When I Life Weights, Do I Have To Full Extend My Arm?

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EddieRanger

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I'm 20, and I have really skinny arms [and body], so I'm trying to gain some muscle with weight lifting. I'm having a bit of a hard time lifting a measly 25 lbs. Do you have to fully extend your arm when lifting? I try to do at least 20. I can barely hit it with one arm, but the other can only do around 13-15. Then I don't fully extend my arm, and only go about half way, and I can do a little but more. Is lifting half way as effective?

I'm really not an expert on lifting. Can anyone give me any tips to help me out? Thanks.
 
LIFT Weights! Not "Life"
 
If you're trying to gain muscle, then 20reps is a bit high for your goal. Most people advocate somewhere around 8-12 reps to build muscle...personally, I tend more to recommend single-digit rep rangers most of the time.

To answer your question, no, a partial rep is not as effective as a full rep. Both have different effects. You haven't mentioned which exercise it is you're performing, which is slightly problematic for us, but in any case, don't do with one side what you can't/don't do with the other side. So if you can only get 3/4 reps on one side, you do that side first, then stop at that number of reps on the other side.
 
As what Goldfish said:- for a beginner 8-12 reps should be efficient, doing the same number of reps on each arm. 3 sets of 10 would be ideal to start with.

Post out your current routine so we can help you out with it.

Also post out an average daily diet, as eating is the number 1 factor which will determine how much/fast you progress.

And yes for now i would use full range of motion in your lifts, half reps have their place - but not for a beginner.
 
I do bicep curls.

As for my diet, I'm not really on any specific diet. I eat 3 to 4 times a day. I drink a lot of iced tea which I have to cut back on, and I don't drink enough water, which I'm trying to change.

I'm really new to this whole thing, and don't know much about what to do and what not to do.
 
EddieRanger said:
I do bicep curls.

As for my diet, I'm not really on any specific diet. I eat 3 to 4 times a day. I drink a lot of iced tea which I have to cut back on, and I don't drink enough water, which I'm trying to change.

I'm really new to this whole thing, and don't know much about what to do and what not to do.
Click to expand...

Well sorry to tell you mate (if this is serious) just doing bicep curls with a **** diet will probably put you 1/8th of an inch on your arms and that will be as far as you will ever go.

Look in the stickys in the weight training section on traning & diet.

You need to work your WHOLE body (LEGS, chest, back, shoulders, arms, abs) do you have access to a gym? If not what equipment do you have?

You NEED a lot of protein to grow, never mind the calories, carbs and fats...

Do some research mate :)
 
I don't have the money to go to a gym. I don't really have equipment either. I just use random things around my house, or outside to exercise.
 
Your talking about bicept curls. I'd say no don't fully extend but do extend as far as you can without locking. You use more muscles to do this and so train more muscles. You can vary the curl and do this without fuly extending but I don't think you'd get as much of the benefit as fewer muscles would be involved.
 
plus there are a ton of exercises that you can do that require only your body, pushups, situps, squats, burpees, running, etc. not having equipment or a gym membership is not excuse not to workout. and big idiot is right. monitor your diet and pack on some protein.

if you want more ideas for workouts, google Army Physical Fitness. all of the exercises they do in their basic training is using only your body, no weights, no gyms.
 
All I have are some weights, and that's basically it. I use my closet door for pull ups, ha. I'll look into the Army fitness stuff.
 
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