Power Partials are another extremely effective training tool for building muscle and gaining strength. It's also another training tool, like single rep training, or the 20 rep squat routine, that you rarely see used. Why is that? Because, despite the effectiveness of power partials in building muscle, they require a lot of hard work. Brutally hard. And most people don't want to pay that price. But if you're willing to work this routine, it will work for you. In order to train effectively with power partials, you'll need access to a power rack. Hopefully, your gym will have one. If you work out at home, I highly recommend you purchase a power rack. It will last a lifetime and allow you to do almost any free weight exercise without the need for a spotter. There are many ways you can incorporate power partials into your weight training routine. Let's take a look at three variations of this technique. 1) Perform power partials at the end of your full range set. Let's use the bench press as an example. Perform your normal set to failure and then continue the set by cranking out two or three partials at the top of your range of motion. For exercises like squats, bench press, and the seated press, you need to perform these in a power rack. Partials are quite easy to perform in safety on exercises like the lat pulldown. 2) Perform a set of heavy partials after your full range set. We'll use squats as the example this time. Do a couple of sets of 8 - 10 reps using your normal full range of motion. Then pile on 30 to 40 percent more weight on the bar. After a few minutes of rest, perofrm a set of top range partials, doing only the top one third to one quarter of the movement. 3) Do a set of heavy partials before your full range sets. This version allows you to use the most weight on your power partials. This version can do a great job of building muscle and strength at a fast rate. You'll want to build up with a couple of weeks of submaximum workouts. The reasoning is that by performing your partials before your full range sets you'll be using a lot more weight than you are used to. You don't want to risk injuring tendons and ligaments by using such extremely heavy weights without building up to them. You can also progress by training with partials in all three ways, in the order in which I've described them. This will give you a natural progression from the least to the most intense and the lightest to the heaviest weights. You need to be cautious. Big weights can mean big results but also big trouble if you don't pay attention to safety and good form. You can't go from using 150 pounds on the bench press one workout to using 250 pounds on the bench press the next workout. You need to build up to these weights. Done properly, power partials can be your ticket to bigger muscles and more strength. |
