What's up with the bros doing half-lifts

auticus

One thing I've never quite got but see often in the gym... the guys who load their bars down with a lot of weight and then proceed to do what I call "half-lifts". That means they basically go down a couple inches and then come back up. Some don't even bring their elbows down to a 90 degree angle, its that shallow of a drop before coming back up.

What is the point of this other than to load the bar down with a lot of weight and make it look like you can lift a lot? I played around with it and found I could "bench" a lot more weight because I wasnt' going down all the way but it doesn't seem like it would do anything.

wellbert

maybe doing specific ROM work.

JNick77

maybe doing specific ROM work.

Way to put a nice spin on things and be positive.

Generally speaking, the truth is that guys especially have huge ego's and think that they need to lift a ton of weight and/or they just don't know any better. They ignore proper form etc. Just yesterday there was this wanna be hard-*kitten* "working" two racks over. He loaded the bar with 135lbs picked it up off the floor, bounced the way off the floor, and used that force to get it up over his head where he attempted shoulder presses in which the eccentric didn't even bring the bar back down to his chin. First, if he knew how to clean the weight, that would've been a ton easier and secondly he was using too much weight to do a correct OHP. He stopped looking in my direction after I cranked out 5 good reps with 160lbs on my last set.

auticus

In doing some research, I cant really see a benefit of this. The only thing that I can see is that guys do this to give the illusion that they can lift more weight than they really should be lifting.

When I do half reps I don't feel like it has done anything. There are talks about specific area work but I don't see how that is doing anything to be honest.

I'll keep researching.

auticus

http://www.conanstevens.com/bodybuilding-and-muscle-gain/big-huge-muscle-the-secrets/the-truth-behind-half-reps.html

bokodasu

I think they're just not paying attention. There was a guy at my old gym, who, besides hogging up the bench picking his nose and then EATING THE BOOGERS*, would also pick up super-heavy weights and then proceed to "lift" them by moving them through maybe 10% of the range of the lift he was supposed to be doing. And then he'd complain that he wasn't getting results. It was pretty obvious that he'd been doing the same thing for so long he didn't even realize he was doing it, but the booger thing scared me too much so I never said anything.

Plus, yeah, ego. Everyone throws around their lift numbers, so alls they know is that they need a big number, and never learn why that number is meaningless without proper form.

*No, I can't talk about this guy without mentioning that. Sorry. Scarred for life.


edit:

http://www.conanstevens.com/bodybuilding-and-muscle-gain/big-huge-muscle-the-secrets/the-truth-behind-half-reps.html

- Ok, this was really helpful! My trainer has had me doing some partial bench presses to address a weak spot and he said not to do them unless he was spotting me. I didn't think too much about it, but this explains it.

n0ob

Ronnie Coleman is a dumbass and knows nothing about lifting...(joking off youtube vids where he does bench in a specific ROM with weights that I can't squat).

bagge72

Depends on what you are doing, and how you are doing it, I always went all the way down to my chest on bench press, and down to my nose on shoulder press, but once I injured my shoulder, and it wouldn't get better, my doctor recommended only go down to 90 degrees, so for the last 6 weeks that is what I've been doing, and my pain was pretty much gone until somebody screwed up while spotting me. I was talking to some other guys at the gym, and it is a difference of opinion really, some say that it is harder because you have to learn to stop at a certain point instead of just hitting your chest, and coming back up. I haven't noticed it be any easier, just a lot less stress on my shoulders. I think most people have bad form anyways, you aren't going to find a lot of people doing in the correct way with their shoulder blades pinched in, and their back arched, which also would make it a little easier, because you are shortening the distance you have to travel as well. I think people just really look for excuses to why somebody is lifting more than them.

bagge72

Depends on what you are doing, and how you are doing it, I always went all the way down to my chest on bench press, and down to my nose on shoulder press, but once I injured my shoulder, and it wouldn't get better, my doctor recommended only go down to 90 degrees, so for the last 6 weeks that is what I've been doing, and my pain was pretty much gone until somebody screwed up while spotting me. I was talking to some other guys at the gym, and it is a difference of opinion really, some say that it is harder because you have to learn to stop at a certain point instead of just hitting your chest, and coming back up. I haven't noticed it be any easier, just a lot less stress on my shoulders. I think most people have bad form anyways, you aren't going to find a lot of people doing in the correct way with their shoulder blades pinched in, and their back arched, which also would make it a little easier, because you are shortening the distance you have to travel as well. I think people just really look for excuses to why somebody is lifting more than them.

Oh and don't get me wrong I still feel kind of ridiculious doing them, but if it saves my shoulder I'm ok with that.

drmerc

Why do you care what other people are doing in the gym? Or do you just like watching men workout?

Otterluv

Sometimes I am between weights, the dumbbells go up at 5 lb intervals. So, 25 lbs is too light and 30 is too heavy to do a full press. But, using the 30's, if I don't take them all the way down (though way lower than half way) will work me a bit harder than the 25's will. I don't know that it's what those guys are doing, but it can provide that happy medium when working up a step. I'm a new lifter, and may not be doing it "right", but it's working, so whatever.

ironanimal

I saw a guy doing rope-grip pulldowns on the cable machine, which is fine.

What is not fine was his 1 inch ROM and the yelling as he did it.

Everyone, including me and the staff were shaking our heads and trying not to laugh at him. And when he laid down to do some dumbbell presses and sounded like he was giving birth to a baby elephant...

wareagle8706

People do half lifts because they don't know how to lift with the proper form. If they are packing on the 45 lb plates and going halfway down you know they need to take a couple of plates off and stop worrying about what people are going to think about them if they go lighter on the weight.

secretlobster

I think they're taunting you. You should fight them

FullOfWin

Might be working on lockout strength. I think advanced guys usually do that with power rack lockouts though.

JustJennie1

I saw a guy doing rope-grip pulldowns on the cable machine, which is fine.

What is not fine was his 1 inch ROM and the yelling as he did it.

Everyone, including me and the staff were shaking our heads and trying not to laugh at him. And when he laid down to do some dumbbell presses and sounded like he was giving birth to a baby elephant...

There's a guy at my gym that does this. The funnier part is that I lift more than he does.

Chief_Rocka

Ronnie Coleman is a dumbass and knows nothing about lifting...(joking off youtube vids where he does bench in a specific ROM with weights in which loading the bar would constitute my workout).

Fixed.

On a serious note, many people start off with a decent ROM, but form degrades over time as they add weight/reps that they're not quite ready to handle.

wareagle8706

Depends on what you are doing, and how you are doing it, I always went all the way down to my chest on bench press, and down to my nose on shoulder press, but once I injured my shoulder, and it wouldn't get better, my doctor recommended only go down to 90 degrees, so for the last 6 weeks that is what I've been doing, and my pain was pretty much gone until somebody screwed up while spotting me. I was talking to some other guys at the gym, and it is a difference of opinion really, some say that it is harder because you have to learn to stop at a certain point instead of just hitting your chest, and coming back up. I haven't noticed it be any easier, just a lot less stress on my shoulders. I think most people have bad form anyways, you aren't going to find a lot of people doing in the correct way with their shoulder blades pinched in, and their back arched, which also would make it a little easier, because you are shortening the distance you have to travel as well. I think people just really look for excuses to why somebody is lifting more than them.

Oh and don't get me wrong I still feel kind of ridiculious doing them, but if it saves my shoulder I'm ok with that.

I only go down to 90 degrees on shoulder press anyway, I feel like if you go down further you're going to "rest" and not keeping your muscles engaged...

IronSmasher

"Some of their rules can be bent, Others can be broken"

Although, it always seems to be partial rep day for some guys.

Mutant13

Most of the time they probably aren't checking their ego at the door.

That being said, Ill sometimes lose form or range on my last rep of a set, but I'd rather attempt it and come up goofy then not do it at all

auticus

Why do you care what other people are doing in the gym? Or do you just like watching men workout?

I'm sorry I forgot this is MFP. We should be talking about our "V" and if the poster above us is hot not about silly things like if something is bad form or finding out if there is a point to what I initially perceive as just an ego thing without any real benefit but hoping someone can enlighten me otherwise. My bad. Carry on.

vjohn04

Why do you care what other people are doing in the gym? Or do you just like watching men workout?

LOL!

kairisika

What is the point of this other than to load the bar down with a lot of weight and make it look like you can lift a lot?

Nothing else. You got it.
I unfortunately go to the gym at a university. It's 80% these folks.

JNick77

Ronnie Coleman is a dumbass and knows nothing about lifting...(joking off youtube vids where he does bench in a specific ROM with weights that I can't squat).

Ronnie Coleman is awesome. But show me one of the fools that this thread is referring to that looks like Ronnie Coleman and I'll show you my limited edition Ferrari that I magically afford with a 5-digit salary. LOL

Might be working on lockout strength. I think advanced guys usually do that with power rack lockouts though

Again, you can tell the difference between a smart lifter that's doing floor or pin presses (for instance) and some guy that wants to throw heavy weight around.

I personally only care when that clueless person is taking up a rack that I would like to use or is shooting me hard looks for no good reason.

Bakkasan

From what I see in the gym it's about 90% fail and 10% intentional ROM work.

JNick77

From what I see in the gym it's about 90% fail and 10% intentional ROM work.

^^