<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">that may be (trust me I certainly considered it!)...but do you guys think there is anything to using less leverage?
...is there a way to lift more like a BB?</div>
I think you are onto something there and you should keep on it. I'll help you out.
Here's something to wrap your mind around for the next week: Muscles don't experience the weight in your hand, they experience the weight in your hand multiplied by the lever arm. In other words, Torque, with a capital T. Here's an experiment for you to try in the next 5 seconds: Get a broom and put a weight on it. Use a heavy book or something. Hold the broom in the middle. Now hold it at the end opposite the book.
Feel the difference? Imagine your hand is the pec insertion point, the broom is your humerus, and the book is the weight in your hand as you bench press.
Powerlifters aim to minimize the length of the lever arm (in this case the broom). This allows them to use more weight, and in Powerlifting, weight is all that matters. If they handed out trophies for torque, my tall lengthy self would be competing (and winning damnit!).
The next part of your question: Should I lift like this? Improving the leverage so I can use more weight? The short answer is "No." Torque = Weight * Lever Arm.
Torque = Weight x Lever Arm
500 100 5
500 250 2
500 2 250
500 5 100
See? By trading leverage for weight we don't necessarily gain anything. If you still don't believe me then go ahead and Google torque. Also, go to exrx.net and look at the pages on leverage. If you do believe me, do this anyway.
Now, the long answer: "Maybe." The lever/weight trade off can be useful depending on the goal. Its a phenomena you can exploit to increase or decrease the tension a muscle must produce in order to help lift the weight. Mostly I have used the principle in selecting the right lift and seeing through the false logic of other people's reasons for their own lift selection. I will give you some examples before I talk about "Lifting like a Bodybuilder" which requires an understanding of R.O.M. and kinesiology.
Example 1: Lateral delt raise, aka side raise.
I have heard it said that people should do their side delt raises with their arms bent at 90 degrees because by doing this you can use more weight. You can use more weight, but the muscle isn't experiencing more torque. Another way of seeing this is if bending my arm at 90 degrees increases the weight I can use then it also means my deltoid is suddenly stronger - and that is obviously bullsh1t. By bending the elbow during a lateral raise one merely reduces the lever arm. Thus one can use more weight. Torque stays the same. The stimulus stays the same. Here's the bodybuilder part: If you start your side raises with your elbows at near lockout you can use leverage to your advantage to extend the set. Simply bend your elbows more as you fatigue and you can get more reps. Can you see why? The weight stays the same but by bending your elbow the lever arm decreases, thus decreasing torque. If you're thinking this is similar to doing a drop set you're right, only the tension on the deltoid stays continuous and you don't need to bother with another set of dumbells.
What about upright rows? Answer: you can use more weight because with the weight so close to your shoulders the lever arm in the frontal plain is very small. Torque doesn't change, if it did your side delts would be miraculously stronger - and that is bullsh1t.
Example 2: Barbell curl.
As you curl the barbell the lever arm decreases. This is not theoretically optimal because when the bicep is close to full contraction it is also very strong. So what happens during a barbell curl is the torque decreases while the muscle gets stronger (up to a point, see the length-tension page at exrx.net). One way to improve the stimulus is to bend over during the last part of the curl. Keep your elbows by your ribs and bend at the hips. This is the second part of the Gironda curl, now long forgotten.
"Lifting Like a Bodybuilder."
In any compound lift, and sometimes during what are called "iso's", multiple muscles contribute to the movement of the weight. During the movement, however, some muscles are active only during a certain phase of the lift, or most active during a certain phase. An example would be the push press, which is an overhead press with the hands just outside the shoulders. During a push press the clavicular head, or upper region of the pec is recruited but only for the first 115 degrees of upper arm movement. After that it becomes mostly deactivated while the front delts and other muscles move the barbell into lockout position. You and I can exploit this if we want to improve our upper pecs. Simply keep the barbell in the range of 0 - 115 degrees of upper arm movement during the set and the upper pec will have no time to rest like it would if we went to lockout. This increases the Time Under Tension (TUT) of the upper pec. I know this particular fact about the upper pec and push presses because I read kinesiology texts, namely one book entitled Muscle Alive
In other situations muscles are more or less activated depending on the angle of the joint. Take calves for instance. The two largest muscles are the soleus and the gastrocenemius. What a lot of people know, but most people don't, is that when the knee is completely extended both the soleus and the gastrocenemius are activated. However, when you bend the knee, like in a seated calve raise machine, the gastrocenemius is scarcely activated. It cannot contribute to the lift because it originates on the femur. Thus bending the knee shortens the muscle. As a result the soleus takes the brunt of the work.
Another example, not widely known but known for decades, is the involvement of the gastrocenemius in leg curls. Because the gastroc originates on the femur and crosses the knee joint it can help the hamstrings curl the leg. You can screw it out of the lift by pointing your toes like a ballerina. This shortens the grastroc at its insertion point diminishing its ability to produce tension. The brain activates the hamstrings more fully as a result. You can increase the gastrocs involvement in leg curls by pointing the toes towards you. And you can use this to your advantage to work the gastrocs or help the hamstrings out in extending the set. I have been doing glute-ham raises and have gotten sore calves from it.
There are similar situations with other muscles in the body. One has to know the muscles and how they are effected by joint angles to understand what can be done to get the desired effect. It also helps to know during what degrees of movement a certain muscle is most or least active. These things aren't secrets. In fact they've been known for a long time. The reason most lifters don't know them is because the information is contained in academic textbooks and not in magazines or websites. Most people avoid academic texts because they are associated with school but they are dense with information, especially the kind you'd want to know.
P.S.: The lever arm is a line that runs perpendicular to the line of action of the force and the insertion point of the muscle. It is not the length of the limb. In lifting free weights the line of action of the force is always straight down. Its best to find a picture explaining it. Sorry for not doing so earlier.
P.S.#2. This stuff takes a while to understand. Keep at it and it will click.
