Today’s podcast is with biomechanics and rehab specialist, Alex Effer.  Alex is the owner of Resilient Training, and has extensive experience in strength & conditioning, exercise physiology and the biomechanical function of the body.  He also runs educational mentorships teaching biomechanics to therapists, trainers and coaches.  Alex has been a previous guest on the show speaking on many aspects of gait, and the links between common gym movements and locomotion.

For the amount of talk that goes into particular exercises, or exercise variations, very little goes into looking at human biomechanics first, as a base layer by which to base exercise selection.  We also spend little time understanding how two athletes may ideally perform the same movement differently, to optimize their own leverages.  We also often hear, or see exercises or training methods designed to improve external rotation, but tend to overly generalize the roles of “knees in/out”, or “inside edge/outside edge”.

By understanding more about the biomechanical basis of force production, and how structure determines our base of support, we can achieve not only a better exercise selection process, but a better understanding of athletic movement in general.

On the show today, Alex gets into important concepts on how humans produce force in movement, and how the internal and external rotation of joints creates effective motion.  This leads into how various body types have different bases of support, and what this means for programming squat and lunge variations, as well as implications on the level of various kettlebell swing and catch exercises.  This was an in-depth show that will change your lens on the way you see squat and lunge setups across a breadth of athletes in training.

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Timestamps and Main Points
3:12 – How Alex became the “Thanos” of the biomechanical world

5:38 – What legs that internally, or externally rotate, means for force production strategies

13:16 – How bow-leggedness fits in with athletic movements, such as acceleration, and when varus/bow-leggedness can become an issue

22:22 – Optional squat width, and knees-in, versus knees-out tendencies

27:39 – Concepts on loading the body up in external rotation in regards to force production, considering internal and external rotation in exercise selection

39:33 – The role of swinging weights and kettlebells for the sake of improving biomechanics, such as hip extension, and how to use external loads to internally open up ranges of motion

54:16 – Lateral lunge dynamics in light of valgus, varus, and wide/narrow ISA type athletes

1:07:51 – Dynamics of kettlebell swings and internal rotation, in light of the need to create space to swing the bell between their legs

1:14:06 – Elements that you can learn from athletes by observing their lateral lunge form, and which way they tend to point their toes our knees

1:22:20 – Assessing hip extension quality in lateral lunge and 45-degree lunge situations

Alex Effer Quotes
“When we are looking at the knees (valgus and varus), we have to consider someone’s base of support”