When someone tells you height is an important factor to have muscular body, you slap that man’s face.
Many studies have shown that short guys can be muscular, and in some cases, they even perform better in the gym. The trick is to learn to use your strengths and disguise your weaknesses.
In the gym, short people are rare, but that doesn’t have anything with them being unable to lift or workout. It is all in the mind, and we hope that we can help some fellow short men man up and start working out at the gym.
Here are four reasons why you should be a regular at the gym, even though your height is not 6 feet tall and more.
Why Short men perform better in the Gym
1. Short men are more stable
Due to their center of gravity closer to the weight and the ground, short men are more stable when standing on the ground. You might think this has nothing to do with working out, but some complex exercises require stability and calmness before anything else.
In martial arm exercises, stability is one of the key factors, especially when you need to raise your leg high to kick the sack. And in the gym, lifting weights can sometimes be troubling if you are not stable, as you risk injury.
2. Short guys perform less work
Compared to tall guys, short men perform less work, but they get the same amount of exercise. How is that possible you ask? For starters, being short means that lifting weights requires smaller amount of distance for the short people.
3. Fatigue
This reason is directly linked with the short guys performing less work. Let’s compare a tall guy and a short guy in the gym. The tall guy has to raise the bar pretty high to get a rep, while the short guy doesn’t have to lift the bar as high as his tall counterpart.
The end result is that the tall guy will get fatigued rather quickly due to the higher amount of motion required. The short guy, on the other hand, will be able to continue his workout far after his taller friend has gave up.
4. Some exercises are easier
Deadlift is one of the hardest, and most rewarding exercise in the gym. Additionally, it is one of the most challenging, and people often get injured during deadlift. But for short men, doing deadlift repetitions is much, much easier. Bench exercises and squats are another set of exercises where short men perform better because of their height. And if you really want to go the distance, start doing pull-ups. Short guys have tighter grip, compared to the wide grip of their tall friends. With a tight grip, doing a pull-up is much, much easier. The same reason applies for bench workouts.
Bench exercises and squats are another set of exercises where short men perform better because of their height. And if you really want to go the distance, start doing pull-ups. Short guys have tighter grip, compared to the wide grip of their tall friends. With a tight grip, doing a pull-up is much, much easier. The same reason applies for bench workouts.
Bonus – Franco Columbu
If you think Arnold Schwarzenegger is strong, just Google his long friend, Franco Columbu. Franco is a wormer bodybuilding champion, and finished 5th in the “World’s strongest man competition” in 1977.
He injured himself during the competition, but that didn’t stop him from competing. Most importantly, Columbu was 5 feet and 5 inches tall, way below the “standard” measurements for bodybuilders.
