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Home » Bodybuilding News » Experts Were WRONG About Maximizing Muscle Growth (Sort Of)

Experts Were WRONG About Maximizing Muscle Growth (Sort Of)

New research rewrites the playbook on building muscle — kinda.

Written by Jake Dickson, NASM-CPT, USAW-L2
Last updated on September 26th, 2024

Everybody hates Jeff Nippard. At least, that’s the premise of the bodybuilder and content creator’s latest social media outing.

  • By his own admission, Nippard has drawn criticism over the last year for his full-throated endorsement of long-length partials as the optimal pathway to muscle growth.

Recent scientific research conducted by leading sport science experts and with assistance from Nippard himself asked, and then answered, the question that’s been plaguing the minds of gym bros: 

Are long-length partials actually that much better for building muscle, even if you have gym experience? As it turns out, no, not really. 

[Related: Best Pre-Workout Supplements for Bodybuilding]

Maximizing Muscle Growth With Long-Length Partials

“I’ve been on record for at least a year saying that the stretched part of a lift is more important than the contracted part,” Nippard said on Sep. 24, 2024. 

He’s referring to the portion of an exercise’s range of motion in which the working muscle is fully lengthened rather than fully contracted — think of the bottom and the top parts of a biceps curl. 

“Most of the studies I reference that show the benefit of the stretch have been on untrained lifters,” Nippard continued. You can find those five studies here:

  • Greater Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy After Partial Range of Motion Training Performed at Long Muscle Lengths
  • Muscular adaptations and insulin-like growth factor-1 responses to resistance training are stretch-mediated
  • Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths
  • Training in the Initial Range of Motion Promotes Greater Muscle Adaptations Than at Final in the Arm Curl
  • Elbow Joint Angles in Elbow Flexor Unilateral Resistance Exercise Training Determine Its Effects on Muscle Strength and Thickness of Trained and Non-trained Arms

[Related: Best Creatine Supplements for Muscle Growth]

As Nippard tells it, he’s received criticism for doubling down on this muscle growth technique despite most of the available studies having used untrained participants. 

  • “Newbie” lifters are at their all-time ripest for muscle growth and respond strongly to nearly any stimulus; how, then, can Nippard say long-length partials work the best for hypertrophy? 

That’s the gist of the issue, and that’s what Nippard teamed up with leading researchers to tackle.

Muscle Growth From Long-Length Partials: Underwhelming? 

Nippard co-authored a study (1) with Drs. Milo Wolf, Patroklos Androulakis Korakakis, Brad Schoenfeld, and several other clinicians — basically an Avengers roster of muscle growth scientists. 

What They Did

  • Thirty participants with five years’ experience in the gym were recruited to perform lengthened partials for one side of their bodies and full-range-of-motion bodybuilding exercises on the other side for eight weeks.

Nippard: “This was a strongly-designed study, since we used a within-subject design.” Essentially, because the clinicians observed side-to-side changes within each individual they recruited, rather than comparing folks against each other, genetic outliers in the cohort couldn’t sway the overall results. 

What They Found

  • After two months, the full-range-of-motion side of each participant’s body grew 6.6%, while the side that used long partials grew 5.9%. 

Nippard: “These results didn’t reach statistical significance. You need to account for random errors, genetics, and variability. If the difference isn’t big enough, we can’t score it as an actual difference.” 

Initially, Nippard was stumped and seemed a little disheartened by the results of his study. However, he ultimately took a glass-half-full perspective: 

  • “If I can get the same muscle growth results from doing half the range of motion, that’s pretty sweet.” 
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jeff Nippard (@jeffnippard)

[Related: Best Supplements for Bodybuilding Workouts]

Muscle Growth: The Big Picture

Do long-length partials live up to their own reputation? Based solely on Nippard’s study, they don’t seem to be. However, the lengthened partials technique remains one of the most innovative ways to approach bodybuilding in recent years, and most evidence-based fitness gurus, Nippard included, still endorse it. 

One study, even if conducted by some of the leading minds in strength science, shouldn’t upend the entire landscape. Nippard’s pivot cautions us against putting all our eggs in one basket — if long-length partials aren’t your cup of tea, you probably aren’t missing out on muscle growth. 

More Bodybuilding News

  • Jay Cutler’s Top 10 Bodybuilding Tips of All Time
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Favorite Calf Exercise Was Super Weird, but It Worked
  • Frank Zane’s 1,000-Rep Ab Workout Explained

References

  1. Wolf, Milo & Androulakis-Korakakis, Patroklos & Piñero, Alec & Mohan, Adam & Hermann, Tom & Augustin, Francesca & Sappupo, Max & Lin, Brian & Coleman, Max & Burke, Ryan & Nippard, Jeff & Swinton, Paul & Schoenfeld, Brad. (2024). Lengthened Partial Repetitions Elicit Similar Muscular Adaptations as a Full Range of Motion During Resistance Training in Trained Individuals. 10.51224/SRXIV.455. 

Featured Image: @jeffnippard / Instagram

About Jake Dickson, NASM-CPT, USAW-L2

Jake is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a B.S. in Exercise Science. He began his career as a weightlifting coach before transitioning into sports media to pursue his interest in journalism.

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