The Influence of Height In Olympic Sports Peformance

I hope at least a few people were watching the Olympic this Summer because they fascinate me because it just shows us how the human body can be slowly transformed to continue to brake past its previous limitations. Every 4 years records that might have been set before in the last Olympics meet are shattered by the newer, more improved athletes.

I really enjoy watching 4 main events, basketball, swimming, volleyball, and track. Oddly, height is very important in at least 2 of the 4 events I watch. I don’t think I need to explain the importance of having height in basketball since I have already talked about the issue and will eventually get back to the subject eventually, but volleyball might be a subject and sport that is less well known than basketball, at least to the main US public. To not bore one with the details, I will just say that in volleyball, having height is just as important as in basketball. There are 5 main positions in volleyball.

1. Setters

2. Liberos

3. Middle blockers (aka Middle hitters)

4. Outside Hitters (aka Left side hitters)

5. Opposite Hitters (aka Right side hitters)

Apparently in the collegiate sports level, there are actual height requirements for each position as well as jump height requirements. Generally, the middle hitter/ blocker is supposed to be the tallest person in each team’s court side which for women is at least 6’0″ for Tier 1 and for men is it 6′ 7″ for Tier 1. For a more detailed list of height requirements for women, click HERE and for men click HERE..

With track, the events and sports is slightly different. Sprinters and marathon runners have historically been average in height. I would like to post an excerpt from Slate Magazine which got into explaining why the old science said that too tall individuals don’t win in certain events in track like the Sprint or Running. The person they referred to is the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt who won the 100 meter sprint at an astounding height of 6′ 5″. You can find the source of the excerpt HERE.

“” Traditionally, height has been seen as a detriment to sprinting. The formula for speed is stride length times stride rate. If the longest legs always won the race, then Yao Ming would have the world record in the 100, and lions wouldn’t eat giraffes. Gangly guys, the thinking has always gone, don’t win short races because they can’t master the smooth form required to generate rapid leg turnover. Sprinters are supposed to be compact and muscular: Think Ben Johnson or Ato Boldon.

Big guys have physics working against them. According to the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, “[T]he acceleration of the body is proportional to the force produced but inversely proportional to the body mass, according to Newton’s second law. … This implies an inverse relationship between height and performance in disciplines such as sprint running.” In other words, it’s hard to produce enough power to overcome the drag of a big body. Usain Bolt, science tells us, is a top-heavy minivan racing against a field full of Suzuki Hayabusas.

That Journal of Sports Science & Medicine study, which may now need to be rewritten, found that world champion sprinters ranged between 5-foot-9 at the low end to 6-foot-3 at the absolute max. (Unlike distance runners, sprinters do need to be big and strong enough to generate explosive speed. That’s why 5-foot-9 has traditionally been the minimum height, whereas the elite distance runner Haile Gebrselassie is a mere 5-foot-3.) That range covers all the recent gold medalists, from Maurice Greene to Linford Christie. But not Usain Bolt.

Yet on Saturday night, the tall guy ran away from his classically designed competitors , winning by such a wide margin that he had time to wing out his arms, pound his heart … and still set a world record. If he stays healthy, Bolt could not only lower the mark to a science-fiction-y 9.6 seconds; he could change the look of future sprinters. He is a hybrid never before seen in track and field: a spidery giant whose legs generate the propulsive power of a cannonball-thighed running back.

When Bolt first took up track, he suffered from tall man’s maladies. For one thing, he ran as if he were wearing seven-league boots. His coach, Glen Mills, sped him up by shortening his stride. “Biomechanically, his body placement was not ideal for sprinting,” Mills told the Jamaica Gleaner. “His head was back, his shoulders were well behind his center of gravity, this resulted in him spending too much time in the air and over-striding.” Now, Mills says, “his length of stride is compatible with his height. One of the reasons he has such a long but efficient stride is because he lifts his knees so well.”

Good news for tall sprinters of the future: Bolt and Mills have developed the ideal gait for a 6-foot-5 runner. It allows Bolt to use his size as a motor rather than a brake. Still, he doesn’t have a classic sprinter’s carriage. In the 100, he sometimes looks rickety, wobbling back and forth on the track; a less-coordinated athlete with the same dimensions might topple over as he bounds down the straightaway. Sometimes, he still lifts himself too high in the air, especially on the turn in the 200 meters. (It’s hard to see how that flaw will keep him from winning a second gold medal, though.)

So we come to swimming. Swimming is another sport where people who are on the tall side have an advantage. The most famous swimmer in the world right now Michael Phelps is 6′ 4″. His teammates of the US National Swim Team for the 4×100 Medley Relay (which they won yesterday) are Branden Hansen (6′ 0″), Nathan Adrian (6′ 6″), and Matt Grevers (6′ 8″) . His teammates of the 4×100 Freestyle (got 2nd place) are Cullen Jones (6′ 5″), Ryan Lochte (6′ 2″), and Nathan Adrian (6′ 6″).

The average of of these guys is clearly at least 1 standard deviation away from the national average of 18-30 year old men. So the question is to ask whether swimming will let us grow taller, or is it that we become great swimmers because of being originally tall. There has been many articles claiming that swimming will improve one’s height because the buoyancy of the water and the horizontal movement of the body towards the vertical push of gravity allows the inter-vertebrate disks to decompress and expand thus increasing height. In theory, the science does sound reasonable but is the correlation between increased height and swimming strong enough to state a claim that “you can grow taller through swimmin?” Well, I am not aware of any scientific studies on the subject so the matter is still in the air.

One interesting part of my personality is that I believe in taking action first and often don’t ask for permission to try something. I believe in trying everything at least once as long as it is not potentially harmful to me. My philosophy is then since there is no science or study saying that swimming does not help with increase height, why not go ahead and try swimming and see if it has any affect on one’s overal height. Even if the height increase never comes, the other benefits in terms of health are too enormous to name so stick with the exercise.

Robert Wadlow, How Did He Grow So Tall?

When one has any form of interest over the subject of height, a natural question that appears is “Who was the tallest person to ever live, in all of human history?”

When that question is posed, one can only speak from the known medical records which are available. We could go into the Bible and talk about the 9 feet tall Goliath, the Mummified Bodies of Red Haired Giant Indians (Reference Link 1, Reference Link 2), Gigantopithecus (Reference Link 1, Reference Link 2), Bigfoots and Yetis, or even other human giant legends but we won’t because none of these stories, legensds, or myths can be substantiated. So who is the tallest person who has irrefutable proof?

The name Robert Wadlow appears again and again as the title holder, one which has held for almost a century now.

Robert Wadlow lived from 1918 to 1940 and was measured at an amazing 8′ 11.1″ for his maximum height, which was done only a few weeks before his untimely death.

Compared to his contemporaries he still stood far taller than most other giants in his era. Many tall individuals in other countries would come and meet Wadlow to see him for themselves whether he was as tall as he claim and was often left shocked and amazed that he was honest in his stature.

Taken from the Wikipedia article on him and his life found HERE, we quote this passage about his abnormal growth cycle.

“” His great size and his continued growth in adulthood was due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death. “”

What is surprising about Wadlow’s case was that he had shown no sign stopping in growing when he died. Unlike most other giants who have suffered from Gigantism (and then Acrogemaly) , his growth seemed to not diminish with age however that could only be because he only lived to be 22. If he had lived to his 40s, which would have been a clear possibility, his growth might have slowed or stopped by then, but he might have reached 10 feet in height by then.

Wadlow’s case is very unique even for giants because it appears that he did not suffer from the normal causes of Gigantism, which is from some form of tumor, benign or malignant, pushing against the pituitary gland thus effectively causing the gland to squeeze out more height growth hormone. His condition reveals that his actualy pituitary gland was what had a condition, due to hypertrophy. Taken from the Wikipedia article on hypertrophy, it is defined as the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells. Thus, there was no foreign object pushing on the gland, but the gland itself which was abnormally large. This would suggest that the gland produced many different forms of hormones in excess, not just HGH and probably would never have decrease in size. As long the pituitary gland keeps secreting the right hormones in excess, the body would still respond by being activated to carry out its functions.

I remember reading an article saying that Wadlow’s hypertrophic pituitary gland prevented even puberty from being activated. Since puberty could not be activated, that means that the long bones would never get the signals to start closing the growth plates and seal the epiphyseal plates.

Overall, we gain two hints on why Wadlow’s case is so unique and why he might have never stopped growing. The first one is because that it was his pituitary gland that was enlarged, not a foreign tumor that was pressing on his gland. The second one is that apparently Wadlow’s pituitary gland was producing so much HGH that the normal process of puberty was completely stopped or delayed. My concluding thoughts are to ask how did the puberty process completely stopped with his endocrine system and whether his condition can ever be reproduced.

How Many 8 Feet Tall People Are In The World?

I remember being on a NBA basketball forum and someone posted a thread topic that went along the lines of “How many 7 feet tall people are in the world?”

I gave some reply after doing some quickly calculations. I used to live in the Seattle area and would see maybe one 7 feet tall person every 3 months. Now, that is a lot. Assuming that there was maybe 20 7 feet tall people and the total population of Washington was reported in the most recent US census beureau was about 7,000,000. then for every 350,000 people there is one 7 feet tall person which seems to be a reasonable guesstimate.

since there is about 7,000,000,000 people in the world, then we can just then multiple the 20 by 1000 giving us a total number of 7 feet tall people to be about 20,000 in the world.

However, height is a factor which is well modeled by a normalized distribution function with rather long tails on each end because of medical conditions and genetic abnormalities.

If we then wonder how many people then there are 8 feet tall or greater, we find that there is only 3 people currently that has been proven and measured. One of them is Sultan Kosen, which is the curent tallest person in the world.

1.Sultan Kosen (Turkey) – 8′ 3″

2. Brahim Takioullah (Morocco)- 8′ 1″

3. Morteza Mehrzad (Iran)- 8′ 0″ – 8′ 1″

Note: I wanted to thank the site thetallestman.com for providing me with much of the information I have used on this post. You can find their website HERE.

Oddly enough, it was only 3 years ago that an 8 feet person was even substainted in height. Before that, not one 8 foot tall person was alive for almost 40 years, at least claimed by the Guinness Book of Records.

Before that, the title of the tallest person in the world went to a Mongolian herdsman Bao Xi Shun, who was 7′ 9″. However, it was clear that he was not the tallest person in the world, or even in the billion population nation of China. The title probably would (and should) have gone to his fellow Chinese Zhang Jun- Cai , who had attended a Japanese show with Xi Shun many years ago and had both their heights measured with Jun-Cai’s height measured at least 2.25 inches (6 cm) bigger.

Some people have discussed and argued that under certain conditions and adjusting for spinal curvature, Zhang Jun-Cai should also be added to the 8 feet tall list. That would put the total number of people at an amazing 4

 

 

Torso Length To Leg Length , A Personal Theory

As I was watching and listening to the Summer Olympics in 2008 where the phenom Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals for 8 events at Beijing, many people began to question why he was so good at the sport of swimming. 4 main reasons cited by the scientists and commentaries were

1. His long arms or wingspan, which was 79 inches in length compared to his height which was 76 inches. Compared to most other Olympic swimmers, Michael Phelps is of average height.

2. His abnormally large feet, shoe size 14.

3. His reported legs and ankle which were supposed to be double jointed giving him a greater range of flexibility, allowing for his feet to give strong bursts of propulsion.

4. His disproportionately long and large torso, compared to his legs. Supposedly he had the torso of someone who was more 6 ‘8″ and the legs of someone who was 6’ 0″. (Reference Link 1)

Now that the Summer Olympics are back and Michael Phelps swimming prowess are again mentioned, along with Ryan Lochte this time. We could talk more about his swimming accomplishment but lets focus on his height and length, which is what this site is about. I used to also be a huge swimmer as well so I guess I could be more authoritive on my swimming analysis but no one really wants to hear about that.

One thing that is clear from the start is that professional, Olympic ranked swimmers are usually very tall (Reference Link 1). However, the point that I wanted to emphasize about the swimmers build is over reason #4, that the torso seems to be far larger and longer than the legs.

I realized long ago that my body was of the same shape as Phelps, but not as tall. My torso is abnormally large and long compared to my legs. During the Summer of 2008 I really was doing 2 main things. Going to swim early in the morning for 2 and a half hours. Then, coming back home late in the afternoon to watch the Olympics, specifically Phelps to swim. Unfortunately of all the races, the one I missed was his 7th swim, against Michael Cavic which was definitely the most exhilirating swim match I have ever seen.

When I saw the amount of food that Phelps ate and compared it to myself, I wondered about this theory. What if the portions of a person’s torso to their legs is mainly determined by their eating habits when they are young?

I know that I used to eat the same amount as 2, maybe even 3 normal sized grown adults. My stomach would always be stretched out and I could feel my entire upper body ,the torso being expanded as much as possible. My mother noticed early on that my upper body seemed to be far greater than my legs. In terms of genetics,  I do have some height in my family. My Grandfather from my mother’s side of the family was supposed around 6 feet tall during a time when the average male of his country was probably 5’4″-5’6″. My male cousin is on my mothers side is also rather tall, but his height seems to be from his legs. My father’s side of the family is on the short side with rather average to short length legs.

When all this information is combined, I form this theory in my head.

1. The size and length of our torso is mainly determined by the amount of food and the nutrition value we gain when we were younger while still growing. So if you eat a lot when you are younger, you will grow taller because your torso, vertebrate, and skeletal structure will be increased in size.

2. The size and length of our legs , and subsequently, our arms and limns are determined by our genetics and the heights of our relatives and ancestors.

So that is it. My theory is really something I have thought about but never tried to prove or disprove. You can choose to accept it or not but it was something I wanted to put out there for others to think about.

 

Grow Taller By Hanging On A Bar

Another idea that has been proposed and tried by many H.I.S is over the idea of hanging on to a bar, and letting gravity to push our body, legs, and torso to be pushed down thus elongating our back and spine.

Hanging relies on gravity to decompresses the spine to obtain height increase. Just find a bar and hang on it for at least 30 seconds or as long as you can. It might be difficult to find a bar at home to hang on to that is high enough.The general consensus is that the technique DOES NOT work, but will help you get strong and tone your muscles in your arms, shoulders, and chest if you do decide to do a few pull-ups. However, I choose to post every form of technique and strategy that is suggest so that others can be the judge.

For the health and fitness benefits, continue reading. The place I got the next part is HERE.

 WHAT MUSCLES DOES HANGING ON A BAR STRENGTHEN?

Jul 3, 2011 | By Paula Quinene
Hanging on a pullup bar helps you increase your muscular strength, especially if you are not yet able to complete a pullup. The muscles strengthened while hanging on the bar depend on whether you are hanging with your arms straight or with your arms bent. A straight-arm hang engages primarily the muscles that flex your fingers, bent arms activate the bigger muscles of your upper body.

GRIPPING THE BAR

The primary finger flexor muscles include two layers of flexor muscles lying on the palmar side of your forearm. These muscles originate in the long bones of your forearm, then insert between the middle and the tips of your fingers. The smaller muscles of your hand help your forearm flexor muscles to curl your fingers around the bar. There are three distinct thumb muscles and three distinct pinky muscles that work as you hold the bar. Grasping the bar strengthens these muscles, regardless of whether you are hanging straight or hanging with your arms bent in any position.

STRAIGHT TO PARALLEL

Hanging from a bar anywhere between a straight hang and the level at which your upper arms are parallel to the floor strengthens primarily your lat muscles in your back and your bicep muscles at the front of your arms. However, your shoulder, chest, arm and smaller back muscles are also engaged, somewhat strengthening them. If you want to strengthen your lats by doing an isometric contraction, hang from the bar so that your arm pit angle is about 135 degrees. An isometric contraction means that your muscle is contracting but does not lengthen or shorten.

PARALLEL TO CHIN-OVER

Once you hang between the level at which your upper arms are parallel to the floor and your chin is completely over the bar, your biceps muscles become the dominant muscles engaged and strengthened. Your shoulder and back muscles are somewhat engaged. If you want your biceps to grow stronger, hang with your chin over the bar for as long as possible.

CONSIDERATIONS

Isometric bodyweight exercises such as hanging on a pullup bar are effective at strengthening many muscles at one time. Consider hanging on the bar in different positions, changing your arm pit angle to focus on strengthening different muscles. Keep a record of your position and the length of time you hold each isometric hang.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/484121-what-muscles-does-hanging-on-a-bar-strengthen/#ixzz22OW6fpIt

Me: This next section if taken from this the link listed HERE.

Hanging is one way that one can increase one’s height. Body stretch is always beneficial. Regular exercise helps. It is easy to hang. One need not exert oneself too much.

Tips for Increasing Height By Hanging

  • One can hang from a bar. Let all the weight fall upon your hands. If one does these 30 minutes every week one can increase one’s height or 1 to 5 minutes daily. It improves the posture also which if corrected enhances your height.
  • A wider grip on the bar increases the width of your back and shoulder
  • One can hang from a door bar. Easy exercise and very convenient.
    Hang from the bar initially as long as you can. If it is difficult, go
    slow. Increase the time on the bar slowly.
  • In the case of children lift them by the waist so that they can hang from the bar. Be ready to catch them when they let go off the bar
  • A chinup is also good form of exercise. You can take the help of a chair to do the chinup. Hang from the bar with one foot on the chair. Once you are up, push yourself further with the foot, which is on the chair.
  • Swinging back and forth from the bar also helps increase the height

Increase your self-esteem by increasing your height, and do this by hanging. If you exercise at the right age then you need not feel inferior about your height in adulthood. Hanging is not a difficult exercise. One need not go to the gym for it. It can be done in the comfort of your home.

 

Stories

Here are the stories or claims I have heard of people and athletes who have tried to hang on the bar to gain height, who did succeed aparently.

Peter Shilton – One of the great, driven players, Peter Shilton set out to become the best goalkeeper of all time. Legend has it that on being told he might not make the grade because he wasn’t tall enough, Shilton went home and began a training regime that involved spending hours at a time hanging from the stairs in attempt to add inches to his frame. He wanted it that badly

Michael Jonn – MichaelJordan – In the video link posted on the left, the great Michael Jordan tried also to hang on to a chin up bar to gain height. This is a video of michael Jordan explaining his attempts to grow taller to his younger ideal of the perfect height 7′!! Yes, even the tallest and biggest of us still want to be even bigger than they are. His claim is that it did nothing. Sorry for the fact that I could not figure out how to embed the video. It is in .mp4 format which is a litle difficult to embedd correctly onto a WordPress page.

Note: I found this part of his Documentary called “Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me”. The video is edited and taken from Youtube from this link HERE. The video is taken from 15:42 – 16:02 using the video capturing and editing software Camtasia Studios

Height Is The Last Frontier For Personal Development

As I am sitting here today at a cafe looking out into the world at how crazy other people seem to be working, striving, and fighting to get their piece of happiness in the world, I am amazed at the dedication and tenacity which some people put into their work to make a better life for themselves and their future children. The surest way still and always will be to success and achievement is through hard work and perseverance. I of course admire all the people who work so hard to achieve so much. they have dedicated their life to give their service to the world and make it a better place. I am always amazed at how much we can change and improve if we really put all of our heart and effort into any project.

If we desired, we can gain almost everything we in terms of money, wealth , and success given enough time and learning. However, in other aras, hard work and effort is not enough to reach the goals we have set up for ourselves.

When it comes to the area of personal development and self help, so many people these days have joined in on the social phenomenon and took to learning more about psychology, anthropology, and sociology to understand better why they do what they do and how they can change their thinking and behavior so that they are more likely to reach their goals and achieve fulfillment in their lives. If we look at the list of things that people have done to completely transform their lives, we realize just how cast and deep the changes are and possible when it comes to creating or manifesting our dreams are.

If we look at everything about oursevles, we realize that we can change almost everything about who we are as a person

1. Hair – Hair dyes, Haircuts, Extensions, Wigs & Weaves, Shampoos, Conditioners

2. Skin Color – Whitening lotions, Tonors, and another hundred types of skin cream which I

3. Eyes – Laser eye surgery, Double eyelid surgery, Eye replacement implants, Contact lens, Glasses,

4. Nose – Piercings, Rhinoplasty, Fillings, Reductions

5. Face – Complete full plastic surgery – Just go to Seoul, South Korea and get your entire face redone to look like a younger completely different person for less than $30,000.

6. Weight – Over 1000 diet and exercise plans out there, all requiring one to take the initiative to exercise, diet, and stay disciplined.

7. Feet – Pedicures, massages, lotions,

8. Chest – Female breast enlargement or reduction, Pec implantations and reductions.

9. Genital, Penis – Penis Enlargement Surgery, Virginity reconstruction surgery,

10. Stomach – Tummy tucks, Suction, Butt lift

11. Teeth – Dental implants, braces, Invisible braces, dentures, Teeth whitening,

12. Aging – Anti-aging cream, plastic surgery, botox, spas, massage treatments.

Of course, as humans what we can not change easily, we can cover and hide from the side of others so that they never have to see the bad parts of us.

For the mental aspect of our lives, we seem to have a cure for everything on that nature as well

1. Depression – Prozac, Zoloft, hundred of other pills and chemical prescriptions which can change the neurotransmitter flow rate in our brain. Most types of therapy.

2. Anxiety – Prozac, Zoloft, hundred of other pills and chemical prescriptions which can change the neurotransmitter flow rate in our brain. Most types of therapy.

3. Stress – Meditation, Yoga, Most types of therapy, Tapping, Having a pet or child, etc.

4. Post traumatic stress syndrome – Most forms of therapy, including regressional therapy and hypnotherapy.

5. Emotional baggage – Support groups, therapists, counselors, bar tenders, anyone willing to listen

6. Mental and Emotional blocks – therapists, life coaches,

7. Phobias – Psychiatrists, Therapists, Life coaches, NLP

8. Autism – Programs, Therapists,

9. Behavioral patterns – Therapists, Life coaches, NLP

10. Addictions – Support groups, psychiatrists, therapists, NLP

11. Negative Impulse tendencies – Programs, Support groups, Therapists

12. Stuttering – NLP, speech therapists.

 

However, of all the things that define us as who we are and makes up who we become, the only thing that we still can not change about our selves to a large degree appears to be our height. If we can truly change this about ourselves, then we would have full control over everything that happens within us in our own inner universe which our body encapsulates, barring medical conditions like cancer or genetic propensities.

Our height is still something that requires massive work and skill in changing. I personally am not sure we can change with the knowledge and technology we have today. When I look at the future of the development of the human race, height and/or changing our size will be truly the last frontier for personal development and self improvement.