Weekly musings, 6/18/17: Efficiency

Weekly musings, 6/18/17: Efficiency
In the book, “Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement,” the authors write, “the human body is at most 25% efficient.” This refers to mechanical efficiency, or the amount of energy that is required to accomplish a specific task.

What struck me about this is how inefficient we actually are. Perhaps the reason we lack efficiency is because there are many ways for us to perform any given movement. Our central nervous system is constantly working to figure out what the best strategy is, depending on the environment and our current physical state. 

Anyone that teaches movement knows what a person skilled in a motor task looks like versus one that is unskilled. For those that lack efficiency, our job as coaches and trainers is to coax a greater sense of ease out of the movement. Understanding that we are only 25% efficient means there is always a different avenue to explore, to see if it’s possible to tap into a strategy that opens a slightly different path towards less resistance, knowing maximal efficiency will always be slightly out of reach.