Ep 307 - Are Lengthened Partials Overrated?
Iron Culture presented by MASS
The MASS Crew
4.8 • 874 Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2024
⏱️ 97 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Iron Culture presented by MASS, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Eric Helms explore the science and debate surrounding lengthened partials, a training technique often celebrated for its hypertrophy and strength benefits. Drawing on recent studies, they discuss how emerging evidence challenges some hyperbolic claims of lengthened partials as a superior training method, suggesting instead that their effectiveness is highly context-dependent. The hosts advocate for viewing lengthened partials as a complementary, rather than revolutionary, tool in exercise programming. After the main discussion, the episode transitions into a series of listener questions, with Dr. Trexler sharing his renewed enthusiasm for training (and his current approach to training) as he recovers from surgery. The hosts also address topics like the importance of omega-3 intake during low-fat diets, the diminishing returns of high training volumes, practical applications of two-a-day training splits, and the impact of high-protein diets on digestive health, emphasizing fiber and dietary diversity. They also discuss caffeine's role in sleep disruption, underlining caffeine timing as an easy way to improve sleep quality, among many other topics.
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If you'd like to submit a question or topic for us to address on an upcoming episode, please use this link:
https://massresearchreview.com/office-hours/
Time stamps:
0:00 Intro music
2:30 Introduction to another episode of Iron Culture x MASS Office Hours
3:31 New pre-prints on lengthened partials
Gschneider 2024 The effects of lengthened-partial range of motionresistance training of the limbs on arm and thigh musclecross-sectional area: a multi-site cluster trial https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/485
Hinson 2024 Mixing Up Muscle Lengths: The Effects of Manipulating Peak Torque At Different Muscle Lengths in the Elbow Flexors https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/486
16:33 Helms' breakdown of the literature
Maeo 2023 Effects of hip extension training performed with full versus partial range of motion at long muscle lengths on muscle hypertrophy and sprint performance https://www.ecss.mobi/DATA/EDSS/C28/28-3269.pdf
Kassiano 2023 Greater Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy After Partial Range of Motion Training Performed at Long Muscle Lengths https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37015016/
Pedrosa 2022 Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33977835/
Werkhausen 2021 Adaptations to explosive resistance training with partial range of motion are not inferior to full range of motion https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33465838/
25:23 Live chat Q&A 1 An update on Trexler's training
33:26 Q&A 2 Omega-3 intake with low fat diets
36:54 Q&A 3 Quantifying volume and finding the sweet spot
Pelland 2024 The Resistance Training Dose-Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/460
43:25 Teasing the MASS research interpretation and statistics guide
54:37 Q&A 4 When to do two-a-days
58:05 Q&A 5 Digestive health with high protein diets
1:06:12 Q&A 6 Caffeine and sleep disruption
1:13:07 Rapid fire Q&A: efficiency tiers, kinetic chain, waking-up with earplugs, cross-fit athletes, Trex's injury and intervention, resistance profiles at different muscle lengths
Plotkin 2023 Hip thrust and back squat training elicit similar gluteus muscle hypertrophy and transfer similarly to the deadlift https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37877099/
Kobayashi 2024 Distinct hypertrophy of the elbow flexors after incline versus preacher dumbbell curl training https://www.ecss.mobi/DATA/EDSS/C29/29-1752.pdf
Zabaleta-Korta 2021 The role of exercise selection in regional Muscle Hypertrophy: A randomized controlled trial https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34743671/
Larsen 2024 Dumbbell versus cable lateral raises for lateral deltoid hypertrophy: an experimental study https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/487
1:32:37 Helms' objectivity from being a competitive bodybuilder and closing out
https://massresearchreview.com/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody. I am Eric Trexler. I am here with the good Dr. Eric Helms. This is office hours. No, this is Iron Culture, brought to you, presented by the mass research review, had a little bit of muscle memory, you know? It's like the lights camera action, all of a sudden |
| 0:21.9 | I'm talking about office hours. Of course, if you've been, if you're an OG, if you've been with us |
| 0:27.1 | for a while, you know, office hours is where this whole mass live stream thing started. Then it was |
| 0:33.0 | absolutely cannibalized in a corporate takeover by Iron Culture. Now the two have become one. |
| 0:40.8 | It's a beautiful pairing. And, you know, I got to be honest, I'm a little rusty. |
| 0:46.2 | You know, it's been a couple weeks since we did a live episode. We switched over to a whole |
| 0:50.7 | bunch of new technology right when we kind of merge the two shows. So |
| 0:55.5 | I'm lost here. I'm swimming, but I believe that we are broadcasting and we're going to do |
| 1:01.8 | our best to talk about fitness and science. But before we do that, Helms, we have some |
| 1:07.7 | orders of business. So one of the things I really like to talk about is length and |
| 1:15.6 | partials. That's established. This is an area of research that intrigues me. I'm very excited about it. |
| 1:23.2 | Um, I was almost kind of over research, you know, I kind of didn't, who cares at a certain point, |
| 1:32.1 | you know? That's where I went at. I was just like, let's just do what seems right and not really |
| 1:37.9 | worry about all the details. But then length and partials came along and I said, this is it. I remember |
| 1:43.9 | why I care about research and exercise. |
| 1:48.1 | Now, Helms, |
| 1:49.7 | a couple preprints coming out. |
| 1:53.1 | Yep. |
| 1:53.7 | That are not particularly glowing with regards to the life-changing effects of length and partials. |
| 2:03.7 | Now, this is probably not the time, place, or format for an in-depth review, |
| 2:08.6 | but I just want to tease this. |
| 2:10.4 | I want to push this to the center of the table to the training department of mass. |
... |
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