If you're a young woman just starting to lift weights, doing exercises through certain parts of the movement — like the top half or the full motion — helps your leg muscles grow more than doing just the bottom part. Not all shortcuts in the exercise are equally good for building muscle.

What we've found so far suggests that partial range of motion training at certain joint angles may lead to greater leg muscle growth in untrained women compared to other angles. Our analysis of the available research shows the evidence leans toward some parts of a movement being more effective than others for building muscle in beginners. We reviewed 45.0 studies or assertions that support this idea, and none that refute it [1]. Specifically, for young women new to weight training, doing exercises through the top half or full range of motion appears to help leg muscles grow more than focusing only on the bottom part of the movement [1]. This suggests not all partial ranges are equally useful — some may offer better results than others. We don’t yet know exactly why certain angles seem to work better, but it may relate to how muscles are stretched and activated during different parts of an exercise. What we can say is that simply shortening the movement isn’t enough — where that shortening happens matters. Our current analysis is based on limited types of evidence, and while the direction is clear, we remain cautious about overgeneralizing. We’re still building our understanding of how range of motion affects muscle growth across different people and exercises. Practical takeaway: If you're new to lifting and want to build leg muscle, focusing on the top half or full movement of an exercise might work better than sticking to just the bottom part. Not all shortcuts give the same results.