Does height affect muscle growth?
Height neither decreases nor increases one’s muscle-building faculties. The perception that shorter men build muscle faster and more efficiently than taller people is the result of muscle mass distribution in relation to the surface area.
Shorter people have to fill out a smaller space to look like they lift. Hence, many wrongfully conclude that height affects muscle growth.
Density
The mean density of a body is determined by dividing its mass by its volume:
When two bodies have the same mass (weight) but different volume, the one with the smaller volume has a higher density at that weight.
The bodies of tall people have greater volume since long bones take more space. Therefore, if two men weigh 160lbs/72.7kg at 5’9”/175cm and 6’2”/188cm, the taller individual will have a substantially lower density at that weight and will look thinner. Contrariwise, the shorter person will be thicker.
Short People Increase Their Thickness Faster
Average men have similar muscle-building capabilities. However, when you’re shorter, every extra gram that you gain has a greater impact on your density/thickness.
If you poor 100 ml into two bottles with different volume, say 1 l and 1.5 l, the smaller would be filled to a greater percentage. In order for the bigger bottle to reach the same percentage, you’d have to pour more liquid into it.
Muscle construction operates on the same principles. And since the natural body can produce only so much muscle in a given amount of time, shorter individuals see quicker visual results.
Aren’t Tall People Supposed to Have More Testosterone?
Growth hormone (GH), a hormone made in the pituitary gland, has a greater influence on a person’s height than testosterone.
A clear indication of that mechanism would be women. Some females reach impressive heights even though women produce less testosterone than men.
The reason why most women are shorter than men isn’t the lack of testosterone, but the presence of estrogen in their bodies which triggers growth plate closure early on.
Ultimately, a greater height isn’t an indication of high testosterone levels. It could actually indicate the opposite – lower testosterone levels.
A study from 1976 used testosterone treatment to limit the growth of boys who were genetically predisposed to reaching extraordinary heights.
29 boys with a mean height prediction of 198cm/6’6” (many of them were going to be taller than that) participated in the study for 1.2 years.
The results were accelerated bone maturation (1.8 years) and 5.4cm average height reduction.
The subjects recovered their natural testosterone production after 1.5 years (longer in some cases).
The conclusion was that testosterone can serve as a tool to decrease the growth of an individual.
Since synthetic testosterone mimics the natural test produced by the testicles, one can conclude that some short dudes owe their height to naturally high testosterone. Individuals who fall in that category would have an even easier time developing a denser musculature.
Bodybuilding is Not Kind to Tall People
Most professional bodybuilders are under 6’2”/182cm if not less than that.
Why? Because tall people have to build significantly more mass to equip their frames with a sufficient amount of muscle to compete on stage.
One of the biggest bodybuilders ever was Greg Kovacs. He was around 6’4”/193cm tall and weighed 330lbs/150kg in contest condition. In the off-season, his bodyweight was over 400lbs/181kg.
Maintaining such a muscular physique requires more of everything – food, drugs…etc. As a result, the organism of tall bodybuilders suffers more because it has to process everything that you put in it.
Tall bodybuilders may have superior height, but at the end of the day, their internal organs are not more powerful than those of shorter competitors. Ultimately, the pain, the discomfort, the sacrifice and the risk are just too great.
Bodybuilding will never be a tall man’s game.
Short Bodybuilders Can Get Away with Smaller Doses
Since shorter bodybuilders don’t have to gain as much mass, they can use smaller doses and eat less than bigger guys. As a consequence, they don’t stress their organisms as much and have a greater chance of enjoying a longer and possibly healthier career.
Muscle Belly Length Matters Too
The length of a muscle has a tremendous effect on its potential hypertrophy. Longer muscles have more room for growth thanks to their larger army of muscle fibers.
If you’ve been genetically programmed to have short muscles bellies and long tendons at certain places, then those areas become harder if not impossible to fill. Many people with long limbs experience this problem.
Usually, those individuals are also tall, but that’s not always the case. For example, you can have long arms and short legs at the same time. This is the so-called “gorilla look”. The legendary powerlifter Ed Coan is built this way.
The places that showcase the greatest gaps are the calves and the forearms. Many tall men have problems building those areas as there’s almost nothing to build when half of the distance between the joints is all tendons.
As a result, tall people with short muscle bellies receive another muscle-building penalty preventing them from filling out their frames.
Bone Thickness
Bones with a larger diameter (greater thickness), need larger muscles to operate properly. Consequently, individuals with thicker skeletons tend to carry a greater amount of muscle mass by default.
A musculature bigger as a result of greater bone girth is the hardest to lose because it’s engineered on a cellular level under the orders of a man’s DNA. Only illness, starvation and very old age can eat this type of muscle mass.
My grandfather had a massive skeleton and was fairly big even in his late 60s and 70s solely due to his bones. Yes, he was doing physical labor too, but usually only on the weekends. As far as I know, he never did any sports.
Another example of bone importance are women with large frames. If you go to a basketball or a volleyball game, you’ll see some tall women with thick frames who carry a decent amount of mass naturally.
Height Does Not Equal a Thick Frame
Contrary to popular belief, tall people do not have a thick frame by default. Many high-altitude dudes are built like antelopes – long and slim bones. Meanwhile, some short men have exceptionally thick “rhino” frames.
What Are the Ultimate Genetics for Natural Muscle Construction?
Men of average height with a thick bone structure and long muscle bellies have the greatest natural potential for growth.
An individual with similar characteristics who eats sufficiently could carry more muscle mass than many average men even without lifting weights.
Contrariwise, tall people with slim bones and short muscle bellies (e.g., me), have the hardest time filling out and receive the smallest return on their investment. People like us can acquire a lot of strength, but at the end of the day, we’re fighting an uphill battle that we’ll never win.
If you want to learn more about the natural growth potential, check out the book Potential: How Big Can You Get Naturally.
Reference:
Zachmann, M., Ferrandez, A., Mürset, G., Gnehm, H. and Prader, A., 1976. Testosterone treatment of excessively tall boys. The Journal of Pediatrics, 88(1), pp.116-123.
I would still rather be 6’1 (186cm) and lean than be 5’8 and buff.
Height trumps everything. The taller you are, the stronger you are.
Don’t think so….Opposite. Tall lanky people are never strong. Look at the old time strong men all about 5:6″ to 5ft 11″ on average. Small/medium at the highest.
Generally lanky people seem to have weak tendons. My view anyway.
You are a stupid person
Truth Seeker, What’s a pencil neck (Giraffe neck)? I mean in inches?
Please write an article on weight training program for boxers. Please
Hi, Truth.
Would urge you to update your “potential” book if it contains programming info (perhaps the training one too). Your recent articles (criticisms and suggestions) are spot-on, beginning with the essentials expressed in, “8 Reasons Why Beginner Barbell Strength Routines Are the Worst for Aesthetics (and what to do instead)”.
These views reflect what I did by happenstance decades ago—made a big difference then and remains just as viable today. Of course, many others did likewise, long before. A good place to see if real change can occur within a manageable context. It did for me.
Peace
Manlets for bodybuildings, lanklets for powerlifting
Truth Seeker or anyone else who could answer this: what’s the maximum Thigh in a 12-15% body fat I can get? My Ankle is 7-8 inches. Thanks!
I don’t know honestly.
Truth seeker, you better read this:
There’s a guy in the spanish youtube community that is stealing your articles and making videos with them. He just translates them, put some music at the background and some images and ¡voilá! new video.
His name is La verdad sobre el fitness. I used to see his videos until I discovered your webpage in a comment lost in the comments’ section. A few days ago I saw him on my youtube homepage, entered the video, saw the comments and it seems like nobody knows about this. Everybody’s talking like he’s the original creator of the content.
I’m looking through his videos and it looks like he has deleted a lot of them, i’m talking about the old ones (of which 4/5 were your articles). However, he stills has several copies of your articles. Some examples of plagiarism are his videos “La ilusión Calisténica” which is your article “The Calisthenics Illusion: Bodyweight Exercises Won’t Make You Super Big” and “La Creatina Es Una Estafa” which is “Creatine Is a Scam”
I wrote this so you can get informed. I’m not sure if you already knew this was happening.
Also I would like if you or anybody else could let me know if there are grammatical errors in the paragraph I’ve written. I’m still learning english.
Hey Geronimo,
Your english is good. Im no english professor but I it is my main language so take that for what its worth.
Yes I do believe truthseeker knows about that guy too. It was mentioned in the forum some months ago and he also mentioned that he’s known about his channel for some time.
GOOD! My personal opinion is that RED PILL knowledge should BE FREE and STAY FREE! People should find out how this world works!
This is true, unfortunately today 04/07/2021 “La Verdad Sobre El Fitness” did it again. He copied and pasted this article and made it a video titled in Spanish: “¿Influye la estatura en el crecimiento muscular?”
What about bone girth? What makes the skeleton of people thick test or grwoth Hormone?
I’m 182 cm tall with fairly thick bones. It really does make putting a lot of muscle posible even as natty. Thick bones equal bigger frame, bigger frame equals more muscles. As for bodybuilding, i don’t have that simetric look, I have relatively short legs and long torso and arms. Muscle bellies are most ok, especially side delt, chest and triceps. Lats insert a bit high, and for biceps i can nearly fit two fingers between miscle and elbow when flexed so not ideal.
As a 6’6” ecto, this article is about me – lol
Truth Seeker,can you write one article on self-help scammers and their “muh hard work and positivity” bullshit? Guys who got rich by writing book on hoe to get rich?
He talks about these in A Hater’s Synthesis 2.
Truth Seeker: What’s my body fat if my waist size is 27 inches, I’m 5’10” tall and my age is 19?
Hey Truth, are 7″ wrists big or small? Am I more ecto or more meso? Also great article as usual, keep up the good work
I am not Truth, but also have 7″ wrists like you (and 9″ ankles). I think they are ‘average’ from what I have seen – but it does I suspect depend on height as well. On a very tall dude they are nothing special; on a manlet, they could be a really good sign of massive muscle growth potential?
Certain explains why theres only ever been one winner of the Olympia over 6ft (Arnold), and i believe theres never been a winner of the WSM under 6ft.
BUT when we stick to nattie that all changes. PED’s change EVERYTHING!!!! It’s not even worth discussing
It doesnt change the fact that as TS says in the above article “bodybuilding is not kind to tall bodybuilders”. Gunter Schlierkamp cued in on this years ago, he said when Lee Priest (at 5’4) gained 10lb of muscle everyone was saying how good he looked, but when he gained 10lb of muscle in the same year (at 6’1), no one even noticed. BOTH used gear, it changes nothing.
Good point Rob
I have short, buff legs(very good genetic calve), but a little bit of long skinny arms.
Some tips?
If you lift, become a stringent captain upper body and fill out your arns/shoulders as much as you’ll be able to.
Buy (T-)shirts and sweaters with a tighter cut that will make your shoulders stand out more, and…
… loose your gut if you have any.
Any other ideas?
Next article: does the quarantine affects truthseeker’s upload schedule. Beyond the jokes keep up the good work. If I got anything from this blog is to be realistic, strive for achievable balance.
Over Head Carry…. Enough said.
One of the most under-rated sites. The way you red pill the TRUTH about the world of bodybuilding, is more than needed. You are saving many $$$, time and health with the information you provide.
There are so many influencers who claim 100% natty, like Chris Elkins or Zac Efron, but your charts for natty limits pour ice water on cash grad…
Great comment: I second this. Finding Natty or Not has saved me years of disappointment, made me 100% certain of where I am going in the gym and what I will aim for long berm, and actually given me more (not less) incentive to pump iron. I know now what is possible.
Truth Seeker are you ok? It has been more than a month since you published last article.
Woops ! you forgot about Lou Ferrigno (196cm)
He’s been active on the forum recently, so he’s still alive I guess.
Truth Seeker, why you are not posting anything? Something wrong?
Hey truthseeker, great article.
I have to ask, I know a guy who claims to be steroid free, he is 5’5 and weighs about 87-90 kilos, so almost 200 pounds. He is not super lean but definitely not fat, probably no more than 13 percent bodyfat. He also benches 350 pounds. He claims natural but I’m very skeptical… what do you think?
Is Prophet Muscle natural or using anabolic steroids?
Hey Truth Seeker, how tall are you?