May we discuss tall people?

[desire4dumbells]

Well erm, may we? Nah just wondering what the go with us folk are. I.e im 6'5 and its taken me a year and a half just to look 'decent'. You see i always figured if your bigger, you would grow proportionally bigger, eat proportionally bigger, ect. Of course im not saying this is true, but it should be. I.e a tall person look as big as a short person in the same time span. Meh, just curious on your thoughts on the matter. I know my mate whos shorter then me is growing faster then me, and we do the same routine, but i prolly eat more. Meh, basically, your thoughts?

[Metroid]

Well erm, may we? Nah just wondering what the go with us folk are. I.e im 6'5 and its taken me a year and a half just to look 'decent'. You see i always figured if your bigger, you would grow proportionally bigger, eat proportionally bigger, ect. Of course im not saying this is true, but it should be. I.e a tall person look as big as a short person in the same time span. Meh, just curious on your thoughts on the matter. I know my mate whos shorter then me is growing faster then me, and we do the same routine, but i prolly eat more. Meh, basically, your thoughts?

Shorter people tend to grow faster. Exmaple: Some1 who is 5'5 would get bigger faster because his muscles are not as big as some1 who is 6'5. The taller person's muscle needs more time to properly heal because it's bigger.

EDIT: Also, people grow at different rates. Depends on your body.

[G-Side]

Shorter people tend to grow faster. Exmaple: Some1 who is 5'5 would get bigger faster because his muscles are not as big as some1 who is 6'5. The taller person's muscle needs more time to properly heal because it's bigger.

SIGH




we all grow at different rates

[Metroid]

SIGH




we all grow at different rates

True but short people grow faster IMO (added edit)

[keninottawa]

I'm 6'1 or 6'2 (somewhere in between), but I have the dreaded 'gangly limbs' syndrome. It seems that no matter what, I can't put on proportional size on my disproportionately long arms and legs. I'm not focusing on isolation exercises, mind you, but I would love to be able to but some meat on my pythons!

[lamby]

from what i hear, shorter people have a shorter ROM, which makes putting up heavy weight easier and makes them stockier

[user649643214]

from what i hear, shorter people have a shorter ROM, which makes putting up heavy weight easier and makes them stockier

Many people are overstating that shorter people have shorter ROM and greater leverage.

I don't believe in that myth..
A few inches difference in limbs won't make any significant change in amount of weight capable of lifting.


And also, many top powerlifters are around 6'3"..
If short people were to lift heavier, all the asians would be powerlifting champions.

[bigpump23]

i'm about 6'5 and I feel your pain. it takes alot more for us to fill out and for people to say "woah your big". While any 5'5 guy can look jacked. BUT the trade off is tall people look so much better with muscle then short guys do. Short guys tend to be blockier while tall guys have the lean muscle and fitness look

Arnold(6'2 ish) used to always say about Ferrigino's(6'6) arms " lou has to have 22 inch arms just to match my 20 inch arms"


theres trade offs But look at alot of the pro wrestlers HHH and the Rock are both a legit 6'5 and there big and look alot better then the short jacked guys.

[akaMarko]

It's all part of the messed up illusion of bodybuilding. I once saw a picture of some asian guy taking 1st place in an amateur show. He looked huge and ripped (I was very impressed). Then the next picture showed the announcer guy handing out the 1st place trophy. I nearly fell off my chair laughing because the announcer guy was twice as big as the asian guy and looked like he could him for breakfest.

[HoosierBoy]

If short people were to lift heavier, all the asians would be powerlifting champions.

A lot of them are Weightlifting champions.

[Styleee]

There are definitely trade offs, if you've got hiehght and train hard as hell to put on some muscle, IMO it looks twice as good. Not saying it doesn't on short people, it's just always an advantage.

[CrazyTall]

Its harder for taller people to do bench press, and squats IMO because of the great range of motion. Those are my 2 hardest lifts, and everyone says because my arms and legs are so long. Not sure about the squats, but def the bench. I can do havy weights on the chest machines, but stuck on free wieght bench for the longest time.

[Deadlifter84]

Its harder for taller people to do bench press, and squats IMO because of the great range of motion. Those are my 2 hardest lifts, and everyone says because my arms and legs are so long. Not sure about the squats, but def the bench. I can do havy weights on the chest machines, but stuck on free wieght bench for the longest time.

it's just "a tall man's excuse" for low benching...
ROM of bench press is mostly determined by grip position and so much less to do with the person's height.

The wider the grip, the shorter the ROM.
There's no excuse for tall people.

[lamby]

A few inches difference in limbs won't make any significant change in amount of weight capable of lifting.

i believe it does. i can bench a lot more if i dont touch my chest. (stopping 2 inches before touching)

[Gr8Ape]

20 pounds of muscle will look mroe impressive on a 5 5 frame than on a 6foot one. However, in the long shot, the 6foot4 can add much more muscle, and probably will

[Stagger]

Many people are overstating that shorter people have shorter ROM and greater leverage.

I don't believe in that myth..
A few inches difference in limbs won't make any significant change in amount of weight capable of lifting.


And also, many top powerlifters are around 6'3"..
If short people were to lift heavier, all the asians would be powerlifting champions.

Explain to me how the laws of physics are a myth.

[Stagger]

If short people were to lift heavier, all the asians would be powerlifting champions.

If you look at olympic records, you'll see that short people always have the best weight lifted as a percentage of bodyweight. For example, a really short guy might lift 3 times his bodyweight in the oly lifts, and while a really big guy lifts more weight, it's only 2 times his bodyweight.

So small people usually have better pound for pound strength, even though they have less absolute strength.

[exarch]

May we discuss tall people?

No, you may not.

[KopyKat]

Genetics, some people grow faster, some grow slower. There are alot of factors here, whats the metoblism like? How do they eat? What do they eat? What size is the bone structure compared to the height? Taller people can be skinny, short people can be skinny and vice versa.

And if we are talking about lifts here then heres a bit of food for thought:

Leverage points
Joint angle
Muscle length
Muscle insertion points
Fiber type
Contraction velocity
Neural components
Fiber arrangement

These all play a role in how you will produce external force in any given movement.

So as you can see, everyone can be so different that height is only one factor out of multiple others.

[Deadlifter84]

i believe it does. i can bench a lot more if i dont touch my chest. (stopping 2 inches before touching)

try stopping a couple of inches before the top of the actual motion and see if you lift 100lbs more than normal....

i don't think so..





Low benching for tall people is a myth like the other guy said before.
I'm 6'2", 210lbs with only 41" chest. a 5'5 guy with the same weight as me can bench so much more than I do..
It's not because he's shorter and has lesser ROM..
It's only because he has larger chest...maybe 50+



However I may bench the same as a 5'5 guy with 41" chest..



If you compare the strength of tall and short people based on the size of their muscles, they are roughly the same...
But you can't compare them with weight basis.

[user649643214]

A lot of them are Weightlifting champions.

West Asians are East Asians are different, you know? East asians are much shorter than west asians (middle east).



If short people can lift heavier, why can't we see people under 5' or 4' breaking world records in weightlifting.
According to the myth, a 4' guy should bench 1500lbs.

[Josiah]

I'm taller.. I feel the pain.

I'd have to agree with those who said it takes more work. I feel like that. I have long arms, so my arms just look thinner from the length.

I have a shorter friend who has arms that are bigger then mine. But I'd venture a good wage that my arm has more muscle on it then his.

My goal is 205 with bout 8-11% BF.. at 6'1" I should look pretty big I think.

[rob23]

I'm 6'7" with about 15.5" arms and I have friends who are 5'8" with 13.5" arms and their arms look bigger, relative to our respective bodies.

And whoever said a couple inches on a limb won't make a difference is clueless. Consider a one foot lever with a load of 100lb at the end of it. to rotate that lever is going to take 100 lb-ft of torque (T = F x d). now consider a one foot lever + 3 inches with a 100lb load at the end of it. it's going to take 125 lb-ft of torque to rotate that lever. that's a 25% increase in torque requirement!!!!

[rob23]

and to add, it's way better to be tall than to be short and buff. I've yet to see a 5'6" 240 pounder that didn't look like a buffoon.

[Scientist]

I'm 6'7" with about 15.5" arms and I have friends who are 5'8" with 13.5" arms and their arms look bigger, relative to our respective bodies.

And whoever said a couple inches on a limb won't make a difference is clueless. Consider a one foot lever with a load of 100lb at the end of it. to rotate that lever is going to take 100 lb-ft of torque (T = F x d). now consider a one foot lever + 3 inches with a 100lb load at the end of it. it's going to take 125 lb-ft of torque to rotate that lever. that's a 25% increase in torque requirement!!!!

This means tall people work harder than short ones when lifting the same weight so they overtrain. This is why they dont grow

[rob23]

we resultingly use less weight. i wonder why I've been curling 10s all this time.

[Scientist]

Tall people have nice genetics for marathon runners and reproduction

















































I am tall!

[imageek]

it's a fact that it will take much longer and a lot harder for tall people to put on mass, and relatively speaking tall people have longer muscle bellies, i feel your pain buddy.
the tallest Mr Olympia is Arnold at 6'2, and he is the ONLY Mr Olympia above the 6' mark, the rest of them are all below 6' with Lee Haney at 5'11. that's why Lou never won the olympia, he's too tall (6'5), it's really hard for him to put on mass and still look as muscular as the others.

[mattman]

I'm 6'5" 210lbs., worked out for over 4 1/2 years now with arms a little over 16". Its almost impossible to make my arms look big when they are in a hanging straight down relaxed position. I'm hoping I'll be able to get my arms to 17" on my next bulk, then I might be confident enough to wear sleeveless shirts to the gym.

Also, I've seen some tall guys that had naturally thick arms/bodies before they even started working out, they are the lucky ones, not me unfortunaltely, I was a pencil before I started working out - 6'5" 140lbs.

[rob23]

I'm 6'5" 210lbs., worked out for over 4 1/2 years now with arms a little over 16". Its almost impossible to make my arms look big when they are in a hanging straight down relaxed position. I'm hoping I'll be able to get my arms to 17" on my next bulk, then I might be confident enough to wear sleeveless shirts to the gym.

Also, I've seen some tall guys that had naturally thick arms/bodies before they even started working out, they are the lucky ones, not me unfortunaltely, I was a pencil before I started working out - 6'5" 140lbs.

it's funny because even though you put on 70 lbs, which is remarkable, I bet you feel sometimes like there hasn't been much of a change.