A few months ago I read an article in Muscle & Fitness that prescribed not using the full range of motion in heavy lifts such as the bench, squat, and deadlift with the result being the ability to move more weight quicker. It suggested instead to do “partial movements”. A partial movement per this particular article generally started in a power rack. Partial movements rely on the use of the safeties in the rack. In a normal heavy movement exercise you would start at the top of the range of movement, then work through a negative movement towards the bottom, and then explode back to the top of the movement and final resting place. In a partial movement pretty much everything is reversed. You start the weight on the safeties at the bottom of the normal movement, explode to the top of the movement, and then work through the negative range to the resting place. Then you remove all stress from your muscles for a brief moment and start again.
With the bench press for example, rather than starting at the top of the exercise with the bar resting in its normal position, you would instead place the bar on the safeties just below the top of the movement (say 6-10” lower). This removes the negative movement that you are usually forced to deal with in the beginning and instead allows you to focus on the upward pressing movement first. You would press the bar up as high as you can go and lower the bar all the way back down to the safeties. Then take your hands off the bar for a moment. That is one full rep. This is a very small range of motion. You still perform as many reps as you normally would but with this brief rest at the end of each movement. And because you are only doing the top portion of the full movement you are actually able to move a LOT MORE WEIGHT.
As the amount of weight that you are able to push for a small partial movement increases you can start from a lower and lower position. This increases the distance that you are moving the weight but also adds range of motion to your over all movement. This means that you are training more of your muscles for the given movement. Eventually you will get to the bottom of the movement (which is usually the sticking point) with the increased weight. Once you do you can start to train the movement in the traditional style. You should see huge improvements.
This works well for deadlifts, squats, and benches. I am sure there are applications for this in other movements but these three are the ones I have tried so far. And for all three I have seen huge improvements. I went from a meager 180lb bench press when I was getting back into things all the way up to my current 350lb bench. Same goes for my deadlift and my squat. My squat is now up to 385 (ran out of weight!).
Here is a good article to explain this concept further: http://www.criticalbench.com/partial_weight_training.htm