Do partial lifts grow muscles as well as full lifts?
Lengthened partial repetitions elicit similar muscular adaptations as full range of motion repetitions during resistance training in trained individuals
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Training exclusively at the stretched position (lengthened partials) produced the same muscle growth as full ROM, even though it avoided the shortened muscle position entirely.
Traditional wisdom says full ROM is superior because it recruits muscle across all lengths. This study shows the shortened position adds no extra benefit for hypertrophy in trained lifters.
Practical Takeaways
If you're experienced and want to save time or reduce shoulder/elbow strain, try doing 2–3 sets of lengthened partials (e.g., lat pulldown to mid-chest, bicep curl at 90°) on your last exercise of the day.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Training exclusively at the stretched position (lengthened partials) produced the same muscle growth as full ROM, even though it avoided the shortened muscle position entirely.
Traditional wisdom says full ROM is superior because it recruits muscle across all lengths. This study shows the shortened position adds no extra benefit for hypertrophy in trained lifters.
Practical Takeaways
If you're experienced and want to save time or reduce shoulder/elbow strain, try doing 2–3 sets of lengthened partials (e.g., lat pulldown to mid-chest, bicep curl at 90°) on your last exercise of the day.
Publication
Journal
PeerJ
Year
2025
Authors
Milo Wolf, Patroklos Androulakis Korakakis, A. Piñero, Adam E. Mohan, Thomas Hermann, Francesca Augustin, M. Sapuppo, Brian Lin, Max Coleman, Ryan Burke, Jeff Nippard, P. Swinton, B. Schoenfeld
Related Content
Claims (10)
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.
If you're already strength-trained, doing arm exercises with only part of the motion (like half-bicep curls) builds your arm muscles just as much as doing the full motion — and the data suggests there's probably no real difference between the two.
If you're already strong and you train your back with partial pull-downs that stretch the muscle at the bottom, you'll get just as strong at doing full pull-downs as someone who does full movements the whole time — meaning stretching the muscle really hard might be more important than moving through the full range.
If you're already experienced with lifting weights, doing exercises where your muscles are stretched out—like lowering a dumbbell all the way down or just partway—gives you about the same muscle growth as going all the way to the extreme stretch. So you don’t need to stretch your muscles to their absolute limit to get big.
When you train one arm, the other arm sometimes gets stronger too—even if you didn’t work it—so if you're trying to see if changing how far you move your arm improves endurance, that mysterious strength boost in the other arm might hide the real effect.