You know the saying, "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link"?
Well, that's true in weight lifting as well. You're only as strong as your weakest range of motion.
For almost any lift, the weakest point is the beginning of the lift # when the bar is against your chest for the bench, when your arms are straight for a curl, when your legs are most bent for a squat, etc.
There are 2 factors that make these sections of your ROM (range of motion) weak: leverage and muscle fiber activation.
On the one hand, your body won't activate all your muscle fibers at these extremes of your range... and it does this because, from a physics standpoint, at those extremes, you're most likely to break something (tendon, joint, ligament) if you applied the maximum force.
The problem is that the way to stimulate muscle growth is by activating as many muscle fibers as possible with the highest weight possible.
So, here's the solution...
It's surpsingly simple:
Don't lift in the weakest part of your range of motion. In other words, start your lift where you're already strong.
For a bench press, this means starting at the half-way point or even higher. For a curl, same thing.
The easiest way to do this is using a squat rack or a Smith machine, where you can set the safety pins so that the bar can't go further down than this new starting point for your lift.
For example, position a bench in a squat rack. Bend your arms as if you're 1/2 way through a bench press. Put the safety bars at that point. Rest the weight bar on top of the safety bars and load it with weight.
And here's where it gets fun. You'll probably be able to add 50-100% more weight to the bar immediately. If your previous best bench press was 200 pounds, don't be suprised if you can do 300 when you start in the strong range.
Now you might already be thinking, "What if I start even higher, like at the VERY END of my range of motion?"
Great question.
You'll be able to lift even more weight!
And this isn't just like a magic trick. Lifting this much weight, even at extremely short ranges of motion, produces better results than full-range. The extra weight puts greater demands on your neuromuscular system, causing greater response from the body.
The only problem with this type of training is that as you start using greater and greater weights, you spend more and more time taking them on and off the bar, which can be quite time consuming as well as dangerous (easy to drop a 45 lb. plate on your foot when you've just moved 10 of them and aren't paying attention). Even more, for some exercises, like the leg press, you'll probably run out of weights in your gym! Seriously, many people can leg press over 1,500 pounds in that last bit of their range of motion, and most gyms can't handle that amount of weight.
One solution for both of those problems is the 1-Rep Gym, an isometric exercise machine designed for this type of workout. It's highly recommended for saving time, getting a 100% accurate measurement of the maximum amount of "weight" you're lifting, plus it's safe and fast.
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