Happy Sunday!

You all see some ridiculous gym videos online these days. People doing all sorts of crazy things in the gym to try to get stronger and/or change their body. While many of these videos are funny, a lot of them contain such poor form and can really hurt the people involved. Let's talk about full range of motion today and why it matters so much (other than just your safety, haha!). 

When we exercise, our muscles contract - meaning they lengthen and shorten. The best way to picture this is the bicep curl. When you curl your forearm towards you, you are concentrically contracting your bicep, the muscle is shortening. When you lower your arm away from you, you are eccentrically contracting your bicep, your bicep is lengthening. Your muscles are going through what is called the sliding filament theory - how muscles contract. 

The only way the sliding filament theory occurs is when we take all of our muscles through a full range of motion. This is the best way for our muscles to:

• Grow.
• Change shape.
• Get stronger.
• Attain that "toned" look that many of you want!

We need to go through this full range of motion if we want to see any type of change like the ones mentioned above. Pulses, 1/4 reps, isometric holds and isometric contractions have their place for sure, but, they will not provide what most people are looking for. Those types of exercises should be done in these situations:

• In addition to our full range of motion exercises. 
• As a drop set, burnout set or cluster set.
• At the end of a strength training session.
• On a recovery day or low volume/intensity day.

I want more people to understand the type of exercise they are getting themselves into. Many exercises classes market themselves as one thing, but in reality, another thing is really going on. Meaning, you can't market yourself as a strength training class when you are elevating member's heart rates at 150 BPM's (beats per minute) for 10 straight minutes, that is NAHT strength training people, that would be more cardiovascular training. You also can't market yourself as a strength training class when MOST of the class consists of one position on an apparatus (think planking) or 1/4 rep booty exercises (think Suzanne Somers), those would be more plyometric based classes. Still great forms of exercise, just not going to give you the end result you want!

The SAID Principle in Strength & Conditioning states:

"Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand" - what type of training (demand) is your body undertaking and what type of result (adaptation) will come out of it.  

-Essentials of Strength & Conditioning 

Take your muscles through a full range of motion. Use proper form. Get stronger and build muscle over time. 👍🏻