Does where you stretch your muscle during workouts change how much it grows?
Does Muscle Length Influence Regional Hypertrophy? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Muscle growth was nearly identical across all three regions (proximal, mid-belly, distal) despite differences in stretch length.
Many fitness influencers claim that stretching muscles more (e.g., deep squats, full ROM presses) targets specific muscle regions better — this study directly contradicts that.
Practical Takeaways
You don’t need to go extremely deep in squats or stretch your muscles to the extreme to maximize growth — moderate range of motion is sufficient.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Muscle growth was nearly identical across all three regions (proximal, mid-belly, distal) despite differences in stretch length.
Many fitness influencers claim that stretching muscles more (e.g., deep squats, full ROM presses) targets specific muscle regions better — this study directly contradicts that.
Practical Takeaways
You don’t need to go extremely deep in squats or stretch your muscles to the extreme to maximize growth — moderate range of motion is sufficient.
Publication
Journal
International Journal of Sports Medicine
Year
2025
Authors
Dorian Varović, Milo Wolf, B. Schoenfeld, James Steele, J. Grgic, P. Mikulic
Related Content
Claims (7)
When you do exercises that stretch your muscles more through a bigger movement—like doing full squats instead of tiny half-squats—you may build more muscle tissue than when you stay in a shorter, more restricted movement range.
Exercises that position biarticulate muscles at longer lengths (via joint angle manipulation) produce greater hypertrophy in those biarticulate muscle heads compared to exercises that place them at shorter lengths.
Isometric contractions performed at longer muscle lengths produce greater muscle hypertrophy than isometric contractions performed at shorter muscle lengths.
Even when people lifted with their muscles stretched 22% more or less, their muscles grew about the same — so you don’t need to go super deep or super shallow to get good growth.
Even though muscles might grow a tiny bit more at the far end when stretched more, it’s so small that it doesn’t really matter in practice — all parts grow about the same.