Stretching Muscles While Lifting Makes Them Grow More
Muscle hypertrophy from partial repetition at long vs. short muscle length: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Partial reps at long muscle length outperformed full ROM training in hypertrophy—despite moving less distance.
For decades, fitness culture has preached 'full range of motion = best growth.' This study flips that by showing you don’t need to go deep—just stretch hard.
Practical Takeaways
Add 2–3 sets of slow, controlled partial reps at the stretched position (e.g., bottom of squat, bottom of bicep curl) to your workouts—pause for 1–2 seconds under tension.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Partial reps at long muscle length outperformed full ROM training in hypertrophy—despite moving less distance.
For decades, fitness culture has preached 'full range of motion = best growth.' This study flips that by showing you don’t need to go deep—just stretch hard.
Practical Takeaways
Add 2–3 sets of slow, controlled partial reps at the stretched position (e.g., bottom of squat, bottom of bicep curl) to your workouts—pause for 1–2 seconds under tension.
Publication
Journal
Sport Sciences for Health
Year
2026
Authors
B. Strey, Artur Irigoyen, Gerard McMahon, R. S. Pinto
Related Content
Claims (6)
When people lift weights through a full motion vs. just part of the motion, the muscles might look like they grow more in one case—but that could just be because the weight feels heavier at different points, not because the muscle is stretched more. So we can’t be sure if stretching the muscle is what’s causing the growth.
Whether you're working your quads, calves, or biceps, stretching them fully during exercises helps them grow bigger — this works for many different muscles, not just one.
Even if you don’t move through the full range, doing the exercise where your muscle is stretched the most (like halfway down in a squat) builds more muscle than doing it where the muscle is bunched up (like a shallow squat).
When you stretch your muscles fully during workouts, the ends of the muscles grow more than the middle parts — the stretch makes the muscle ends bulk up more than the center.
When you do strength exercises where your muscles are stretched the most (like lowering a weight fully), you build more muscle than when you only move partway through the motion, no matter which muscle you're working.