Is “constant tension training” the new rage in strength training?

There’s always someone in the gym doing something strange enough to make you pause between sets. You may have seen it: guys curling but never extending, pressing but never locking out, squatting without ever breaking parallel. At first glance, it looks like bad form or lazy lifting – but watch closely, and you’ll notice it’s deliberate.

As a certified fitness professional, I’ve been trained to teach and practice full range of motion (ROM) exercises as the foundation of effective strength and hypertrophy training. The standard protocol for muscle development includes full eccentric and concentric control — that is, controlling both the lowering and lifting phases of a movement. That means deep squats, full extensions, and proper control through every rep. So when I started seeing otherwise serious lifters consistently avoiding full ranges, I had questions.

What is partial range of motion training really about?
This growing trend is often referred to as constant tension training or partial range hypertrophy work. The concept is simple: avoid the endpoints of a lift to keep the muscle under unbroken tension. That might mean cutting out the lockout at the top of a bench press or avoiding the bottom stretch of a biceps curl. The key here is eliminating the mechanical “rest points” that naturally occur in a full ROM movement.

The goal? Maximize metabolic stress, create more microtrauma, and drive hypertrophic adaptation (muscle growth triggered by training stress) through time under tension rather than full-length mechanical work. Practitioners typically perform higher rep ranges within the shortened ROM, sometimes using slower tempos. Some also use this method to intentionally bias parts of the movement where they want to feel the most muscular burn or pump.

Where it came from and who’s doing it
This isn’t coming from powerlifting or athletic strength programs, it’s emerging from the bodybuilding world, especially among those influenced by social media figures and professional physique competitors from the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness. The style has roots in older bodybuilding strategies used by pioneers of physique training who emphasized muscle fatigue over mechanics. It’s seeing a resurgence thanks to popular bodybuilders and online coaches who promote constant tension isolation as a muscle-building hack.

You’ll also find it in circles that follow “mind-muscle connection” ideology — prioritizing how the muscle feels under load rather than how much range or weight is used. It’s less about training movements and more about fatiguing a muscle group to the edge of failure. Many of these lifters still include full ROM lifts elsewhere in their programs, but use partials to “finish off” a muscle or concentrate on specific fiber engagement.

When, if ever, it might make sense
While this approach goes against the traditional understanding of effective technique, it’s not entirely without merit in the right context. Advanced bodybuilders with already strong neuromuscular control may benefit from isolating parts of the range to overcome weak spots or to extend fatigue when full ROM is no longer possible. Rehab settings occasionally use restricted ROM to ease joint strain. And for some very experienced lifters, partials can serve as a variation to break plateaus or target lagging areas.

But it’s not for general use. For most lifters, particularly beginners and intermediates, skipping full range undermines functional strength, reduces joint integrity, and limits real-world carryover. And without meticulous control, it simply becomes bad form disguised as technique.

There’s nothing wrong with exploring new methods in strength training provided you know what you’re trading in the process. Full range of motion isn’t just tradition, it’s time-tested physiology. Strip it away, and you’d better have a very good reason.

Scotty