Starting Strength

so, and would be aided by the other muscles that establish the arched position on the bench. The lats contribute to the bench press, but they don’t do it by making the bar go up, because they can’t. They just help keep the chest up, a very important function, as we have seen ( Figure 5-18 ).

    Figure 5-18. The latissimus dorsi and its contribution to the bench press. The lats cannot make the bar go up, but they are quite capable of reinforcing the chest-up position that is so important for mechanical efficiency.

    A common problem that could be considered chest-related is the failure to touch the chest with the bar at the bottom of every rep. Sometimes this is accidental, if you intend to touch but miss. If this is the case, you’ll get it on the next rep, and the error will happen accidentally only the first couple of times you bench. But don’t play games with the weight on the bar by failing to do a complete rep on purpose. It is, after all, easier to move a load a shorter distance than a longer distance, and when you cut it short, you are just lifting more weight at the expense of moving the bar through the whole range of motion. Work equals the force of gravity acting on the barbell multiplied by the vertical distance the barbell moves. If, over the course of three months’ training, the barbell doubles in weight but is traveling only half the distance it did on the first day of training, the work has stayed the same and you have wasted three months on training a partial ROM.
    Sometimes a partial bench press may be done on purpose. There is a school of thought that justifies the use of less than a full range of motion by claiming that the pecs stop contributing to the movement when the humerus reaches a 90-degree angle with the forearm. (This same “analysis” requires an above-parallel squat because the quads supposedly stop contributing when the femur gets to 90 degrees with the tibia.) The problem with this model is that full-range-of-motion, multi-joint exercises are not supposed to isolate any one muscle. We use them precisely because they don’t do that. We want these exercises to train lots of muscles through a long range of motion. We like it when some muscles are called into function as other muscles drop out of function, and when muscles change their function during an exercise. This is because we are training for strength, to increase the force we produce in a big, general movement pattern ; we are not training a “favorite muscle.” We are not concerned with our favorite muscles. We do not have favorite muscles.
    The use of the full range of motion is therefore important for two very good reasons. First, it allows you to quantify the amount of work you do: if you hold the range of motion of an exercise constant, you are holding constant the distance variable in your work equation. Then, if the force you can exert on the load increases (if you lift more weight), you know that your work has increased for a given number of reps. You know you’re moving the weight the same distance, and the weight is heavier, so you know you’re stronger. You can therefore compare performances, both between lifters and between your own workouts over time. If you touch your chest with the bar every time you bench, progress – or lack thereof – can be assessed. This principle obviously applies to every exercise with a prescribed range of motion.
    Second, full-range-of-motion exercises ensure that strength is developed in every position in which the joints can operate. Strength development is extremely specific: muscles get strong in the positions they are made to be strong in, and in precisely the way they are trained. And motion around a joint is usually composed of the functions of several muscles working together in changing relationships as the movement progresses. For instance, a quadriceps muscle worked through 30 degrees of its range of motion on a leg extension machine will adapt to this training by improving its ability to function in that 30 degrees of motion. The muscle will not get much stronger anywhere else in its range. And all the other muscles involved in a squat don’t have a chance to get strong if it is performed through a short ROM, where only the quads work and the other muscles don’t get called upon to do much. If we want to prepare an athlete to use his legs for a sport where he might be called upon to use them in a variety of positions, then he must train through a full range of