ROM, weight, and volume: what is actually important?

After my neck injury in 2021, I found myself completely unable to pull with my left arm. Given I was never able to do a 1 arm Pullup, my pulling power slowly degraded to the point where I had less strength than before I started training. Brutal.

The years passed and the nerve damage slowly unraveled (note: it's still there yo, just muted most days) I found myself able to do a ring Pullup again. Ring. As in singular. My internal monologue soared! LOOKS LIKE LATS ARE BACK ON THE MENU BOYS. Except they weren't. Training ring pullups didn't seem to make anything grow because I couldn't put in the volume and intensity needed to force any meaningful adaptation. 

What I could do were ring rack chinups for comparitively higher reps. I saw these as a stepping stone to doing the actual important work (actual ring pullups + weight) and completely missed the lesson I inadvertently learned.

"Working movements in a range of motion and weight that allows gains in intensity and volume is more important than full range of motion + more weight if the latter two cannot be expressed with intensity or volume".

I.e.

Your sets of 1-3 basic bitch moves aren't helping as much as you think they are if you lack the foundationation strength. 

Again, I accidentally learned this years ago while running the hepburn method. What was comfortable to me were multiple sets of 2-3. The afterthought were the back off sets of 6-8. But that's where the magic happens! I was never at risk of failing a set of 2-3. Sets of 6-8 were fucking scary with big movements and pushed my body to places I hadn't seen before. 

There's nothing wrong with my original desire to get back to full range of motion ring pullups. BUT, there is an infinite amount of steps I can take in between now and then and STILL make excellent progress with strength and physique.