Why locking out and using a full range of motion can be crippling!

Why locking out and using a full range of motion can be crippling!

Remember you read it here first. Locking out and a full range of motion
could be the reason for most injuries over time. First question, when you
walk do you lock out at the knee with every movement? Second question,
do you walk using a full range of motion?

When you stand do you stand knees locked? When you walk are your
elbows locked or do they have a slight bend?

I have been training for over 30 years and have had my share of soreness,
and injuries. My injuries always came from the traditional way of exercise,
doing what everyone else did. Take heavy squats for example. Squat down
stand back up and lock the knee until you are ready to do the next one.

This pressure on the knee will cause knee problems in the long road. Take
two exercises I love, dips and pushups. For some reason everyone thinks
that if you are not going below parallel you are doing the exercise incorrectly.

Doing dips and going below parallel becomes a shoulder ripper, meaning
the lower you go the more you stretch the better chance of a torn muscle
and a great chance of strains that will keep you from training.

I got away from all that crazy “What everyone else does philosophy” and
started doing what is right for my body and for long term physical fitness
and health. And when I started training more explosive or with more speed
and not locking completely out or going beyond parallel my body healed
got stronger and my muscles got harder.

A benefit from coming just short of locking out is the muscles stay under
tension longer the longer the muscle can stay under tension the stronger
it will get. Muscle kept under tension will strengthen quicker and build
a body not as likely to be injured.

Try not going below parallel try not locking out and keep the muscle
under tension longer and feel the difference in your joints and the
rest of the body.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

Comments

  1. David Meyer says

    Great advice! I think I am totally not locking out any more, but I think I have been going below parallel probably on every rep. I just did 150 pushups and 150 squats for my lunch break and I think I did them going below parallel. Thanks for adding that in there. I will focus on that from now on when I do pushups.

    Let me know if the same is true for pullups and chinups. I watched this video on how to do a perfect chinup/pullup and they said keeping the neck neutral was extremely important, but they did lock out their elbows on every rep.

    This way of training just makes me feel so much stronger I want to make sure I do it correctly so I can get the most out of it. Yesterday I mowed lawn with a backup with 50lbs in it. Great workout.

  2. This is my thoughts exactly. For example, when doing pullups I go just before lock out but not all the way. I deffinatly agree with the tension increase.

  3. Unquestionably consider that that you stated. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the net the easiest thing to keep in mind of. I say to you, I definitely get irked even as people think about worries that they plainly don’t know about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the highest as smartly as defined out the entire thing without having side-effects , folks can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

  4. Maybe not locking out increases time under tension and prevents you from putting to much stress on your joints thus not injuring them but, It still has a great down fall.

    When you don’t lockout you aren’t putting stress on your joints therefore they will never get stronger. NEither will your ligaments or your tendons. The reason why you suffer from locking out is because you don’t let your cartilage (tendons, ligaments, and joints) recover properly in between workouts.

    You cartilage takes much longer to recover than your muscles do because they don’t have as much blood circulation. If you have week cartilage you will be week and you won’t have applicable strength because when you will try to use your muscles in a real life situation, your cartilage will be too weak to support the strength of your muscles therefore you won’t be able to use your muscles.

    Consume a lot of vitamin C and talk to an experienced climber because they always deal with cartilage problems and they can help.

  5. Push ups without full range of motion, I do those, attacking each rep fast as a machine gun.

  6. Robert Donald Boggs says

    This is a great post, one of your best ever.

Speak Your Mind

*