New research rewrites the playbook on building muscle — kinda.
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.
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:
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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.
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%.
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.”
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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.
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References
- 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
