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Understanding the following post will help us answer questions like: “why do I lift weights more slowly than my shorter buddy?”
In many sports, like basketball, soccer, or tennis, it’s common to see shorter players being faster than taller ones. This can also apply to the speed of movement execution in any resistance exercise (weight training, crossfit, weightlifting…).
Muscle fibers
As you know, and as we’ve mentioned in other posts (see links at the end of the paragraph), the speed of nerve impulse transmission is directly related to the type of fibers activated during training.
Extrafusal muscle fibers are innervated by alpha motor neurons, which generate contraction tension at speeds ranging from 60 m/s to 120 m/s, because these fibers have a high degree of myelination.
Height influence
Because of this, you’d think that height differences would be so slight that they wouldn’t significantly change the time it takes for the nerve impulse to contract the muscle fiber, given the high conduction speed. However, research by Thakur et al. (2011) found that taller subjects have longer nerve conduction times due to the greater distance their motor nerves have to cover; however, these authors found no correlation between height and sensory nerve action potential.
Although more experimental data is needed for a scientific consensus, this could explain why taller people are usually slower than shorter ones. The difference might be minimal and not noticeable in sports that don’t depend on time (bodybuilding, weightlifting, or shot put), but it can be important and decisive in:
- Time-based sports: cycling, athletics, swimming, or crossfit
- Sports involving sprints to reach the same object: soccer, handball, basketball, rugby…
Heads up! We say “usually.” There are tall athletes who know how to use their impulse frequency and stride length in sync (example: Usain Bolt is 1.95 m tall and definitely not “slow”).
Links to articles about muscle fiber info:
Sources
- Misulis KE, Head TC. (2003). Nerve conduction study and electromyography. In “Essentials of Clinical Neurophysiology” 3rd Ed. Pioli SF (eds). Butterworth-Heinemann. 987.
- Soudmand R, Ward LC, Swift T. (1982). Effect of height on nerve conduction velocity. Neurology. 32: 407-410.
- Thakur, D. et al. (2011). Influence of height on the nerve conduction parameters of the limbs. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 5(2):260-263
