last edited:
. . .I think that if we want to learn about isometrics, gymnasts need to be part of the conversation, and, by proxy, calisthenics and "street workout" athletes.