To the lifters out there... constant tension or full range of motion?

Discussion in 'Fitness, Health & Nutrition' started by Incommision, Feb 7, 2014.

  1. So by all means I'm not an expert on this, in fact I'd still consider myself a beginner with only a year of inconsistent training... however I've been going consistently for two months now and I recently renewed my membership for a year so I'm thinking things are going well.
     
    However, besides that I have question for all of you and I'm thinking for hardcore lifters it's going to be one sided. I recently fell into the fad of ''constant tension'' where you simply don't use the full range of motion and instead use somewhat of a half range and basically don't stop the motion. So for example I was working chest today and I actually fucked my shoulder up a couple years ago in soccer so it's more difficult for me to use the full range of motion and I found that it's easier for me overall. But, this huge guy came over to me and this is the first time I've ever gotten ''gym advice'' but he was REALLY nice about it but this is basically what he said:
     
    It's absolutely fine to NOT use full range of motion, however when you may be putting up three plates on each side with the bench press using ''constant tension'' it's going to be hard as fuck if you ever decided to try it using full range of motion, he's been going to the gym for 20+ years and this is a fairly big guy so I decided to give full range of motion a try despite the shoulder, for now I can't put up as much weight as I could using ''constant tension'' however after my workout I had the biggest pump on my chest I've ever seen so despite me having to use less weight, so for now I'll definitely stick with full range of motion.
     
    Your thoughts? Also, I may start a log on here tracking workouts/eating habits/etc...

     
  2. Form over weight bro.. 
     
    I have NEVER heard of constant tension and I've been working out for over a year, straight bodybuilding routine. When you don't do the exercise correctly and you don't use your whole range of motion you're not working your muscles as good, which explains the pump that you had.
     
    If benching is a problem bc of your shoulder, either use lighter weight and build up to heavier when you get over the pain, or do dumbbell press.
     
  3. Apples and oranges brah.

    Machines usually= constant tension

    free weights= full ROM


    And yeah form over weight. I.e.You can get better results from benching 200lbs with perfect form compared to shitty form with 230lbs..
     
  4. Oh yeah I forgot to add. A bodybuilder usually uses machines for isolation exercises to really hit a specific muscle(s).
     
  5. Proper form is more important than anything else in the gym. 
     
    Always do full range of motion, if you can't you need to drop down in weight.
     
  6. Only do "half lifts" to train sticking points. IE, bench lockout. Full range of motion otherwise - form is key to progress in lifts.
     
  7. Depends on the exercise. Some are meant to apply constant tension (as someone said before, a lot of machines apply this principle), while some require a full range of motion to get the benefits. 
     
    When it comes to the bench press, its necessary to have a full range of motion to really work the muscles (pectorals, that is). The bench press is really just a reversed push up, and a push up is done by going all the way down to the floor then back up to fully extended arms. Hope it helped. 
     
  8. i like to do nice, slow and controlled full range, decent form, in as many awkward and difficult horrible exercises i can, when you do this and going well at it you have the foundation to do whatever kinda shit you wanna do then. but thats just how i see weight training im more about practical strength and difficult shit then just mass
     

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