Reduce Moment Arms: keeping the bar close

One of the challenges in Weightlifting is keeping the bar close to the body. When the bar gets farther away from your center of mass you will have to try harder to keep the bar closer to you. The distance a weight is from the muscular force perpendicular to the center of mass is known as a moment arm.

If we look at the picture you will see the moment arm is the red horizontal arm lining up with the hip muscles and center of mass. The smaller the moment arms the greater force potential can be applied to the muscular forces needed to overcome the weight of the bar. That said, we are more efficient when we apply maximum velocity, impulse, and strength when the moment arms are the smallest.

The above picture shows Andrei Rybakov (Bel) who is an 85kg Weightlifter from Belarus snatching a world record snatch lift of 187kgs (411lbs) at 187lbs body weight. Rybakov is the current snatch record holder in his weight class and is the 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medalist barely losing the gold to China's Lu Yong on body weight. Notice how close the bar is and how the moment arm between the bar and the center of mass is minimized to allow the greatest force produced from the primary movers. For more information contact Coach Cap for training.