Posted: April 14, 2024 at 8:01 am
Following up on the email from earlier this week, here are a few examples of ROM on some common exercises:
SQUATS: Getting the crease of your hip lower than the top of your knee in the bottom position. In simple terms it’s basically getting your own butt lower than your knees. Some people can get quite a bit lower than that while maintaining excellent form. Speaking in generalities, it is easiest to achieve this depth with good form with goblet squats, then after that Zercher squats, it starts to become difficult to achieve with good form with back squats or front squats, and is incredibly difficult with an overhead squat (a barbell held over your head with two hands while you do the squat).
I strongly believe you will get WAY MORE benefit by achieving full ROM with good form even if the weight is a little lighter than you will with heavier weight and only partial ROM. For that reason I always use the order above for the people I train: goblet squats first, then if they hit a certain proficiency then Zerchers, and then maybe back squats at some point, but honestly for most people I never see the need to take them there.
BENCH PRESS: This one is pretty cut and dry, the barbell must physically touch your chest (or upper abdominals) on every rep; no contact means no rep. You should also lock your elbows at the top of every rep.
PUSH UPS: Your chest should be no more than a “tennis ball distance” from the floor at the bottom of each rep. In our gym we often use a barbell collar for this, since it is the same size as a tennis ball and will not roll away. Like the bench press, you should lock your elbows and protract your shoulder blades at the top of each rep. This is a pretty bad habit a lot of people have, where they really short change the top of the range of motion (their elbows are still bent).
LUNGES OR SPLIT SQUATS: Your back knee needs to touch the ground on every rep.
CHIN UPS / PULL UPS: The bare minimum that is acceptable is for your entire jaw to clear the bar at the top. Really what you should be striving for is your T-shirt to touch the bar at the top of each rep – and no cheating by wearing a turtleneck for your next chin up workout. Also, at the bottom of each rep your elbows need to be completely locked. This is one of the biggest culprits of people using a partial ROM in order to “get more reps” … they neither go all the way up or all the way down.
If you have not already been thinking of these things during your workouts, I hope you find these guidelines helpful.
-Tony
