Range of Motion

[DougMan]

Bobo,

I was looking back at some of my emails I have sent you and I seem to ask a lot of specific questions about the range of motion for certain exercises. So I was hoping to get your idea on if a full range of motion should always be used.

Here are a couple arguments I have heard against full range of motion:

1. Injury - For instance I heard that full range of motion for preacher curls can hurt your elbows, and that full range of motion on bench press can blow out your shoulders. I would think given the TUT used and proper form this would not be an issue
2. less weight used. Taking Incline Barbell Bench press for an example, I have heard people argue that the very bottom of the motion doesnt work the chest, and you should only go X amount of degrees down[Where X is usually pretty arbitrary]. This would likely lead to more weight used as the bottom of the movement is the sometimes the sticking point.

I always go by what Milos Sarcev preaches, which is partial range of motion leads to partial results.

This is for sure an open ended question, because I know for some exercises like squats full range of motion is not an exact concept. I believe % of the work done by the gluteus muscles increases as you go below parallel. So if you are doing squats for quads/hams then full range of motion might just be parallel rather than ass to the grass.

I am inclined to say this is one of those questions where the answer is do whatever feel natural, but I was hoping to get some general guidance on it.