Whenever we make any movements throughout our lives, whether it be on our playing field, court or in our daily lives, we tend to generate power and strength in specific ranges of motion where we have the most leverage. Any jumps come from relatively minimal knee bends compared to traditional back squats, a basketball player getting in a defensive position is relatively upright with minimal knee bends, and an offensive lineman attempts to block with relatively extended arms, all positions of leverage and strength. So why then do all of our strength programs center around large, energy consuming ranges of motion that aren’t utilized and potentially take away chuncks of the gains we’re trying to make in the weight room as athletes?

Understanding Biomechanics and Leverage

Each of us have optimal positions of strenght that allow us to efficiently and optimally use all of the potential stored in our muscles. As we move past these optimal positions referred to at Change Performance as “The Strong Range“, we lose large percentages of our true strength, allowing our energy and therefore strength to dissipate in the form of friction. Think of picking something up. If we’re tasked with picking up a large box directly from the ground, it can be a daunting and energy-consuming task to get it up off the floor. But if that box is placed two feet of the ground and were able to center ourselves udnerneath it with a more minimal knee bend, it’s a much easier task. This is shown in a 2012 study published by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research where partial range of motions were shown to have substantially increased peak forces and powers when applied to barbell back squats (Drinkwater et al. 2012). While we may need some of these large ranges of motion at times in everyday lives in order to do things like lift heavy objects outside of our optimal leverages, when we take a look at athletics it can be noted that the VAST majority of performance comes within the Strong Range of our capabilites.

Where are Athletics Played From?

When we take a look at the angles and ranges that are performed throughout the large majority of sports movements, we can find common ground. Any jumping movements are done with minimal knee angles that allow us to use the majority of our muscular contractions and help us get off the ground. Any sprints are done with very short angles of the knee that allow the hamstrings to pull us forward without wasting energy. A basketball player sliding to play defense remains largely upright to maintain speed. Baseball players rotate just enough to gather energy and power when hitting a ball, but not so much that energy is consumed. We see it time and time again across athletics, and yet strength programs continue to incorporate these large, weak, ranges of motion that allow energy to dissipate into friction thereby decreasing the force and power applied during movements. Imagine trying to jump or slide in the same angle you were to do a traditional backsquat from. To sprint in a crouched stance that mimics that of a traditional split squat. These traditional movements are wasting large amount of energy and aren’t directly correlational to the positions we find ourselves in in sports. Athletics are after force production and power, and it’s been proven that these Strong Ranges elicit significantly more power and forces on the body.

Rejuvination of the Strong Range

Anybody that’s performed a maximal back squat, lowering to parrallel and having to squeeze every last inch out knows the feeling of complete bodily fatigue that accomponies these types of lifts. Going past our optimal ranges of leverage is straining and draining. It’s the range where energy is consumed and global fatigue is created. While no method of training is easy, achieving success and developement is a diffcult process that can be taxing and painful at times, training in the strong range leaves the body with energy reserves that don’t cause overstrain of the body’s nervous and adrenal systems.

A Potential Critique of the Strong Range

An unconvenetional appraoch to lifting that isn’t commonly practiced will always be looked at with inquisition, but this shouldn’t prevent athletes from experimenting outside of the box to find programs and concepts that allow them to make adaptations. Implementing the Strong Range concept will surely be looked at with question, but I urge athlete’s to approach the idea with an open mind to see how your body responds. A common criticism of the Strong Range is that athletes may find themselves outside of this range during competition. Whenever possible athletes remain in the Strong Range for optimal movement, but what happens when we end up outside of this range on landings and misteps, or contact throws us out of balance? Is this not the positilon we find ourselves vulnerable for injury, and if not properly trained make us susceptible for sprains and strains? Studies have proved that training in the Strong Range incorporates strength through the entire range of motion ,however, and not just the shorter Strong Range. In a 2004 study published by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a group of subjects were split into groups each performing a bench press in different ranges of motion, partial or full. After 10 weeks the findings “Suggest that partial range of motion training can positively influence the development of maximal strength” (Massey et al. 2004). By making adaptations in the Strong Range and increasing performance in the range competition is played in, there have been proven adaptations in longer ranges of movement, maintaining strength in more injury susceptible positions and limiting injury.

How to Incorproate the Strong Range

Change Performance’s Strong Range Program implements these principles in combination with different plyometric and speed exercises in order to create powerful and explosive athletes in their playing positions. Featuring demonstrations of the different strong ranges, set and repetition guidelines, and a plan for athletic developement, implementing the strong range principles into your program can maximize the developements that your previous programs have been limiting.

Works Cited

Drinkwater, Eric J.; Moore, Norman R.; Bird, Stephen P. Effects of Changing from Full Range of Motion to Partial Range of Motion on Squat Kinetics. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 26(4):p 890-896, April 2012. | DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e318248ad2e

Massey, C Dwayne et al. “An analysis of full range of motion vs. partial range of motion training in the development of strength in untrained men.” Journal of strength and conditioning research vol. 18,3 (2004): 518-21. doi:10.1519/13263.1