biomechanics lesson

Lester Ho (@lesterhokw) is back this week with another biomechanics lesson. Today we're going to talk about levers of the body and it's effect on force production. This will start provide insight into different body types and how to train yourself to be the most productive version of you.
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"Our body is made up of several third class levers. This means force is applied (by the muscles) in between the fulcrum (joint) and the point of resistance. So the longer the distance the resistance is from the fulcrum (joint) and from the point of force applied (muscle attachment), the more force is required.

When applying that to weightlifting, this can be highlighted in the synergistic use of knee and hip extension (i.e. leg drive) in the second pull. Indicated as the white crescents in the image, the thicker lines suggest more involvement of the muscles crossing that joint.

If you have a longer torso compared to your femur, you could utilize more of your torso as a lever and use a higher percentage of hip extension (using the posterior chain) to produce force. The proportions reasonably equal torso to femur length, would allow for a better balance of knee extension (firing the quads) along with hip extension for force production in the second pull.

Understanding the concept of levers will allow you to properly train the right pulling mechanics, figure out to involve more of your quads or grow a strong booty to drive the hips. This make your second pull more effective and subsequent chase down that PB you always wanted."