To what degree (if any) does the strength gain from partial ROM exercises carry over into full ROM exercises? This issue has caused some debate at my gym.
When training on partials you have to include the full range motion as well as far as I know.
I seem to recall reading that partial reps carry over to movement within ~15 degrees of the ROM used.
It depends on the person. People respond differently. Generally, there are 2 groups of people: Type G and Type S. A Type G person responds to exercise in a general manner; in other words, they can show an increase in strength in areas of the ROM that were not even trained (partial reps can be helpful to these people). A Type S person responds to exercise in a specific manner, that is, they show results only in the worked area (partials reps are not as useful to these people). About 80% of the population are Type S people and 20% Type G.
What you have to consider is that partials improve strength in that range of motion and about 10-15 degrees either side of that range, therefor it will depend on the range of the partial. Personally I feel that small ROM’s will not carry over to full range of motions well, but partials that are only slighlty short of full ROM will provide significant improvements. Having said this I haven’t looked too closley at the scientific literature, so my input is somewhat specualative.
Physiologically the carryover is around 15% but what a lot of people neglect is the psychological factor of getting your body used to heavier weights. The mind is so important in lifting if you do a heavy cycle of partial bench presses or lockouts than your normal bench press weight (or any exercise) tends to feel a lot lighter and easier afterwards and this psychological or nervous sytem potentiating factor can a lot of times boost strength. Anyone wanting to try this out can simple work up close to a 1rm in any exercise and then add 20-50% more weight and do either an 8 second isometric hold or 1/4 reps. Rack the weight lower back down to 1rm rest 3-5 minutes and attempt the same 1rm again or add more weight to it. Most of the time it will immediately show an increase in strength