Body Ratios

[IndividualThoughtPatterns]

Heya!
I searched around but couldn't find the answer except for some yahoo Q&A pages which obviously aren't really relevent..
So I wonder when can you claim that you have long lengs? Or short arms?
The taller you are the longer will usually be, fair enough, but long arms should be beneficial for DL for example. Is adjective 'long' being used when you compare you arms to height or whatever or when you are tall you are considered to have long arms/ legs etc?
Whatever the answer I won't stop Dling/ Sqing...
Hope you all understand what I mean... :P
Thanks, ITP.

[Eric K]

Realist artists use common body-segment ratios to make a lot of their work look more real (or to exaggerate certain features if they make them different). If you can find an art book (or website) that delineates what those ratios should be, you will have an idea of whether your body segments are outside of "normal." I doubt anyone actually has all normal proportions, just that most people average out to "normal." Or you could just have an experienced coach look at you and tell you that you have a short torso and stubby arms (thanks, Rip... haha)

[IndividualThoughtPatterns]

So those sayings 'you are way more DLer and than SQer are all bs''? Makes sense anyway as 2cm (wait.. You are using inches here, right? So 0,8'') can't really affect you that much I guess especially on subprofessional level...
Thanks again, ITP.

[newguy32]

My gut reaction when I read someone's got "long femurs" or "short forearms" is that its an excuse. I'm sure there are people with strange proportions and wierd anthropo..whatevers. But seems to me that for most people if you have long femurs, you probably have long legs, and you're probably relatively tall.

[Carlos Daniel]

My gut reaction when I read someone's got "long femurs" or "short forearms" is that its an excuse. I'm sure there are people with strange proportions and wierd anthropo..whatevers. But seems to me that for most people if you have long femurs, you probably have long legs, and you're probably relatively tall.

A friend of mine who is at least 3-4 inches taller than me, has all of those inches in his legs: when we sit side by side, we have the same apparent height.

[IndividualThoughtPatterns]

It's often used as an excuss, I agree... Although there are that people who really have outproportionated body parts, e.g. Lamar Gant who BP anyway...
What I was trying to say is who has, say short arms; a guy who is 5'7'' and whose arms are 26 inches long or a guy who is 6'3'' and whose arms are 28 inches long... Well, it doesn't matter anyway .
ITP.

[stonerider]

there is a difference between using anatomical proportions as an excuse to not try and modifying technique for your anatomical abnormalities

some people have such longs legs that they can't deadlift with proper form unless they sumo deadlift

some people have to be more upright when they low-bar squat because their femurs are short and they have long torsos (I'm one of these)

Anatomy Without A Scalpel is a great book and talks about this subject... it's also a book full of knowledge every athlete (especially bar athlete) should have

[newguy32]

A friend of mine who is at least 3-4 inches taller than me, has all of those inches in his legs: when we sit side by side, we have the same apparent height.

I don't doubt it. I acknowledged that some people really are out of wack. But we've all seen numerous threads of people that had such long forearms that they couldn't rack the power clean, when the real issue was the grip. Or long femur guys that can't squat to parallel that really need to push their knees out. My gut reaction, with no evidence whatsoever, is that its FAR more often a technique issue than a seriously strange body proportion.

[250orBust]

Im not going to find the article for you but I read something a while ago that had a bunch of self measurements to tell if your better suited to sumo deadlift or conventional. They touched on proportions for squats too. Maybe it will turn up if your good at google.

[Justin Jordan]

A friend of mine who is at least 3-4 inches taller than me, has all of those inches in his legs: when we sit side by side, we have the same apparent height.

I'm a little over six feet tall, and I have a 28 inch in seam. My uncle is probably two inches shorter than I am, but has an extra six inches of leg. Since I am built like a gorilla, I also have a wingspan that is a couple of inches wider than I am tall.