Meathead Math - Should you go to parallel?

Extra Puzzle - 3/6

Here’s an extra little puzzle. I don’t feel like it quite meets the bar—pun intended—for the weekly puzzle. Think of it more like a fun snack.

You and your gym rival engaging in one of the age old lifting debates; when squatting, should you go to parallel or “ass-to-grass”?

The animation below demonstrates the two techniques. When the animation is red, that signifies “going to parallel” and when it it green, it signifies “ass-to-grass”

To settle the debate, you decide that the parallel approach is best if the peak torque needed to keep the system stationary (i.e. forces are balanced) occurs before or at the parallel position. If the peak occurs after the parallel position, then the ass-to-grass approach is better. There is a 100 kg mass at the top and the mass of each segment can be considered negligible. Note: there are three different hinges we can consider represented by the bottom 3 points. The peak torque will be wherever the largest torque occurs across any of these hinges.

Your job is to find the orientation of the system where the peak torque occurs. You answer should be expressed as the angle between the bottom segment and the y-axis.