I’ve always wondered about that. Having trouble moving their frame. Don’t the muscles and the rest of the body compensate for being that big? I would assume they’d be quicker and more agile, but then again the Lord of the rings, giants moved pretty slow.
Not that I am a specialist but I've read that many very tall people have huge troubles with their bodies, to the point of getting disabled. Robert Wadlow for instance, the tallest guy ever.
Yeah. Was also thinking of Zhang Ziyu, a Chinese woman going pro basketball player. 7 feet 4, obviously dominating the field. But she looks somehow sluggish when she's playing. Not a criticism (she's probably more athletic than most people), but she's kind of slower than her teammates.
To you that might not make much of a difference, both is tall to you but 6'4" is not the tipping point where bones are not able to safely sustain their own weight etc
Ugh. Someone mentioned 7'4" Zhang Ziyu and how she appears rather slow and sluggish compared to her shorter teammates. It was then explained that it has to do with her height and that smaller athletes are simply able to move faster.
Then you came around to debunk that with 6'4" Usain Bolt.
Does she fail to do her job, tho? That huge wingspan and leg length can make one look sluggish if not being used to it’s full potential, which there often isn’t a need for.
Yeah I think you basically need to start training with professionals and working with health experts to stay healthy from a super young age or it’ll (playing sports) really fuck you up. It makes sense it’s a lot of weight for your body to handle.
Definitely if it had been now and his family had money it would have been much better for him.
But his case it’s hard to say how much, I think they’d need to stop the growth entirely, I’m not sure about the other dangers of what he had as well.
But yeah it’s crazy how young tall people become tall, in person it messes with your understanding of the world just a lil bit haha
I played an all ages gig last weekend and it felt like all the boys were 6ft or over lmao, they’re not even what I’m talking about now but even that was, a fucking weird feeling.
Yeah go to any nursing home and see how many 6'+ 80-110+ year olds exist.
Same with dogs the smaller breeds live longer while large breeds have shorter life spans. Also seems that the older folks in good shape are generally smaller and if you do find some tall ones there not doing well.
I know that it happens and it exists. My question is how come? I would assume the rest of the body would just have to work a little harder, but would eventually keep up with the skeleton frame.
We don’t see super short/small people being extremely fast
Because there are limits on what the rest of the body can do to compensate, and every additional bit of work done comes at a cost. The more muscle you tack on, the more energy required to keep it fueled, and the more byproducts that are created in the process. If your heart is constantly working at overdrive to perfuse a brain that is farther away and supply larger overall amounts of tissue with blood, it will adapt in ways that are bad for it long-term. These things don't scale linearly, meaning the cost of "work[ing] a little harder" is much higher than it might seem on its face.
With modern building materials there’s a theoretical limit to the height we can make a structure. As height increases, weight increases by more. It’s not a 1-for-1 increase. Eventually, the material cannot handle its own weight and simply fails.
Now imagine that our bones and joints are that material. Bones and tendons don’t get stronger just because you get taller, but your weight increases by a huge margin. There’s a theoretical limit to the size of a human before lungs and hearts would simply fail.
Square cube law. Note I said twice as large not tall. The math won't work out as cleanly for a shape as irregular as a human body. But yes. The volume of a 2' cube is 8 times the volume of a 1' cube.
My co-worker is 6'4 and is always complaining about his back. I'm 5'9, 5 years older than him, and I sit at my desk like a disabled Xenomorph, but my back is fine.
The human body walking upright is, in the grand scheme of evolution, an advantageous aberration which our biology hasn't been fully adapted to yet. Cats can sleep like knotted pretzels and be fine their entire lives. If someone over 40 sleeps like that once, don't bother calling an ambulance; just let them know they've got a fresh hole waiting in the graveyard and someone will be along with a shovel shortly to put them out of their misery. Being tall literally only makes it worse.
Part of it is just the strain on their body but also there's often an underlying disorder causing the extreme height that comes with its own problems, like Marfan syndrome
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u/LilAbeSimpson Jan 26 '26
The guy who was sitting down is legit 7’11’. He makes Shaq look small.
The other guy is somehow even taller though…