While everybody may have their own opinion and preferences, I actually do think that there is an ideal height for bodybuilding. I have seen many lifters in my life and while I do think that most people can have a great physique if they train and eat properly, it can be a hard goal to accomplish for certain people. Below I will provide different sections of people, but understand that I am referring to people who are actually done growing because you can’t really justify is somebody is really short or tall until they stopped growing at around their early 20’s in most cases.
SUPER SHORT PEOPLE
I personally consider that people who are under the height of 5’4 to be relatively short. If you are a height of 4’11 then it will be very hard to go up against the big guys (or girls) on stage because you will be dwarfed. Yes it is true that you may look more compressed and “fuller”, its still hard to create that image of being big and muscular when you are at such a height.
These people can still have great physiques but they will have to try and compensate in other ways such as by being wider, having better posture than the person next to them and stuff of that nature.
SUPER TALL PEOPLE
On the other hand now we have the taller people. I personally consider anybody over 6’5 to be tall because lets face it, we don’t that many 6’5 people walking around very often either. When you are over 6’5 the exact opposite happens as when you are short in the sense that you are more “stretched out” so you may be carrying a lot of muscle mass, but it is just more elongated. It is usually very difficult for very tall lifters to develop very big legs because their legs are usually so long. They may be amazing at sports such as basketball and stuff of that nature, but they will just have to work harder in bodybuilding. The same thing applies for super short guys trying to play basketball, some people can pull it off, but it does take a lot of hard work to beat the odds.
LIMB LENGTH, MUSCLE BELLIES, INSERTIONS, WRIST/ANKLE SIZE, BONE STRUCTURE..ETC ALSO PLAY A HUGE ROLE.
If you are disappointed about your height by reading this then please don’t be because there are a lot of more factors that come into play than just your height alone. I have seen 6’4 lifters who actually looked bigger than life because they had low lat insertions, thick wrists, high trap insertions and stuff like that. I have also seen short lifters who had an extremely small waists, broad shoulders, long bicep insertions, low calves and the list goes on.
WHAT DO I THINK IS THE IDEAL HEIGHT FOR BODYBUILDING?
5’8 – 6’0, but if I had to pick one then I would say 5’11. Some of the most successful bodybuilders that are still admired and talked about today were around 5’11 on average, some of these bodybuilders names were:
• Ronnie Coleman
• Dorian Yates
• Lee Haney
The height of almost being 6 foot tall allows you to not be dwarfed by anyone height-wise because you are really in the middle of the height groups. On the flip side, you don’t look super tall either which is good because its still a manageable way to look fuller and look like you have more muscle to your frame. When you are too tall it is very hard to make your legs look as full as possible, and when you are too short and you have big legs then it makes you appear “stumpy” which will also take away from your upper body mass as well which will make you look narrower in the process.
CONCLUSION:
“BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER”
In the end this is nothing more than my opinion and the important thing is that you embrace what you have, confidence is everything. If you feel like Arnold had the best physique of all time then that’s great and everybody is entitled to their own opinion. If you think that Lee Priest was the best bodybuilder of all time then that is fine too because everybody is allowed to think what they want. There is no right or wrong answer.