Ask a Physicist: Workouts and Wingspan

Do long arms give you a disadvantage at the gym?Bernie, from San Francisco, wrote in yesterday: My co-worker and I are having an discussion about weight lifting. The basic question is: does it require more force (strength) to bench press a given mass if your arms are longer? Holding everything else is the same does the increase in distance (longer arms) give that person a disadvantage over a person with shorter arms? Bernie,Thanks for writing in! Being a stereotypically scrawny physics-type, I w...