Is It Harder to Look Muscular When You’re Tall?

I was skimming through the Kino Facebook group, and someone asked a solid question.

I started answering there…

But figured I’d turn this answer into an email.

Thanks for the question, AJ.

The height thing is tricky.

Because the biggest and strongest men in the world are tall guys.

The guy who played Mountain on Game of Thrones is f*ckn HUGE!

His name is Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.

He’s 6’9″ and 400 pounds!

These Icelandic guys have Viking blood.

Imagine having a ship of these guys raiding your village. It would be f*ckn terrifying!

You’d assume that it would be easier to become big and strong as hell when you are tall.

But here’s where it gets tricky.

Longer arms and legs mean worse leverage.

Plus, taller guys have a much longer range of motion.

If a guy is tall AND has a large frame, he can become incredibly strong and big like those Icelandic World’s Strongest Man competitors.

Or can become as huge as Shaq.

The problem is that it is rare that a tall guy has a large frame.

Most guys who are tall have a small-to-medium frame.

Guys who are tall with a small frame tend to have the TOUGHEST time getting strong and packing on muscle.

This is why most NBA players look tall and muscular but slim.

In the NBA Draft Combine, they test bench rep strength.

They see how many times a player can bench 185.

The NFL uses 225 pounds because, as I mentioned, super tall guys in the NBA typically have frames.

Good for basketball but bad for bench press.

Kevin Durant famously failed to bench 185 for one rep.

Despite that, he’s still been a top 5 NBA player for the past 10 years.

It’s just bad to have a small frame when your arms are that long.

“Bad” is a relative term.

*NBA Champion, future Hall of Fame Player, and a Net Worth of $300 Million.

He’s probably doing okay, LMAO.

So tall guys can be at the extremes of strength and mass.

• Tall guys with large frames are the strongest
• Tall guys with small frames are some of the weakest

I was reading AJ’s thread on in the Kino Facebook Group.

He’s 6’2″ and is pretty darn strong.

So he’s 6’2″ and weighs 175 pounds.

He can bench press 225 X 10, uses 105-pound dumbells for incline dumbbell press for 9 reps, and can do 10 pullups with 55 pounds added to his body weight.

These are all super solid numbers.

My guess is that he probably has a medium frame.

Here’s how you figure out your frame size.

Height / Wrist Circumference = Body Frame Index

Here’s what this number means for Men.

• 10.5 or greater = Small Frame
• 9.6 – 10.4 = Medium Frame
• 9.5 or smaller = Large Frame

Here’s the number breakdown for Women.

• 11.1 or greater = Small Frame
• 10.1 – 11 = Medium Frame
• 10 or smaller = Large Frame

Don’t worry about what frame size you have too much.

There are advantages to each type.

Just know that if you have a smaller frame, especially if you are tall, some exercises will be a little tougher to progress in.

You may also have to be more patient when it comes to adding muscle.

Either way…

There are worse curses in life than being tall!

Join the Kino Facebook Group!

If you have questions, there are tons of helpful community members.

I also like to use some of these questions as a subject for emails, videos, etc.

Talk Soon,

Greg O’Gallagher